Posted on 02/10/2005 9:02:29 AM PST by FeeinTennessee
Parents Protest Student Computer ID Tags By LISA LEFF, AP
SUTTER, Calif. (Feb. 9) - The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children's privacy. The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan.
But few American school districts have embraced such a monitoring system, and civil libertarians hope to keep it that way.
"If this school doesn't stand up, then other schools might adopt it," Nicole Ozer, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union, warned school board members at a meeting Tuesday night. "You might be a small community, but you are one of the first communities to use this technology."
The system was imposed, without parental input, by the school as a way to simplify attendance-taking and potentially reduce vandalism and improve student safety. Principal Earnie Graham hopes to eventually add bar codes to the existing ID's so that students can use them to pay for cafeteria meals and check out library books. But some parents see a system that can monitor their children's movements on campus as something straight out of Orwell.
"There is a way to make kids safer without making them feel like a piece of inventory," said Michael Cantrall, one of several angry parents who complained. "Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored, and someone is always going to be watching you?"
Cantrall said he told his children, in the 5th and 7th grades, not to wear the badges. He also filed a protest letter with the board and alerted the ACLU.
Graham, who also serves as the superintendent of the single-school district, told the parents that their children could be disciplined for boycotting the badges - and that he doesn't understand what all their angst is about.
"Sometimes when you are on the cutting edge, you get caught," Graham said, recounting the angry phone calls and notes he has received from parents.
Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door.
Graham also asked to have a chip reader installed in locker room bathrooms to reduce vandalism, although that reader is not functional yet. And while he has ordered everyone on campus to wear the badges, he said only the 7th and 8th grade classrooms are being monitored thus far.
In addition to the privacy concerns, parents are worried that the information on and inside the badges could wind up in the wrong hands and endanger their children, and that radio frequency technology might carry health risks.
Graham dismisses each objection, arguing that the devices do not emit any cancer-causing radioactivity, and that for now, they merely confirm that each child is in his or her classroom, rather than track them around the school like a global-positioning device. The 15-digit ID number that confirms attendance is encrypted, he said, and not linked to other personal information such as an address or telephone number.
What's more, he says that it is within his power to set rules that promote a positive school environment: If he thinks ID badges will improve things, he says, then badges there will be.
"You know what it comes down to? I believe junior high students want to be stylish. This is not stylish," he said.
This latest adaptation of radio frequency ID technology was developed by InCom Corp., a local company co-founded by the parent of a former Brittan student, and some parents are suspicious about the financial relationship between the school and the company. InCom plans to promote it at a national convention of school administrators next month.
InCom has paid the school several thousand dollars for agreeing to the experiment, and has promised a royalty from each sale if the system takes off, said the company's co-founder, Michael Dobson, who works as a technology specialist in the town's high school. Brittan's technology aide also works part-time for InCom.
Not everyone in this close-knit farming town northwest of Sacramento is against the system. Some said they welcomed the IDs as a security measure.
"This is not Mayberry. This is Sutter, California. Bad things can happen here," said Tim Crabtree, an area parent.
02/09/05 18:41 EST
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
Why we don't want supermarket discount/tracking scan cards...
http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/safewaycard.htm
by Richard M. Smith
http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
Jan. 28, 2005
Tukwila, Washington firefighter, Philip Scott Lyons found out the hard way that supermarket loyalty cards can come with a huge price. Lyons was arrested last August and charged with attempted arson. Police alleged at the time that Lyons tried to set fire to his own house while his wife and children were inside. According to the KOMO-TV and the Seattle Times, a major piece of evidence used against Lyons in his arrest was the record of his supermarket purchases that he made with his Safeway Club Card. Police investigators had discovered that his Club Card was used to buy fire starters of the same type used in the arson attempt.
For Lyons, the story did have a happy ending. All charges were dropped against him in January 2005 because another person stepped forward saying he or she set the fire and not Lyons. Lyons is now back at work after more than 5 months of being on administrative leave from his firefighter job.
The moral of this story is that even the most innocent database can be used against a person in a criminal investigation turning their lives completely upside down.
Safeway needs to more up-front with customers about the potential downsides of shopper cards. They should also provide the details of their role in the arrest or Mr. Lyons and other criminal cases in which the company provided Club Card purchase information to police investigators.
Here is how Safeway currently describes their Club Card program in the Club Card application:
http://www.safeway.com/app.pdf
We respect your privacy. Safeway does not sell or lease personally identifying information (i.e., your name, address, telephone number, and bank and credit card account numbers) to non-affiliated companies or entities. We do record information regarding the purchases made with your Safeway Club Card to help us provide you with special offers and other information. Safeway also may use this information to provide you with personally tailored coupons, offers or other information that may be provided to Safeway by other companies. If you do not wish to receive personally tailored coupons, offers or other information, please check the box below. Must be at least 18 years of age.
Thank you for posting the article. I see so much wrong with this idea, I hardly know where to begin...
I also see and share the alarm on this thread that expansion of these cards portend for our privacy and freedom. It's like that magic map in Harry Potter where you can track the comings and goings of everyone--it will surely be misused unless carefully and rigorously regulated.
I hate those club cards, too. Unfortunately, you miss out on significant discounts if you do not use them. I just didn't shop at the grocery store that had them for a long time, then suddenly every grocery in town got them except WalMart--!
So, are the teacher's wearing the RFID tags? I bet not. As long as they are required to wear them also and their tracking information made public (on a web page or such) that sounds fine.
Of course, I doubt they would ever agree to being tracked like their students...
in an unrelated story. Animal Farm, Brave New World, and 1984 were taken off the required reading lists.
The check out person always scans a club card they keep at the register when i tell them i don't have a card. They just do it, I don't even ask. Then again I would have no problems leaving 150 dollars of groceries on the cashier counter if I didn't get a discount.
Interesting.
I have know problem with it. They probably should have consented the parents first though.
But I think the kids will figure out that they could give their badge to another student for attendance purposes, and then skid class.
I posted it to alert everyone about this. Please pass this along as well. I think we should write our representatives and tell them we are against this technology being implemented in society. Because that's where it's heading.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Going to repost the article links I posted earlier, the URLs were blended together, will post them so they can be more accessible:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.globalchange.com/skinchip.htm
http://auctionknowhow.com/articles/wmart.shtml
BE AWARE!--Fee
Well Mamzelle, Walmart is growing and expanding. And if they haven't already, they are looking to put RFID tracking devices on some of their products. It's all a matter of time. This thing will grow, and I am wary about it. I know what it leads to.
And we wonder why most kids think newspaper stories should have to be approved by the government. We are teaching them to submit to control in every area of their lives. The Constitution is a foriegn idea to them. How can we ever expect them to value and uphold it?
We used to maintain discipline in schools with out tracking devices, we used something called respect for authority. We have a societal problem in this country and tracking devices, PC, tolerance, etc, are part of the problem not the solution.
Until we start to instill values into our children at an early age we will never solve the problem. This has to start at home.
Liberals have taken religion, regardless of what type, but mainly christianity, out of our daily lives for the most part and replaced it with the values of self. This is the main problem.
Restore values and you will restore respect for authority and have better behaved children and no need for tracking devices. This is heading for a totalitarian government at light speed.
I want a RIFID:
In my TV controller - nobody ever puts it where it belongs
In my glasses - I always lose them
In my wallet and cellphone - I lose them too
In the dogs - So I don't have to find them when wife worries
In my wife's coffee cup - they're half full all over the house
In my boss - so I can track the threat
And I I thought some more, I could probably think of new ways to use them!
Why aren't these grade school children already under constant adult supervision?
How so? I want RIFIDS all over all of my stuff. I want to to buy stuff with RIFIDS already in it. I want my school to be able to tell me where my daughter is and who she is with at all times. I want to be able to see this information on my screen at any time. You know - trust but verify? Why should you be able to use the government to stop me?
There are plenty of places where kids in school do not have constitutional protection. (Lockers can be searched for example.) Would you have kids in school receive the full protection of the bill of rights? (I failed because I was not given due process the kid told his lawyer.) Same with employeers, locked desks can be opened and searched at the employers whim.
There has never been a time when school kids have been left alone and not monitored, its just that in the past the staff of the school organized the monitoring. (And don't think the school did not know who was out behind the backstop having an illicit smoke?) Crimes in school are often not solved, too many thieves, no one was looking? The objection in this case must be related to the technology? Or would most Freepers prefer to see the schools a little more chaotic?
And before I get flamed, I am opposed to letting the government track our comings and goings as much as anyone, but in school as a parent, I expect my kid is where he is supposed to be at all times, if he is not and the school catches him, this will be the least of his troubles. I guess I am also sorry that the human element has vanished as the teachers got more control over their assignments and the union got more control over the administrators.
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