Students at RHS have been emailed personal vending machine codes consisting of a random four-digit number due to problems encountered with students’ birthdays as their pins. After the birthday pins had been used for some time, students started exchanging codes, and during that sharing process, others decided to steal the codes.
“So we were, unfortunately, having a lot of vending machine theft…..where people were using the ID numbers and the previous pins [birthdays] of other students. Then those students would try and get their own muffin and then they couldn’t because they had already ‘gotten it’ for the day and this was happening a lot,” principal Ashley Serin said.
To ensure that every student was able to obtain their own muffin, the school implemented the new pin system. This new system ensures that every student is able to acquire their own muffin without the risk of it being stolen.
the change was unnecessary, while others think it simplifies the vending process and increases the security of the system.
“…in order to protect the ID numbers and the pins of our students, we had to change from birthdays to pins. It’s a lot easier to find out somebody’s birthday than to find out their PIN code,”
The new system has mixed reviews from students on campus. Some students believe that this “Honestly, I feel like we should have just kept it the same because now everybody has to figure out what their pin is and they don’t know where to find it,” sophomore Sena Belk said.
“I mean I feel like it made the process of getting your food easier, because for the birthdays it just took so long to put it in. My pin is really easy to remember so I kinda prefer it this way. Plus the new card system really makes the whole thing faster,” freshman Emiliano Zarco said.
Serin has also implemented many new ways of speeding up the vending machine process for faster and easier access to muffins since the machines have been placed around campus. She hopes that this new system will bring many benefits to the students while also providing another layer of convenience and security.
“Our goal is to be able to get everybody through the vending machines in time, so they’re not late for class….we’ve already instituted a few different changes to try and speed things up…[such as] carts that are out there and just more opportunities, and more vending machines available for students to be able to get muffins,” Serin said, “Maybe between first and second or even before first period…and what we discovered is that if you scan the I.D. card it actually goes faster so you can get more students through the vending machine in a shorter amount of time.”
