Posted on 01/05/2012 6:37:06 AM PST by Hojczyk
St. Louis Today reported:
When is the line crossed between better health and surveillance?
In early 2012, wristwatch-like devices called Polar active monitors will be used by older students in PE classes at all 18 Parkway elementary schools. District officials say the devices should help improve the students’ fitness and academic achievement.
Later this school year, the district plans to collect data about activity levels and even sleep patterns for a week at a time. It will have the students wear the devices round the clock.
Some parents and legal experts are raising privacy concerns about at least that aspect of the program.
The project
Ron Ramspott, coordinator of health, outdoor and physical education for Parkway, said a pilot project started in April provided the monitors during physical education classes to students at Henry and Ross elementary schools. Shenandoah Valley Elementary School in Chesterfield joined the pilot in August.
At the district’s Dec. 7 Board of Education meeting, the board approved expanding the project beyond the pilot phase. For the program starting this year at all elementary schools, the district will target grades four and five initially, Ramspott said.
The monitors measure activity by tracking every movement of the person wearing them. They display steps taken, calories spent and time spent at various levels of activity. An animated figure on the monitor indicates the activity level. A bar shows the target time for doing moderate to vigorous activity and the amount of time achieved at that level.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
Why an ankle bracelet and not a dog collar?
This would never happen to a child of mine.
Under the guise of “ it’s all for the childrens benefit” , it is imprisonment and should be taken to court and fought tooth and nail.
WTF are the parents in this ? ( I didnt read whole article yet )...... but wow,I’d pull my kids out of school so fast the school admins’ friggin commie heads would spin and pop off.
‘cept my oldest has already graduated and my other one hasnt even started school yet.
AMEN to that ~
The responsibility of the public school system is to educate your child so that they can read, write and do math sufficiently to function as an adult in society. Not to gather data on them for other purposes. Anybody who lets their kid wear that bracelet is an idiot.
We need to raise a huge stink about this now, before other school districts get similar ideas.
I hope that Freepers with children in that school district remove them immediately.
Another article says the parents will have to give permission “mainly because of the responsibillity involved.”
Oh, really?
Read the comments at the end of the article. They are scathing.
It sounds like a way to accustom them to constant monitoring. If they get used to this as children, there is no telling what they will be willing to submit to as adults.
They should all take their kids bracelets, go to Home Depot, and put them on the paint mixers for a while, or stick them on the dog’s collar for the weekend.
Great idea! LOL!
And then young Conan unsheathed his yataghan, and there was only the screaming, the semicircles of glittering steel, and blood drops spattering against the walls with a sound like blowing leaves...
Sorry...thought this was one of those threads where each person gets to contribute to the story... ;^)
I bet not one of the kids wearing these bracelets can name the Vice President, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the capitol of the state they live in and it is because the schools spend so much time on nonsense like this. I have decided to teach my kids about American history and our founding because they surely aren’t getting it in school.
This is just plain ol’ BULLS**T.
.
Spend two more hours a day and you can homeschool in all the relevant subjects.
How about the Obamas and the school board wear those first.
I would put it on one of my dogs & then take them for a long walk.
This is a direct attack on the 4th Amendment, IMO.
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