In response to concerns over theft of student ID numbers to pay for lunches, the cafeteria administration has installed new picture verification technology in each lunch line. Under the new system, if a student is caught using someone else’s ID number, he or she will be formally charged with theft.
The new technology uses touch-screens, which have every student’s school picture uploaded. When a student ID number is put in, a picture of the corresponding person will come up on the screen.
If the person and the picture do not match, the cashier on duty will send the offending student to the security office, where the situation will be assessed and, if necessary, charges will be filed.
According to food services manager Paul Davis, the initiative is an “upgrade” from the recent drive to put surveillance cameras in cafeterias. The end goal, he said, is to preserve student safety.
Marshall is the last school in the county to receive the touch-screen technology, despite its theft rate of “three or four times a week,” Davis said. The rate is based solely on formal theft complaints.
The delay of the installation was reportedly due to the ongoing construction, although the administration “decided to go ahead with installing [the touch-screens] because the cafeteria will not be renovated for another year,” Davis said.
Students themselves are concerned about the severity of the punishment and whether the new system might punish students that simply try to lend a hand.
“If you lend your number out to a friend without a lunch, you’d get in trouble,” sophomore Conor Boyle said. “I think it’ll do just as much harm as good.”
One solution for that particular issue is to accompany anyone you buy lunch for.
“Come with them in line and do not give out your number,” Davis said. “Next thing you know, your number is going out to 10 or 15 kids.”
Often, parents will come in to question administrators about unprecedented lunch costs.
The technology, according to Davis, will stop administrators from having to face the “uncomfortable” experience of informing parents that they have to pick up the bill for another student’s lunch.
“I don’t want to have to tell parents that their money’s being stolen,” Davis said.