Parents Protest Student computer ID tags

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.

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This is a terrible idea and unconstitutional also, IMO. We do not need more government in our life. I do not think that it is a viable solution to anything.
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.

Beautiful reply Calex! That's true. Many good responses on here by the way.

Would you have kids in school receive the full protection of the bill of rights?

Yes.

Or would most Freepers prefer to see the schools a little more chaotic?

I would prefer to see schools teaching kids why we threw off the yoke of the English in the first place, not Applied Orwell 101.

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.

The teachers should have control over the assignments. And throwing in the anti-union sentiment that is popular around here does nothing to refute the argument that we are not teaching kids to value freedom.

The teachers should have control over the assignments

By this I meant hall duty assignments, its not so good that they can decide this is not part of their contract.

I agree that schools should teach valid history, and they could even discuss whether lockers should be private, or remain the property of the schools. You could review the search and seisure laws and see whether they apply to school age kids, and under what instances the school authorities may search a kid's backpack.

Your answers sound like it would be tough on teachers, but I guess you can have the point. Kids in decades past were not searched by school personnel I guess? What age would you say the bill of rights applies? What about parents looking in a kids room? How far does this go?

I went to school in the 90s and had my locker searched and a newspaper story censored. They searched our cars once, too. I live in a very low-crime area, so the searches were just to keep us on our toes. They found pot in one kid's car. Good thing they found that. Who knows if the school would have survived if he had kept smoking pot.

I disagree that the school has parental rights. A parent can spank a kid, but the school is rapidly losing that right. A parent should be able to toss the kid's room up. The school, which is an arm of government, should have to get a search warrant. Unfortunately, the supreme court rarely agrees with my expert Constitutional interpretations, mostly because they are statists and don't want to undercut government power.

Unfortunately, the supreme court rarely agrees with my expert Constitutional interpretations, mostly because they are statists and don't want to undercut government power.

I don't know if its been to the supreme court yet? I know that at work we were given security locks to keep classified data in. Only the security officer had the combination. We used these "safes" for very valuable things in addition to classified papers, one employee had a diamond necklace in his safe when it was inspected for a security audit. After this we were all told the safe was the company's property and we could be fired for keeping personal stuff there. Likewise they could search briefcases and cars. We knew all this when we went to work there and undoubtably signed some consent somewhere along the way. I think this is how to handle school kids, let them sign contracts, get their parents to sign too, since kids are not of legal age, and have them understand what "rights" they have and what they must live by to attend the school. Some schools have these contracts, they also delineate the punishment for bringing a weapon to school for example, it still does not sink in to kids cause they are (many of them) too immature to understand what they agree to and what the consequences will be.

I know its a government school, but this is something that is handled with local control. Schools in high crime areas DO have a drug problem, and while kids could handle their dealings on the street, most of the dealing is done right under the noses of the school administration. Additionally when a kid reports a valuable thingy has been stolen, there may be a cause for a search warent. I don't know how much good having the kid's family go to a judge would be, but kids who steal things (that other kids should not bring to school anyway) should get caught and be expelled. The punishment should fit the crime. Involving the higher levels of society, like police, DA's and judges would be a learning experience but many in school are not ready to be taught this lesson. When the school handles it, often times there is no permanent record, so the kids may come out of it better off than if the criminal justice system was used.

As a parent, I would be in favor of having my children’s movements monitored at school or in other places where they are in a large group of children. I remember being in school, and the constitution has not changed much since then. Schools do drug tests, locker and bag searches, and have the right to expel students that won't comply. This is to protect other students as well as teachers and property.

I also remember being in school and having a large amount of time wasted by educators as they counted heads. Giving teachers more time to teach and less distractions to that task is only bad if you don’t like what is being taught, but that is a different discussion.

Just like people on the internet thinking that they are anonymous, kids sometimes get this impression when they are out of sight of the teacher. I am for accountability. This does not limit freedom. Our kids can still try to sneak into the other gender's locker room, but I want them to face the consequences of those decisions. Then they will have the chance to learn from their mistakes and this is what school is for, learning.

Sadly, many people feel that the constitution guarantees us the freedom from the consequences of our actions. This is not the case, and is part of the moral breakdown that you complain about. But instead of championing the schools to try to use this RFID tool, you attack it as well. The same people that complain about the problem are complaining about the potential solutions to it.

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