RFID tracking in Calif. school

Il_Mostro · #1 02-10-2005, 10:50 AM

SUTTER, Calif. Feb 9, 2005 — 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.

abc news

-----------

I find this to be a very disturbing development.

Utah · #2 02-10-2005, 10:57 AM

I have really mixed feelings about using technology this way. Certainly, the school was wrong to implement without parental input. However, this case raises a bigger issue.

I am curious what others think. Are there ways to implement this technology with the proper safegaurds?

elwoodblues · #3 02-10-2005, 11:01 AM

I personally don't have a big problem with it (though, I agree with my friend Utah about the lack of parental input.) The badges can't (or shouldn't be able to) monitor the kids anywhere but on school property. There is nothing nefarious about a school wanting to know where the kids are in their building. When I worked in the dean's office of a school, I always thought that a lot of problems could be fixed if kids were REQUIRED to where an ID with their schedule on the back. You would be shocked to know how often students aren't where they are supposed to be and you have no idea who the student is (if they really are a student) and/or where they should be.

Il_Mostro · #4 02-10-2005, 11:02 AM

One of the main problems I have with it is that it's easy to get on the proverbial slippery slope. Well, we already use RFID to log attendence, so we can also use it to... and so on.
Also it is all to easy to start using it on other places once the tech. gets hold, and I would absolutely not like that. Where I am and what I do is my buisness, and my buisness alone.

Granted, I'm not american, but I see the same type of problems on the horizon here.

elwoodblues · #5 02-10-2005, 11:04 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Well, we already use RFID to log attendence, so we can also use it to...

[/ QUOTE ]

...to what? To know where the kid is at while on school property ---- why would anyone have a problem with that?

vulturesrow · #6 02-10-2005, 11:08 AM

Concur. I have a done a lot of reading on RFID technology, I find it fascinating. But in this case, on campus, I think it is absolutely a good thing.

Il_Mostro · #7 02-10-2005, 11:08 AM

I have lots of problems with that.

How long the student spend in the loo, how long the student spent just outside the principals office, how long the student spent here and there. I don't like it. Big brother is watching.

Utah · #8 02-10-2005, 11:37 AM

"One of the main problems I have with it is that it's easy to get on the proverbial slippery slope."

I understand the logic of this argument but I hate it. This argument is used for practically every touchy single issue and it always prevents common sense compromise and the solutions unfortunately end up on one of the extremes.

elwoodblues · #9 02-10-2005, 11:39 AM

I don't mind slippery slope arguments if they follow a logical slope. I just don't see where the parade of horribles comes from in this particular example. 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?

Il_Mostro · #10 02-10-2005, 11:41 AM

Yes I know. I just don't know how to express myself in another fashion [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

This specific case can be made fairly uncontroversial by not logging anything, not saving any information other than attendence at classes and such. But this inevitably opens up the door to other uses. And since it's very difficult to make sure it's used in a "safe", "good" way, I'd say, don't use it at all.