School Identification Becomes Mandatory
Junior Alex Ahmed shows his student identification at the entrance, in order to get in to the home football game on Oct. 22, 2021. “My friend was able to get in even though he didn’t have his ID, because Mr. Maher, who’s standing at the entrance, knows him,” Ahmed said. The football team lost to Plymouth Canton by a final score of 44 to 43.
Attending football games under the Friday night lights has become somewhat of a right of passage at a large number of high schools across the country. Every football season, individuals gather to support their school; however, some people attend while not being from that school. Multiple incidents have occurred this season during DHS home football games, specifically at the pink out game; which was the last straw for administration to finalize the student ID mandate.
This month a new policy was put in place which requires all high school students to show their student ID cards in order to gain admittance into any DHS home football game. Before opinions can be made, we need to reflect on the reasons why this rule was created. DHS head principal, Adam Martin said that this policy was created because of capacity, safety, and security. It is an understatement to say that Dearborn High has a small student section. Sometimes the audience must stand near the concessions since there is no room. Safety and security are also reasonable since if an altercation were to ever occur with individuals who don’t attend DHS, they wouldn’t feel obligated to cooperate with administrators who don’t administrate them. Like I said, these reasons are reasonable. If I go to a DHS football game, I would hope to find seats that will allow me to watch the game in a comfortable manner. If everyone is welcome to our games, then the chances of watching and enjoying the game are very slim. Most individuals who come to our games that don’t go to our school come to see other people; unlike them, we go to support our school and spend time with those who attend DHS. Now the final reasons, safety and security. We all know how unsafe gatherings with a large number of people can be; not only because of covid but also the intentions of those entering. If there are even more people coming then it can be even more dangerous and personally I would rather it be a limited amount of people than more. Yes, the new rule can be tedious since there are people from other schools that I would love to see at the games but then again doesn’t everyone else? ‘What types of people will be there that I am unaware of and what are their intentions?’
Clearly this rule prohibits entry from all non-DHS students; however, there is an extent to that. Henry Ford Early College is a program for students of Wayne County and has roughly 150 students in the whole program combined. Since it is a very small program, it does not have a sports league. HFEC students then rely on the other high schools for sporting events. Administrators decided to continue on guaranteeing HFEC students adminence to DHS home football games as long as they show their early college ID. This addition to the policy is a relief since I am close with many HFEC students; nonetheless, if I am close to them or not, it still gives DHS students some of the same people they were surrounded by before the rule went into place. Clearly it is not the same thing, but it is still something.
DHS and FHS are both facing the same recurring issues in their student sections; which made them both share the same ID policy. At the end of the day, this policy is in effect to structure student behavior and hopefully one day it’ll be removed. Until then, we need to be mindful of our actions in order to obtain what we currently desire when it comes to games.
