Co. Pulls Out of Deal to Track Students

[Book Lover]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/02/16/financial/f075453S34.DTL

The grade school that required students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move has ended the program because the company that developed the technology pulled out.


"I'm disappointed; that's about all I can say at this point," Earnie Graham, the superintendent and principal of Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, said Tuesday night. "I think I let my staff down. Nobody on this campus knows every student."


The badges, developed by Sutter-based technology company InCom Corp., were introduced on Jan. 18. The school board was set to talk about the controversial policy Tuesday night but tabled the discussion after InCom announced it was terminating its agreement.


"I'm not convinced it's over," parent Dawn Cantrall, who filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the (Marysville) Appeal-Democrat. "I'm happy for now that kids are not being tagged, but I'm still fighting to keep it out of our school system. It has to stop here."

[Benhurst]

1. Maybe they could just put tags on their ears as they do for cattle. NT

[Richard Steele]

5. Or perhaps just tattoo serial numbers on their forearms?

[Scooter24]

2. InCom

is going to try and find a larger, more urbanized area, to test this. They tried the small, rural town and saw widespread objection. InCom is looking out for their own ass by trying to keep the bad press to a min.

The technology would probably fly if it was introduced in a school system with high absentees, poor grades, and in a high-crime zone.

The better the package looks today, the easier it is to sell later down the road.

[sybylla]

3. Dupe story - More here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3123012

[MrModerate]

4. Right -- and tatooing the inmates of Dachau . . .

Made counting the bodies easier.

Don't these foolish principals (and there's plenty of them) ever think twice about such things? And the companies who want to peddle these wares, don't they have legal staffs/community relations people who tell them, "hey guys . . ."