Students Under Surveillance

[mourningdove92]

SUTTER COUNTY
Students kept under surveillance at school
Some parents angry over radio device

Greg Lucas, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Sutter, Sutter County -- Angry parents, saying their children's privacy rights are being violated, have asked the board of the tiny Brittan School District to rescind a requirement that all students wear badges that monitor their whereabouts on campus using radio signals.

Located between the massive silos of Sutter Rice Co. and the Sutter Buttes, this small town has 587 kindergarten through eighth-graders who are the first public school kids in the country to be tracked on campus by such a system, which is designed to ease attendance taking and increase campus security.

"This is the only public school monitoring where children go, with kids walking around with little homing beacons,'' said Nicole Ozer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer aiding several parents who oppose the badges, which students wear around their necks.

Although all students have identification badges, only seventh- and eighth-graders are being tracked in a test run, according to school officials and representatives of InCom, a Sutter-based company developing the system.

"There is no danger or I wouldn't put it on my son,'' Florrie Turner, a school district employee helping the company develop the software, told the school board at its Tuesday night meeting.

The student tracking system uses radio frequency identification technology used mainly to monitor inventory and livestock.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/10/BAGG0B8I4D1.DTL


I am 51 years old. I remember when America was free.
:cry:

[demodonkey]

1. My kid would be homeschooled so fast their head would spin... while I

filed a big lawsuit against that Principal and the school district. Hmmm, gee, a kid coming home and announcing that she's basically become a "a piece of meat" that has to be tagged with an RF transmitter (while probably still being taught that she lives in a "free" country) just might be facing YEARS of therapy for "emotional distress"! ;-)

These parents need to grow a spine and pull their kids out of there.

[Ms. Clio]

2. Yes, and similar RFID tags are now going to added to driver's licenses

apparently.

This article really ties in with the discussion in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1230546

And this line just says it all about the human condition in our Brave New World: this "technology <is> used mainly to monitor inventory and livestock."

[SouthernDem2004]

4. Please provide some info on the RFID adding to D/Ls

[Ms. Clio]

5. Uh--click on the link in my post for the info.

That's why that link is provided--this has been discussed in LBN.

[SouthernDem2004]

6. I read the actual House Bill and that is not included.

There is no mention of that device.

[Ms. Clio]

7. According to the article, the bill includes "machine-readable technology"

"The measure, called the Real ID Act, says that driver's licenses and other ID cards must include a digital photograph, anticounterfeiting features and undefined "machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements" that could include a magnetic strip or RFID tag.

http://news.com.com/House+approves+electronic+ID+cards/2100-1028_3-5571898.html

[SouthernDem2004]

8. Yes, that refers to the magnetic strip that is used by Police MDTs and

Intoxilyzers.

[Ms. Clio]

9. It also potentially includes RFID tags

And this post, about how those RFID tags can be applied to a real world situation, should raise big red flags for everyone.

[SouthernDem2004]

10. It could potential contain Captain Crunch cereal but it will not.

[Ms. Clio]

12. And you know that, how, exactly?

The post that opened this thread showed that the technology is there and and is being used.

The article I linked to clearly states that RFID tags are one machine-readable technology that could be used in DLs in an identical fashion--go argue your ridiculous point with the tech reporter.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Children have always been under surveillance at school

the register is taken, at least daily; they have to ask permission to leave classes for the bathroom; they are told not to run in the halls.

Children have never had the rights that adults have, especially at school. This is just automating what is already done.

[Technowitch]

11. I'll be 42 in a couple weeks. I remember when we were free, too.

And when I was actually still proud of what America ACTUALLY stood for (even if we were less than perfect a lot of the time).

Now we're a country where 3 year olds get pat-down searches in airports and our so-called leaders are finding legal rationales for torture -- nevermind the overwhelming WRONGNESS of it.