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Tonya Papanikolas ReportingBen Lomond High in Ogden is in its fourth year now of requiring students and staff to wear ID badges. The principal say the kids and some parents didn't like it at first, but as people got used to the change, it has made the school safer.
The dress code at Ben Lomond High is like any other public school, except for one thing, students and faculty are required to wear ID badges.
Curtis Windley, Senior: "It's really not that bad, just because it's really small."
Cooper Remkes, Senior: "Some people wear football laniards, it's just another thing that we wear."
Granted, not all the students wear them like they're supposed to, but the principal says the majority comply and he's glad they're getting used to the idea.
Ben Smith, Ben Lomond High Principal: "It was something that was important to me, anyway, just for school safety issues, to try to identify who was supposed to be here."
The Ben Lomond campus is so spread out, they have 76 exits. That can make it really hard to keep track of who's coming in and out of the building.
But with the ID's, it's a lot easier to tell who belongs at the school and who doesn't. If they're not wearing a badge, the faculty has an immediate reason to stop the person.
Ben Smith: "We catch a lot of individuals, just because of the ID issue, that are in our halls or they're here that aren't supposed to be here necessarily."
In the last couple of years, the school says they've stopped some potentially dangerous problems with the badges. Though they say no one came in with a gun, people were in the school who weren't supposed to be.
Just today, a former administrator who was subbing at the school, stopped a young man who wasn't wearing an ID.
Donna Corby, Substitute Teacher: "He had been suspended from school and he wasn't supposed to be on campus."
Staff members say if they have a problem with a student they don't know, the badges also identify the student up front. They consider the safety measure a success, so do many of the students.
Curtis Windley: "A lot of schools are doing it so it's pretty cool."
Cooper Remkes: "I feel really safe here."
Ben Lomond High is going to be torn down near the end of this school year. The principal says, when they move into their new building, he would like to see the ID cards being swiped or punched when the kids come in and out of the building.
