Student Rights

Next year, students at Northside Independent School District in Texas will be required to wear ID cards that contain Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) chips so that officials can better track students while they are in school. “I think this is overstepping our bounds and is inappropriate,” Trustee M'Lissa Chumbley said. “I'm honestly uncomfortable about this.” Some parents also questioned whether or not the RFID chips would violate their child's privacy. What do you think? Should schools use RFID chips in order to keep track of students?

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Students-will-be-tracked-via-chips-in-IDs-3584339.php#ixzz1vsssNfl7


We talk about RFID in casino chips, but on students, I'm not so sure this is fair. What say you?

Sounds like another school district that cannot use common sense to run the place, just like the grade schools that suspend kids for pointing thir fingers and saying "BANG."

It sounds like a school district to me that has too much of our tax dollars as it is, and is looking to spend it to get more money in next year's budget.

Sounds like a complete waste of money to me. Technology smart kids will figure out ways to circumvent the system if they want to. And they'll tell 2 friends, and they'll tell 2 friends, etc. It's just like the little laptops they give out in some high schools... you can't get on facebook, you can't get on youtube, etc... except they can! And every time they're stopped they find a new work-around and the information is disseminated quickly to any kid that wants to know.

Off the top of my head I'd say the easiest way is to put the id card in one of the foil pouches that blocks the RFID chip from being read. Then you can move around the school at will and not be tracked.

And think of the fun they'll have swiping some dorky boys card and tossing it through the girls restroom window. Or when they start using them to debt a students lunch account. Hey, I snagged Billy's card, lunch is free for all of us!

The exploit possibilities go on and on, and at the same time it won't help track anyone that doesn't want to be tracked. Awesome.

Treating peoples’ children like cattle is not a very good way to win their trust.

Big Brother

it's in the workplace next, and there it will stick ... this will not

I'll be happy when I can retire and say "goodbye to all that"

Maybe this is more common than I thought, but when I went to my large insurance companies office, I was unable to use my cell phone in there! I just figured it was the problem with not having enough 'bars', but was told by an employee that the company 'scrambles or blocks' all cell phone transmissions. So that way ALL phone calls made from the office can be monitored. Employees have to walk outside, a decent distance from the building, to make personal calls on their breaks.

Quote: odiousgambit

Big Brother

it's in the workplace next, and there it will stick ... this will not

I'll be happy when I can retire and say "goodbye to all that"

But by then it will be the unmanned drones.

You are so right. How much longer till the highways are patrolled by predators with radar? Add a camera and there is no end to the money California will make!

Quote: DeMango

You are so right. How much longer till the highways are patrolled by predators with radar? Add a camera and there is no end to the money California will make!

I think the point is that the U.S., which purports to be "the land of the free," keeps erasing freedom bit by bit under the guise of "safety," and the majority of the public/voters/taxpayers are swallowing the bait whole.

Quote: JB

I think the point is that the U.S., which purports to be "the land of the free," keeps erasing freedom bit by bit under the guise of "safety," and the majority of the public/voters/taxpayers are swallowing the bait whole.

Very correct, tell people it is about safety/security and a pluarality will say, "but it's for the children!" or whatever and there goes another freedom. Which founder said something about those who trade freedom for security will have neither?

Quote: AZDuffman

Very correct, tell people it is about safety/security and a pluarality will say, "but it's for the chuldren!" or whatever and there goes another freedom. Which founder said something about those who trade freedom for security will have neither?

You sound like a slashdot reader and/or contributor. I'm just an occasional reader of it, but this subject is a popular one there.

A common expression used on /. to describe this kind of thing is "security theater" — what a great term for what it really is.

It won't work and it will cost a lot of money. Hey, but that kind of describes the TSA, too.

We keep trying ideas to maintain security but we are missing the point...it isn't machine-generated intelligence that makes things safer; it is human intelligence. Principals being out and about the campus and not off attending seminars, teachers should be teaching, and students should be learning. Get everyone out of offices and out in the halls learning what is going on in the school. Adding police officers to campus means stuff that belongs in school head off to court rooms and adding this kind of system means someone has to monitor it.

The more freedoms we give up the more the government will take. People need to realize this and started voting for people who won't take away freedoms instead of the person who will GIVE them the most. This isn't a nation of handouts...or at least it wasn't created to be.

Quote: RonC

The more freedoms we give up the more the government will take. People need to realize this and started voting for people who won't take away freedoms instead of the person who will GIVE them the most. This isn't a nation of handouts...or at least it wasn't created to be.

I hate to spoil the soapbox, but it seems reasonable to me. In cases of fire, criminal investigations, emergency location, etc. this system could be invaluable. By the same token the teachers should be agree to using the RFID device both in terms of solidarity, and because most of the same scenarios involving students involve teachers as well. If a teacher is accused of rape, it would help to know if he was alone with the kid for 60 minutes on a repeated basis. A fire evacuation would be concerned with teachers as well as students.

Quote: pacomartin

it seems reasonable to me.

Would you agree to having the devices implanted under the skin? If they do not go to this step, it won't work.

Quote: pacomartin

I hate to spoil the soapbox, but it seems reasonable to me. In cases of fire, criminal investigations, emergency location, etc. this system could be invaluable. By the same token the teachers should be agree to using the RFID device both in terms of solidarity, and because most of the same scenarios involving students involve teachers as well. If a teacher is accused of rape, it would help to know if he was alone with the kid for 60 minutes on a repeated basis. A fire evacuation would be concerned with teachers as well as students.

My bet is that teachers will not support it. Many schools already have camera surveillance systems that deter some problems and held find the cause of others, but teachers will not support having them in the classroom. If they have a good system now that sees all of the public areas (not bathrooms but entrances to such spaces), they could do what you are saying without attaching a tag to each person. The teachers stop that from happening because they want the sanctity of the classroom.

The reasonable answer is really to get all of the administrators in the schools and developing a sense of what is going on under their watch. Use current technology (since many have already bought the camera systems) and human intelligence to find problem areas. Don't turn schools into prisons. There are too many people collecting education dollars and not educating.

Quote: pacomartin

I hate to spoil the soapbox, but it seems reasonable to me. In cases of fire, criminal investigations, emergency location, etc. this system could be invaluable. By the same token the teachers should be agree to using the RFID device both in terms of solidarity, and because most of the same scenarios involving students involve teachers as well. If a teacher is accused of rape, it would help to know if he was alone with the kid for 60 minutes on a repeated basis. A fire evacuation would be concerned with teachers as well as students.

This is how fascism starts. "It's a safety issue!" Then what is next? Somehow we managed without this in schools for 200+ years. As another poster pointed out, what is next, having to wear them at work? Freedom is not lost in one swoop but rather an ounce at a time.