(January 26, 2010) -- While getting dressed for school, we all know that we have a dress code that we should follow. Some of us—more daring than others—are able to work some pieces that don’t fit the dress code into our wardrobe: hiding a shirt without a collar, wearing pants that may appear to be docker-style but really aren’t or getting away with a few prints and patterns.But now students also have to look out for PlascoTrac, the new handheld scanners—put into effect Jan. 13—that will work hand in hand with Zangle.

Assistant Principal Kristina Provost said that PlascoTrac helps with checking for dress code on the buses and during lunch or making sure students are aboard the right bus. Now office administrators have the ability to give students dress code detention slips that they didn’t have time to fill out before. Provost is hoping this new protocol will reduce the amount of dress code violations which in previous years has been in the thousands.

PlascoTrac will also be used when registering your car with the school. When you bring in your ID and license to be registered to park, Provost will print out a hard ticket with a bar code to put in your window to help with any necessary parking violations. If there is no proof of your car being registered, that case will be investigated to make sure there is no one unauthorized on campus. “I’m just trying to keep this campus safe,” Provost said.

According to Provost, the purpose of the scanners is to make the jobs of school officials in the office—as well as those who are in charge of lunch duty or ATS—easier. These scanners will help the office “get to infractions in a timely manner,” Provost said.

Although PlascoTrac may not seem favorable to students, there are uses that some may see as positive. Provost mentioned some ideas about a merit system, in which she would scan the ID of a student in perfect dress code and print him or her a free dress day pass.As a result of these new scanners, students will be required to carry their ID cards at all times— which, although required previously, will now be enforced.

Although these devices don’t come cheap—at a price of about $3,299 for one unit—Provost only expects to get a couple more for the school while she and Principal Douglas Dall are figuring out where these funds will come from. Along with Clark, Glendale High and Hoover are going to have a trial run with the system.