By Nabi Dressler
News Editor
A new serial number system is available to students this year in order to identify the owners of stolen or returned possessions, such as graphing calculators and mobile devices.
Students can register any of their valuable electronic devices, so there is a greater chance of the items being returned after being stolen or lost. This new system, a collaborative effort by administration, stemmed from the many stolen items that were recovered and could not be returned because of the lack of distinguishing marks or engravings, indicating to whom they belonged.
“Every calculator has something specific to it, which is a serial number,” police counselor Scott Filipek said. “But when your calculator’s stolen, you don’t have your calculator to look at the serial number, and you usually threw your box away a long time ago.”

All students can access the registry through the link sent to their assigned student emails. 121 belongings have been registered so far, but unfortunately most students, such as sophomores Christine Tong and Kelly Hill, do not check their school email accounts and therefore do not know about the registry. Filipek hopes that the voting of homecoming king and queen through a form sent to student emails will attract more students to seeing the serial number registry email.
“What we want to do is be proactive about [theft] and say if [an item] does turn up missing… we already have the serial number. You don’t have to go through your boxes or your receipts or your paperwork. We’ve already done it; we’ve anticipated that it could go missing, and we planned for it,” Filipek said.
According to dean Mark Taylor, though the registry will be available for students for many years to come, the registry will not be mandatory.
“We can’t force you to be responsible, as much as we’d encourage it,” Filipek said.

Senior Owen Hoepfner is one of the few students who actually knows about the program, but he opposes it and will not register his valuables. He doesn’t feel that he’d lose his phone because he has it with him throughout the entire school day, but he does believe the registry would benefit the students who choose to use it.

Despite the initiation of the registry, Taylor believes the most significant way to avoid losing valuable electronics is to not bring them to school at all. Students tend to believe that when they leave their possessions in places like locker rooms, the valuables will be secure, when in reality they won’t necessarily be. Taylor thinks students should lock their valuables up or carry them with them at all times in order to avoid them getting stolen or lost.