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Judge: Northside ISD CANNOT Expel Student for Rejecting RFID Tracking Chip
1200 - WOAI News/Radio ^ | Thursday, November 22, 2012 | Jim Forsyth

Posted on 11/23/2012 6:15:04 PM PST by brityank

Judge: Northside ISD CANNOT Expel Student for Rejecting RFID Tracking Chip

says district's tracking program 'violates fundamental Constitutional Rights'

A judge in Texas has barred a school district from expelling a student because she refused to wear a Radio Frequency Identification chip as part of an effort by the school to track students and make sure they attend class, 1200 WOAI news has learned.

"This is a national issue," John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a free market advocacy from which filed the lawsuit, told 1200 WOAI news. "Do we want to live in a surveillance state where everybody is watched?"

The controversial move by the San Antonio Northside School District to require students to wear RFID locators embedded into their student ID cards so administrators can track their movements in the school building has become a major issue in the fight over personal freedom, and the limits of government agencies to track individuals.

The school district, according to Executive Director of Communications Pascual Gonzalez, introduced the chip policy at two schools this year with an idea to extending it to all of the sprawling districts' 112 schools in coming years. The experiment by Northside, which is the fourth largest school district in Texas, is being closely watched not only by other school systems, but by privacy advocates as well.

He says the goal is not to 'spy' on students or record who they meet with. In Texas, state education funding to school districts is based on the number of students who are in class when the first period bell rings, and Northside is losing $1.7 million per year because students are in the building but not in the classroom.

"If the student is not in first period class but he is in the building, then we are able to locate him, and get him into the class," Gonzalez said.

He says the RFID tracking doesn't extend 'beyond the walls of the school building,' and the school district does not keep any records of the movements of students.

But this issue has angered activists on both ends of the political spectrum. It has been denounced by liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which say it amounts to 'tagging children like cattle.' It has also been blasted on conservative web sites and radio talk shows as an example of the increasing control the government is attempting to exert over individuals.

"The court's willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go," Whitehead said. "Not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset in general that everybody needs to be monitored and controlled."

The judge prohibited the district from expelling sophomore Andrea Hernandez from the Science and Engineering Magnet School that she has been attending, and issued an order prohibiting the district from 'intimidating or retaliating' against Andrea, ruling that the RFID system is a 'clear violation of her constitutional rights.'

Andrea and her father have become vocal critics of the RFID program, and the judge also issued an order preventing school officials from blocking them from 'peacefully distributing literature' about their objections to the program on school grounds.

Whitehead says what is happing in American schools today is symbolic of a disturbing historical trend.

"Regimes in the past have always started with the schools, where they develop a compliant citizenry," he said. "These 'Student Locator' programs are ultimately aimed at getting students used to living in a total surveillance state, where there will be no privacy, and wherever you go and whatever you text or e-mail will be watched by the government."



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 666
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Note the last paragraph.
That could never happen here in the USA! </sarc>
1 posted on 11/23/2012 6:15:11 PM PST by brityank
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To: brityank

Accept the card and carry it as required. But wrap it in foil.


2 posted on 11/23/2012 6:18:12 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: brityank

but the condoms are free

the people are not

Brave New World


3 posted on 11/23/2012 6:18:16 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: brityank
We are the feral government's livestock now.

Nothing more.

4 posted on 11/23/2012 6:21:18 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Labor unions are the Communist Party of the USA.)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Pick up some anti-static plastic pouches to keep them in, not so noticeable and ‘just keeping it clean!’


5 posted on 11/23/2012 6:23:46 PM PST by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: 17th Miss Regt
Accept the card and carry it as required. But wrap it in foil.


6 posted on 11/23/2012 6:27:06 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
We are the feral government's livestock now.

Well - 53% of us are.

Sorry to say, but this goose is done for. Wish I were 7 instead of 70 - and know what I do now, or even what I believed then!

7 posted on 11/23/2012 6:28:53 PM PST by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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To: brityank

Public school is child abuse.


8 posted on 11/23/2012 6:33:43 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: brityank

To those of you say wear it - wrapped in foil or in anti-static plastic wrap ... NO NO NO NEVER... never wear it - Never Comply ... never give up basic American freedoms... Children and Parents - NEVER give into such Anti-Constitutional measures


9 posted on 11/23/2012 6:35:32 PM PST by ICCtheWay
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To: ICCtheWay

It is legitimate to require a student to have a student ID when in school. The foil method obeys the letter of the law without letting the things work as intended.


10 posted on 11/23/2012 6:39:16 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: brityank

Sorry, but I have NO RESPECT for parents that send their kids to public school just so they can buy the latest Lexus or 60” plasma. The idea of letting a bunch of virtual strangers that can’t even make it through liberal arts in college (education majors are lower on the totem pole) have the first (and really the only) shot at educating ones kids is just revolting to me.


11 posted on 11/23/2012 6:41:55 PM PST by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

No - it is not ... giving in to ELECTRONIC TRACKING is giving in to any an all public survelience... Privacy intrusion is Liberty intrusion


12 posted on 11/23/2012 6:44:34 PM PST by ICCtheWay
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To: brityank

Satan never sleeps and he will keep trying to impose his mark.


13 posted on 11/23/2012 6:45:53 PM PST by bmwcyle (Women reelected Obama)
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To: brityank

Sotheby’s electronic roster shows all present and accounted for. But there’s only a backpack full of cards sitting in the room. All the kids are out smoking, drinking and smooching.


14 posted on 11/23/2012 6:46:21 PM PST by gitmo ( If your theology doesn't become your biography it's useless.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

>>We are the feral government’s livestock now.

We’ve been livestock for a several years now...under Republican and Democrat administrations. But, we’ve just been allowed to wander the fields as much as we wanted as long as we stayed inside the fencelines.

Now, the trucks are pulling up to the chutes and they are starting to herd us toward them.


15 posted on 11/23/2012 6:46:30 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: 17th Miss Regt
Alternately you can get a clear but RFID-blocking card holder, that allows your ID to be visible to humans, but blocks RFID reading or tracking while it's in the card holder.
16 posted on 11/23/2012 6:47:28 PM PST by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: ICCtheWay

How is defeating the electronic tracking giving into it?


17 posted on 11/23/2012 6:50:18 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: Paleo Conservative

Excellent styling! That is quite a mousse!


18 posted on 11/23/2012 6:51:44 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: PapaBear3625

I’ve got one of those for work. But if you really don’t want the thing to work just burn out the chip. It can be done without being too obvious.


19 posted on 11/23/2012 6:54:24 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: 17th Miss Regt

“But wrap it in foil.”

Microwave on high 20 seconds.


20 posted on 11/23/2012 7:07:51 PM PST by DBrow
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