News

More high schools installing ATMs

May 31, 2004

PORTLAND, Ore. -  West Linn High got an ATM four months ago, joining a growing number of high schools installing the machines.

Oregon City High School put one in place three months ago. Gresham High installed one last school year. And four of the six high schools in the Vancouver School District have ATMs, according to an Associated Press report. (See related stories Calif. high school writes off bad checks with ATM, Some parents worry that ATM at high school could be new outlet for bullies and Reading, writing -- and withdrawals)

The ATM industry has little data on ATMs in schools. Illinois-based Teen Research Unlimited last fall surveyed 2,000 youths nationwide and found that one in 200, age 12 to 15, had a cash machine at school. The number grew to one in 50 among those age 16 and 17.

The survey also found that 17 percent of teens had an ATM/debit card, up from 12 percent in 2000, the first time Teen Research posed the question.

According to the AP, Portland-Vancouver area schools with ATMs say they've noticed more students promptly paying school fees. Parents use them, too, before plays and sporting events.

Last month, 157 people withdrew money from Gresham High's machine, paying a $1 per transaction fee. Principal Paul Boly figures the school will own the machine outright in another two years.

Daryl Grove, whose company GoodVantage Resources sold 1,750-student Gresham High its machine, has been pitching ATMs to other high schools. He thinks data from middle-income Gresham will help him persuade schools the machines make sense in large or upper-income schools.

Not everyone at the high schools approves of ATMs.

In West Linn, the city with the highest median household income in Oregon, some students worry that their new access to cash will perpetuate stereotypes.

A student newspaper columnist complained the ATM has made West Linn High seem more like "The O.C.," a TV melodrama about the lives of rich teenagers in Orange County, Calif.

"When they first put it in, we were like (gasp!) 'Is that an ATM?"' said the columnist, Brittney Oltman, 17. "It's right when you walk in the building."

An editorial writer at Oregon City High criticized her school's ATM because she thinks it encourages unnecessary consumerism.

"I don't think it belongs in a school setting," said writer Molly Doyle, noting that the machine is next to where snacks and lattes are sold. "We're here for an education, not for buying things."