The Need for ID: The Ultimate Irony

It's the second day of school
There is a kindergartner still at school 20 minutes after the noon dismissal.
Other students are coming in.
So when a man says he's here to pick up the kid, do you simply turn the child over to him?
There's more to the story. This particular school is in a mainly Hispanic area of Dallas. Many of the people in the area participated in a variety of marches and protests regarding things like requiring identification to vote, to live in an apartment in Farmers Branch TX and even traveled to Arizona to protest their law. What was that law again? Oh yes, the law was that people had to give law enforcement officers valid identification during the investigation of a crime or a traffic stop. People, including the president, are so up in arms over this law that the Attorney General is suing Arizona, despite the fact that many other states have similar laws on the books.

But back to Maple Lawn Elementary. You have a largely Hispanic parent population AND staff. The prevailing attitude is that asking for identification is "bad." So you don't require it. Instead you have this kind of laissez faire system where parents or other adults wander in, pick up random kids and then go. There's no list of acceptable rides home-banning non-custodial parents or vindictive exes from taking the children. There's no check of identification to ascertain that this person is who he or she claims. In short, it's a seriously delinquent system that was imposed because of a politically correct attitude that puts children in danger. Luckily this time, it was (supposedly) a case of mistaken identity. But the bottom line is this-in this modern society having valid identification is NOT optional. You must use it for writing checks, banking, loans, school access and to pick up your child at most daycare centers.

This is the same mentality that made Army officers hesitate to turn in one of their own that seemed a bit off and was embracing a jihadist attitude. That ended in treachery at Fort Hood when people DIED because someone was so very very afraid of causing offense. Of course there is also the side story that offense can often lead to expensive lawsuits. At some point we have to reel in the lawyers and stop tiptoeing around issues based on something as vaporous as hurting someone's feelings. PC attitudes are going to get people killed. This time we got lucky.