School Officials Make ID Badges Mandatory for Elementary Students

[villager]

School Officials Make ID Badges Mandatory for Elementary Students

SUTTER, Calif. (AP) -- Parents of Sutter elementary students told school officials Thursday they're concerned about the school's new policy that requires students to wear security badges. Brittan Elementary School District Superintendent Earnie Graham said the school is doing a test run to see if the technology improves campus security.

The badges contain a "passive antenna" that emit radio waves to a reader mounted above the doorway in each classroom. The readers picks up the child's ID number and sends it to a handheld computer that tracks attendance.

But parent Dawn Cantrall said the badge was "creepy and cumbersome," and complained that it had too much information on it, including a student's picture, full name and identification number. "Now somebody can come up to her, see her name, and tell her, 'Your mom told me to pick you up,"' she said.

<snip>

"It's not an option," Graham said. "(The badge) is just like a textbook, you have to have it. I'm charged with running the school district and I get to make those kinds of rules."

The badges are supplied by InCom, a technology firm based in Sutter. The owners offered the school a small donation for the inconvenience of testing the badges and attendance scanners.

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[BlueEyedSon]

1. F*&k that, chip them all!

[lebkuchen]

18. Wouldn't a moat around the school stocked with crocs be less painful

and permanent?

After all, we're on the verge of winning the war on terror any day now.

[Downtown Hound]

2. Ah, no the badge is not just like a textbook, principal.

It's an instrument of control and a very Orwellian one at that. If I was a parent of a kid at these schools, I'd take him to court. Where does it end? When we all have computer chips in our brains that are connected to a huge worldwide grid and everyone can know what we're thinking at any second? Sometimes I wonder.

[rfranklin]

3. When I was a kid , the freepers said the Commies would do this...

Once again, their nightmare turns out to be a projection of their own desire for total control of other humans and all the world around them.

[villager]

8. exactly, *exactly* right...

n/t

[Walt Starr]

24. DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are their own worst nightmare and they don't even know it!

[TahitiNut]

4. Does it prevent 10-year-old terrorists from impersonating students ...

... and infiltrating a classroom to learn something? :eyes:

Heaven forbid that the teachers actually learn the kids' names, and supervise them personally. Perhaps the next step is to replace classroom teachers with televison monitors broadcasting Big Brother's latest lessons.

[1monster]

5. If all the parents refuse to have their children wear the badges,

the school will have a very hard time enforcing this rule.

[Semi_subversive]

6. It's not an option?? My butt!!

This is a test for a local firm, not a law. Maybe the parents should make the district turn over the "small donation" to the parents of the Guinea pigs?

[paineinthearse]

7. The arrogance!

"It's not an option," Graham said. "(The badge) is just like a textbook, you have to have it. I'm charged with running the school district and I get to make those kinds of rules."

This administrative bozo works for and is answerable to the taxpayers of the district.

[patdem]

9. Well, like a school book, could they choose to just leave it in the locker

Like the other poster implied..are they afraid of midget terrorists? I could see maybe a high school with problems from gangs etc, but an elementary school..and the bastid says he makes the rules? Can he require they all come to school naked if he so choose? I don't think so! :grr:

[Tempest]

15. There's a reason why they picked an elementary school

Start the indoctrination early, that way the students (and parents) are used to further intrusions later down the line.

[villager]

20. that occurred to me...

...get them used to the state's heavy boot heel early on... but then, aren't schools, with their incessant testing, etc., doing just that?

[Tempest]

25. Testing is bringing only down one boot heel

The other boot heel is the control over their very movement and actions.

[yorkiemommie1]

34. sounds like bush...

i'm charged w/ running the world and i get to make those kinds of rules.

[TahitiNut]

10. Sutter's in California's "red zone" - about 40 miles north of Sacramento

[KittyWampus]

11. The Firm Offered The School A SMALL DONATION. How About Funding

schools so they don't need to take money from corporations.

[redirish28]

12. if my kid where in that school....

I would tell the kid to go up to the superintendent and say my dad says that i do not have to wear it and if you insist on me wearing this that i am going to either have private tutoring at home or go to a different school district in the same town.

[villager]

14. yes, it does make home schooling look more and more attractive...

n/t

[Tempest]

13. Yov Vill Obey

"It's not an option," Graham said. "(The badge) is just like a textbook, you have to have it. I'm charged with running the school district and I get to make those kinds of rules."


I'd pull my kid out of that school pronto.

[depakid]

16. How many books or other supplies could the district buy

or the price of those stupid badges?

[villager]

17. "We look forward to working with schools across the country ...

...to install the InClass™ system and liberate staff and teacher time in the process."

Ah yes, to "liberate" staff and teacher time. That's taken directly from InCom's website, by the way...

http://www.incomcorporation.com/

[truthisfreedom]

19. this coming on the heels of new rules limiting name tags to first name

for public girl scouting events, and kid's sports jerseys? who are the idiots not thinking this thing out???

[Maestro]

21. We've been using them for three years now

I'm in Texas. Everyone, kids and staff, have them. They are barcoded with a pic of the student. This helps with security, especially, when adults walk through. If they don't have a badge they are walked to the main office to check-in. Children use the badges to pay for lunches and generally keep track of them as they also have the grade level and teacher's name. Staff use them as keyless entry cards and sometimes to sign in to workshops. If there is anything else nefarious about them, I am programmed by my own tag to not recognize it. ;)

Edit: Students must leave the tags in the classroom at the end of the day.

[American Tragedy]

22. Are they trying to twart the infiltration of seven-year-old terrorists?

[melnjones]

23. I work in an elementary school...

I think it's a great idea if the school can afford it. If you disagree, try working in an inner city school for a week. You might find it has some benefits.

[Tempest]

27. Like what?

You claim there are benefits, but you didn't list any.

[villager]

28. worked in an inner city school for six months

...on a long-term sub assignment. Don't think the ID badges would've forced any of them to show up at school, re-healed their broken families, or taken away the memories/effects of violence they all suffered...

[TahitiNut]

29. Are the badges edible? Would they save on school lunches?

Education isn't about inventory or warehousing!

[KamaAina]

26. 2 or 3 seconds in the microwave will do these puppies just fine

You still have the badge ("like a textbook". Pshaw.) but Big Brother can't use it to track you anymore 'cause its innards have been fried.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. A "passive antenna" that emit radio waves?

Sorry, that's an oxymoron. Unlike the person who came up with the idea, who's no oxy.

[420inTN]

36. It's called RFID

Radio Frequency IDentification (or Radio Frequency Identification Device).

It's called passive, because it doesn't have a power source.

basic info on RFID http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=2

[Richard Steele]

31. Badges are a short-term solution

It'll be alot more cost-effective to just tattoo a bar-code on our kid's foreheads...

But, y'know...Baby-steps, baby steps....

[MichiganVote]

32. 50% of them will be lost in a week

[jazzjunkysue]

33. It's total crap: They'll manipulate this system and throw off the

evil eye by carrying around each other's tags, and loosing them. Any pedophile will know to leave it on the bathroom floor and run. I have to wear one as a teacher, and it's total bullshit. It's also a security risk if the cards can be stolen that open the front door. None of it makes sense to me. What scenario are we keeping our children secure from? It won't stop a bullet or a kidnapping, or name calling or forgotten lunch money. That's how they treat inmates. They numbered them at auschwitz, too. This is de-humanizing.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

35. Chapter 3 in the as-yet-unpublished book

"How to Frustrate America into Supporting the Privatization of Public Schools".