It’s a terrifying feeling that we have all felt. Walking in the school building to find that you have left your ID at your house. You try to do everything possible to hide your ID-less chest from the inevitable “hey!” from one of the security guards. In recent months I know many who have tried to silently protest from purchasing a temp ID, or attempt to break free of the daring perpetual cycle. Which ultimately raises the question, where does the money for these simple stickers go to?

We first started at the head of this process, the front desk. Mr. Chapp was kind enough to sit down and have a discussion over a bag of sweet peas. He says that on average they sell about 65 temp IDs a day, which if you are following along at home that ends up being a whopping eleven thousand and seven hundred dollars over the course of the school year. He told us that “at the end of the day, he takes the money envelope to Melanie in the office, and from there it moves to Judy Larson, also in the main office. (From talking to Mr. Chapp we also learned that Jiles loves pumpkin Pie ONLY if it has whipped cream. And that Jiles makes literally the best Pistachio bread that you have ever had). Judy gave us quite a bit of information about where the stickers come from, and how the money is handled after it leaves her hands. The ID’s are posted in bulk at the beginning of the year, and because the material is too thick to be run through the school printers (it jams up and gets really hot), they have to be pre-printed. In total the cost of the IDs runs the building around one thousand dollars. And that raises the question, “where do the 10 bands go?” Larson gave us the tip that if we really wanted the answers we would have to talk to Mr. Dave Bell. After an excruciatingly long 15 minute wait, we finally found Bell…

As it turns out, all this money isn’t being funneled into offshore drilling, or being laundered into a shady car wash. The money funded by temp IDs goes into an account called “safety and security” of the building. This includes everything from security camera maintenance, to replacement ID lanyards.

While this did not turn out to be a scandal, from my investigation I’ve learned important lessons about school, life, and most importantly, Jiles.