wassup Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050210/ap_on_hi_te/tracking_students SUTTER, Calif. - The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children's privacy. The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan. But few American school districts have embraced such a monitoring system, and civil libertarians hope to keep it that way. "If this school doesn't stand up, then other schools might adopt it," Nicole Ozer, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), warned school board members at a meeting Tuesday night. "You might be a small community, but you are one of the first communities to use this technology." The system was imposed, without parental input, by the school as a way to simplify attendance-taking and potentially reduce vandalism and improve student safety. Principal Earnie Graham hopes to eventually add bar codes to the existing ID's so that students can use them to pay for cafeteria meals and check out library books. But some parents see a system that can monitor their children's movements on campus as something straight out of Orwell. "There is a way to make kids safer without making them feel like a piece of inventory," said Michael Cantrall, one of several angry parents who complained. "Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored, and someone is always going to be watching you?" Cantrall said he told his children, in the 5th and 7th grades, not to wear the badges. He also filed a protest letter with the board and alerted the ACLU. Graham, who also serves as the superintendent of the single-school district, told the parents that their children could be disciplined for boycotting the badges — and that he doesn't understand what all their angst is about. "Sometimes when you are on the cutting edge, you get caught," Graham said, recounting the angry phone calls and notes he has received from parents. Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door. Graham also asked to have a chip reader installed in locker room bathrooms to reduce vandalism, although that reader is not functional yet. And while he has ordered everyone on campus to wear the badges, he said only the 7th and 8th grade classrooms are being monitored thus far. In addition to the privacy concerns, parents are worried that the information on and inside the badges could wind up in the wrong hands and endanger their children, and that radio frequency technology might carry health risks. Graham dismisses each objection, arguing that the devices do not emit any cancer-causing radioactivity, and that for now, they merely confirm that each child is in his or her classroom, rather than track them around the school like a global-positioning device. The 15-digit ID number that confirms attendance is encrypted, he said, and not linked to other personal information such as an address or telephone number. What's more, he says that it is within his power to set rules that promote a positive school environment: If he thinks ID badges will improve things, he says, then badges there will be. "You know what it comes down to? I believe junior high students want to be stylish. This is not stylish," he said. This latest adaptation of radio frequency ID technology was developed by InCom Corp., a local company co-founded by the parent of a former Brittan student, and some parents are suspicious about the financial relationship between the school and the company. InCom plans to promote it at a national convention of school administrators next month. InCom has paid the school several thousand dollars for agreeing to the experiment, and has promised a royalty from each sale if the system takes off, said the company's co-founder, Michael Dobson, who works as a technology specialist in the town's high school. Brittan's technology aide also works part-time for InCom. Not everyone in this close-knit farming town northwest of Sacramento is against the system. Some said they welcomed the IDs as a security measure. "This is not Mayberry. This is Sutter, California. Bad things can happen here," said Tim Crabtree, an area parent. Is this too much of an intrusion on student privacy? Schools have been known to take questionable actions in the past, but do the means justify the ends in this case? I'm not so sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoxStar Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 O...My...God. This is crazy. I mean, if this was implemented anywhere but the school system, then these people would be expoited (in a bad way) on the media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverhoodian Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Ah yes, RFID chips. I wrote a term paper about this topic a few months ago for one of my college finals. What this article doesn't tell you is that RFID chips are being inserted in many products nowadays, from Michelin tires to cosmetics. Wal-Mart has told their suppliers that unless they implement RFID tags on their products, the corporation will no longer do business with them. Consequently, an ever increasing amount of goods are being tagged with the chips. They're even being implanted in human beings; last year the Food and Drug Administration ruled that RFID chips could be inserted into human tissue for "medical purposes." Whether people like it or not, it looks like RFID is here to stay. Still, RFID chips aren't very powerful or reliable. The chips can only be detected by specialized radio frequency detectors from a maximum range of approximately four to five feet. Moreover, the signal is quite weak, often unable to get through a solid barrier. The chips don't always work either; tests have indicated that they have an approximately 20% failure rate. Still, technology is advancing at such a rate that RFID will probably become more reliable and efficient in the future. I'm rather apprehensive and cautious concerning the idea of RFID tagging. One of the big reasons why is the fact that there hasn't been many regulations passed concerning appropriate use of the chips. This technology could either be very beneficial or destructive depending on how it's used. Let's hope people make the right decisions concerning how to implement it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Sitherino Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 **** this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TK-8252 Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Is it just me, or is school becoming more like jail all the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IG-64 Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Score one for homeschooling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerd_Annhilator Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 Great. Now I'm all paranoid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Originally posted by Anthony Great. Now I'm all paranoid. Bah we're up north, I don't think we have a lot to fear about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 WTF. This really, seriously scares me. Not because I have anything to hide, but because I have experience with government systems, and how miserable they can make your life on complete accident, with possibly nothing but the best of intents, and through no conceivable fault of your own. Add that to the enormous potential for abuse this presents, and... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormHammer Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 "I am not a number, I am a FREE MAN!" Never has that seemed more relevant than in today's increasingly authoritarian society. While I have no problem with an ID card system that can help people to prove their identity, etc., the moment something becomes 'compulsory' it is obviously an infringement of your right to privacy. Using RFID chips to track people is just plain wrong, no matter what the initial reasons for it's introduction. In the interests of 'safety and security' we are being asked on many levels to give up personal freedoms, and it's eroding our rights piece by piece. While as a parent I would obviously be concerned about where my kids are, what they're doing and if they're safe - having them tracked is not the way to get reassurance and breaks personal trust. I'm against it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabretooth Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Privacy just flushed itself down the toilet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdcfanbill Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 hi i am big business, i own the govt, the govt owns you, do you have any questions? i thought not. case closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 can't you wipe RFID take by microwaving them? Of course, microwaving your kids mught be an extreme option... I would think that legally they couldn't force parents to make their kids wear them (unless it is a private school) and that they couldn't deny access or services to those that didn't wear them. I'd just keep nuking my badge and then act innocent every time i had to ask for a replacement... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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