Montgomery Blair High School in turmoil over color coded identification badges

Montgomery Blair High School in Montgomery County, Maryland has been thrown into a state of rhetorical turmoil over a policy that requires all students to wear color coded identification badges-black for seniors, white for magnet kids, and a particularly loud shade of yellow for students of limited English proficiency. Students complain that the badges announce their status and in some cases, such as freshman, single them out for harassment, bullying, and intimidation. The IDs were issued two weeks ago in 11 colors to denote various smaller learning "academies" within the 3,000-student campus. School administrators hope to build a sense of identity-and security-in a school whose students have been divided into several smaller learning communities. "What we did, we thought we were doing a good thing," says Principal Phillip Gainous.

However, students believe the system only heightens already existing differences among the student population. According to an editorial in Montgomery Blair student newspaper, Silver Chips, "Self-segregation is already an issue in the student body, and the formal distribution of color-coded IDs has essentially institutionalized the phenomenon." At least three freshmen have reported hazing. Mr. Gainous disputes that the IDs are responsible, pointing out that there have been fewer incident this year than last. "Every student in here knows who the ninth-graders are," he says. "They don't need an ID to tell them." He contends most of the student wrath is directed not at the colored badges so much as the penalties for not wearing them. The new ID policy states that a student who leaves a badge at home faces a series of consequences ranging from a verbal warning to an in-school suspension. A student who intentionally defies the rule is considered insubordinate and faces much stricter penalties: detention for the first infraction, suspension for the second. Over 600 students participated in a pair of polls conducted by the student newspaper to gauge student views of the IDs. In one poll, nearly 66% declared them a "hideous embarrassment," while only 6% found the badges "awesome."