RFID tracking in Calif. school

[nicky g]

What if the students discover that the teachers are really aliens plotting a global takeover, and have to sneak into the principal's office to find proof for their sceptical parents? What then?

[Il_Mostro]

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The fear that the school will know if a student spends several hours in the loo each day raises the question for me --- shouldn't we want the school to know if a student is spending several hours in the loo each day?

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I see this as an ends-means type of question. And I don't think the end (knowing that the student spends a lot of time in the loo, or whatever) justifies the means (the intrusion of said students personal integrity, not to mention every other students integrity) to find it out. This is quite obviously my personal belif, not some sort of universal truth.

[Il_Mostro]

You watch too many crappy movies [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Il_Mostro]

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I don't mind slippery slope arguments if they follow a logical slope.

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One thing I'm worried about in this type of question is the accustomisation of being surveilled systems like this can create, making it easier to introduce them in other places as well.

[elwoodblues]

I honestly hadn't considered that. I'll have to think about it.

[Utah]

"I don't mind slippery slope arguments if they follow a logical slope."

Okay. What about two of the biggies: gun control and abortion. There is a clear logical slippery slope argument in both cases. Does that mean for abortion that we cant outlaw partial birth abortions? does that mean for gun control we cant have tighter registration requirements or require trigger locks?

[HDPM]

"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?"



A main point of public school is to teach kids they cannot trust themselves but can only trust government or a collective. So I think RFID tracking fits neatly into what public education was designed to do.

I don't have kids yet, but I really don't know what I will do when it comes time for school. Public schools are so dangerous in terms of what they force on kids' development, but you also want kids who can function in our nutty society. School does teach them how to cope w/ society some. Private schools are somewhat better, but unfortunately the selection of them where I live is poor. Homeschooling alone has all kinds of problems. Feh.

[adios]

I see a lot more upside to this than downside. What "privacy rights" that children have are being trampled on by this?

[elwoodblues]

Don't want to hijack the thread, but I'll give a quick response:

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Does that mean for abortion that we cant outlaw partial birth abortions?

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I think there is also a clear line that you can draw stopping the slippery slope. The supreme court itself drew a line (in Roe v. Wade) at three different fetal development stages and said that depending on the stage, the state's interest could outweigh that of the mother. In the third trimester where the fetus is viable, the court said that the state's interest is such that restrictions on abortions at that point are constitutionally permissible.

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does that mean for gun control we cant have tighter registration requirements or require trigger locks

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I don't know if I buy that there is a logical slippery slope from registration to banning guns nor trigger locks. A better example, I think, would be banning particular types of guns. There, I think there is a decent slippery slope argument because legislatures try to make illogical distinctions between types of guns. You either believe that the constitution protects and individual's right to own guns or you don't. The constitution makes no distinction between types of arms, so I think there is a decent slippery slope argument to be made with, for example, a ban on assault rifles.

[elwoodblues]

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What "privacy rights" that children have are being trampled on by this?

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That's what I'm still trying to figure out. I don't believe you have a privacy right to be "invisible" in a school. It's not like the devices can record conversations or take video or something along those lines. I think that would be seriously offensive, but something akin to a GPS built into an ID is harmless to me (until someone convinces me otherwise.)