Posted on 05/14/2003 11:55:50 AM PDT by Cagey
Akron students may soon be fingerprinted. The reason: to get through the lunch line. School leaders are considering a new $700,000 system that identifies students using their digital fingerprints. It would replace the meal-ticket method that has been used in Akron middle and high school cafeterias for nearly two decades. This state-of-the art, futuristic technology is only being used in one other Ohio school district -- Garfield Heights. It is also being employed at a sprinkling of colleges, universities and businesses across the country. Akron school board members got a sneak peek at the system during a special presentation Tuesday night and will vote on the purchase at their May 27 meeting. If approved, the system would be installed in schools beginning in the fall. While most board members seemed impressed with the system, Rebecca Heimbaugh raised concerns about both cost and privacy issues that come with fingerprinting students. ``I'm of the opinion that if you can get by with something less, then do so,'' she said. ``I want to look at this more closely.'' In Garfield Heights, about 10 parents requested that their children not be fingerprinted because of privacy concerns. Parents raised the same issue in the other districts outside Ohio that adopted this method. These students were permitted to use another method to pay for their lunches. Akron's 15,000 middle and high school students now pay for lunches with either raffle-style tickets or cash. Cafeteria workers ring up the purchases on out-dated registers -- some that have been used for up to 18 years. Lunches cost $1.35 a day, though a la carte items are extra. School leaders were shopping for a new system, and they decided the fingerprint imaging method was the best on the market. They visited Garfield Heights and Penn Cambria, a Pennsylvania district about 75 miles east of Pittsburgh that also uses this method. ``This is what we felt was the best method,'' said Debra Foulk, coordinator of the Akron schools' Child Nutrition Services. Representatives from the two companies that would supply the system explained the process Tuesday night. Systems Technology Group Inc., a Buffalo, N.Y., company, would provide the system's software and hardware, while Sagem Morpho Inc., a Tacoma, Wash., company would supply the fingerprint imaging technology. Under the new system, students at Akron's 18 middle and high schools would have the prints from their index fingers scanned into a special device. The system would develop a grid of intersection points from the swirls and arcs of the prints. Next, the fingerprint would be discarded, leaving only a template of the intersection points. This template would be turned into a set of binary numbers -- unique to that student's fingerprint. When students went through the lunch line, they would place their fingers on the scanner and their prints would be matched with the stored templates. School board members asked many questions about the system, primarily focusing on privacy issues and the expense. Ralph Brier, a sales manager for Sagem Morpho, told board members the system cannot re-create a fingerprint once it has been discarded. ``You throw it away,'' he said. ``All you have is a number.'' School leaders provided board members with a legal opinion from Whalen & Compton, an Akron law firm, that said the system would not violate students' privacy rights. ``In Ohio, there are no laws that authorize school districts to retain the fingerprints of students,'' the opinion states. ``However, the system you have outlined would not retain a fingerprint, only a digital image of certain points on a fingerprint.'' Heimbaugh asked if simply getting new cash registers would be less expensive. She also questioned whether the new system would result in a staff reduction. Foulk said new cash registers would be cheaper -- but less efficient -- than the fingerprint-imaging system. She said the same number of cafeteria staff will be needed. Foulk said school leaders looked at systems that use cards or pin numbers -- rather than fingerprints -- to identify students. She said these systems cost about the same and were less efficient. Students could lose the cards -- just as they now often lose tickets -- and forget their pin numbers. The $700,000 cost for the system would include new touch-screen registers, software, fingerprint imaging scanners, staff training and maintenance. The money would come from the budget for Child Nutrition Services, a department that is self-sufficient and gives back to the district's general fund. Board President Linda Omobien said she thinks the system ``has a lot of exciting possibilities.'' She likes how the system could help remove the stigma of free and reduced lunches because all students would go through the same process. Students paying full price do not currently have to pay with tickets, while those getting free and reduced lunches do. At a time when the district is facing state funding cuts, Omobien said she also liked the prospect of increased federal funds brought in by more students being inclined to get free and reduced lunches.The federal government provides extra money to districts for services to poorer students and bases this funding on free and reduced lunches. ``That could generate more dollars than we can imagine,'' she said. Paul Allison, another board member, said he was satisfied with the answers to his questions about privacy. ``I wouldn't support it if it could keep and store fingerprints,'' he said. School leaders in Garfield Heights have been happy with their system, though they have had some problems. The glitches mainly stemmed from the district's technology structure and difficulty reading the fingerprints of students with grimy hands. Still, Dawn Wheeler, the district's food services coordinator, said the method beats meal tickets. ``A child's not going to lose their finger -- we hope,'' she said.
And, only 10 kids opted out? It's 1984 all over again.
I bet she does.
She likes how the system could help remove the stigma of free and reduced lunches because all students would go through the same process. Students paying full price do not currently have to pay with tickets, while those getting free and reduced lunches do.
The same old cycle continues...
Become dependent upon government, and soon you'll have to give up some freedom, some privacy, some rights in return.
In this case, its trading your fingerprints for a sandwich.
In other cases, its trading your right to decide whether you wear a helmet in exchange for socialized medical care.
This is nothing but a ploy to desensetise kids into giving up their biometric information on demand. It's fitting they chose food as their method of conditioning. It's straight from the theory of Pavlov's dog.
At a time when the district is facing state funding cuts, Omobien said she also liked the prospect of increased federal funds brought in by more students being inclined to get free and reduced lunches.The federal government provides extra money to districts for services to poorer students and bases this funding on free and reduced lunches.
``That could generate more dollars than we can imagine,'' she said.
Generate? Generate? Redistribute maybe, but it generates nothing.
What in the world is wrong with a stigma for getting free government food. I've always thought that food stamp purchases at grocery stores should go through a special line with the assistant trainee cashier who loudly announces what is being bought.
Well, as long as you felt it was the best method, then that makes it okay.
My daughter's school uses a "debit" card in their lunch program.The card doubles as their library card, and is scanned just like at the grocery store.
Eliminates need for the kids to carry cash , that they might loose, ( the little kid's cards are kept in a box by the teacher so they don't actually loose the cards) AND it removes any stigma from kids who need a subsidized lunch.
There's no need for this fingerprint stuff.
Tia
*shaking my head* ...a $700,000.00 fingerprint scanner.
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