Texas school can force teenagers to wear locator chip: judge
Did anyone else see this??
(sorry if already posted)
Texas scares me.
http://news.yahoo.com/texas-school-force-teenager-wear-locator-chip-judge-021126100.html
Texas school can force teenagers to wear locator chip: judge
By Jim Forsyth |
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A public school district in Texas can require students to wear locator chips when they are on school property, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday in a case raising technology-driven privacy concerns among liberal and conservative groups alike.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia said the San Antonio Northside School District had the right to expel sophomore Andrea Hernandez, 15, from a magnet school at Jay High School, because she refused to wear the device, which is required of all students.
The judge refused the student's request to block the district from removing her from the school while the case works its way through the federal courts.
The American Civil Liberties Union is among the rights organizations to oppose the district's use of radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology.
"We don't want to see this kind of intrusive surveillance infrastructure gain inroads into our culture," ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said. "We should not be teaching our children to accept such an intrusive surveillance technology."
The district's RFID policy has also been criticized by conservatives, who call it an example of "big government" further monitoring individuals and eroding their liberties and privacy rights.
The Rutherford Institute, a conservative Virginia-based policy center that represented Hernandez in her federal court case, said the ruling violated the student's constitutional right to privacy, and vowed to appeal.
The school district - the fourth largest in Texas with about 100,000 students - is not attempting to track or regulate students' activities, or spy on them, district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. Northside is using the technology to locate students who are in the school building but not in the classroom when the morning bell rings, he said.
Texas law counts a student present for purposes of distributing state aid to education funds based on the number of pupils in the classroom at the start of the day. Northside said it was losing $1.7 million a year due to students loitering in the stairwells or chatting in the hallways.
The software works only within the walls of the school building, cannot track the movements of students, and does not allow students to be monitored by third parties, Gonzalez said.
The ruling gave Hernandez and her father, an outspoken opponent of the use of RFID technology, until the start of the spring semester later this month to decide whether to accept district policy and remain at the magnet school or return to her home campus, where RFID chips are not required.
(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Peter Cooney)
This is why my DD was homeschooled and is now in a private school of my choice.
schools are getting WAY out of hand. i do NOT like this at all.
Why would a school require this? I'm thinking they say it's for safety/security or something. Even if that is the case, they have NO right to require this, it's absolutely ridiculous. If the security or safety (or whatever) issues they are having there are so bad, they need to look at what they as an administration are doing.
Right. Yes, I totally believe that the software has no capability of extending surveillance and that no school in the future will attempt to extend the surveillance.
Thank God for the ACLU. This should concern everyone with even a passing knowledge of the Constitution. I can't believe how our liberties are being chipped away at in tiny increments so no one notices. Interestingly, I am reading a book that is set in Europe during WWII, whose author did a great deal of historical research. Amazing parallels.
Just microwave the card...it'll probably screw it up. As long as you don't leave it in there long enough to warp it, it won't be noticeable. Believe me, shoplifters have figured it out. Hit a website lol There's probably lots of ways to jack up that chip.
However, RFID technology is not that precise. It can be read by anything equipped to read RFID. So saying the software prevents it is flat out lying. Also, he says that the cards are used to "locate" kids who aren't in the classroom, but later says it cannot track the movement of students. Well, someone needs a definition of locate. Unless it means it doesn't run constant tracking, which we only have his word for. Don't be scared of Texas, this is ONE judge and ONE school. It'll be fought.
The only reason the school wants it is money. Is money a good enough reason to violate our rights? They didn't say it was for crime or anything else, it's about money. Well, guess what, if you take your kids out of that school they will lose that money, too. How committed are we as parents to not tolerate this? Committed enough to homeschool? Or will we only give in because we don't have the time for the long fight?
edited for stupid spelling error
Quoting TranquilMind:
Right. Yes, I totally believe that the software has no capability of extending surveillance and that no school in the future will attempt to extend the surveillance.
Thank God for the ACLU. This should concern everyone with even a passing knowledge of the Constitution. I can't believe how our liberties are being chipped away at in tiny increments so no one notices. Interestingly, I am reading a book that is set in Europe during WWII, whose author did a great deal of historical research. Amazing parallels.
What book are you reading?
Quoting Jalestra:
Just microwave the card...it'll probably screw it up. As long as you don't leave it in there long enough to warp it, it won't be noticeable. Believe me, shoplifters have figured it out. Hit a website lol There's probably lots of ways to jack up that chip.
However, RFID technology is not that precise. It can be read by anything equipped to read RFID. So saying the software prevents it is flat out lying. Also, he says that the cards are used to "locate" kids who aren't in the classroom, but later says it cannot track the movement of students. Well, someone needs a definition of locate. Unless it means it doesn't run constant tracking, which we only have his word for. Don't be scared of Texas, this is ONE judge and ONE school. It'll be fought.
The only reason the school wants it is money. Is money a good enough reason to violate our rights? They didn't say it was for crime or anything else, it's about money. Well, guess what, if you take your kids out of that school they will lose that money, too. How committed are we as parents to not tolerate this? Committed enough to homeschool? Or will we only give in because we don't have the time for the long fight?
edited for stupid spelling error
I hope the parents fight it and don't give in to complacency. It may be only one judge and one school, but if it is allowed it sets a precedence, a scary scary precedence.
The Young Won't Buy ObamaCare
- tscritch
on Jan. 8, 2013 at 11:55 PM