School in California decides to make elementary school students wear RFIDs *Updated*

[Alzrius]

More seriously though, the big thing for me is that this marks a shift in how these school officials want to govern.

If they want to alter the school environment, that's more within their purview. I don't like the idea of metal detectors or cameras in schools, and wouldn't send any children I had to such a school, but at least there the people in charge are just making alterations to the building.

This is them making alterations to the people who have no choice but to attend. Being told you must wear something upon your person for the purposes of having your movements tracked is indeed a violation of one's right to privacy, which is, IMO, one of the most important and fundamental rights. I'd never have any child of mine attend a school like this, especially in light of how the school is very quietly making a profit off of this.

As a last note, anyone who says that kids don't know what's best for themselves has, IMO, forgotten what it's like to be a child. Think back to when you were 14 and in the eighth grade; if someone told you then that you weren't old enough to decide what was best for yourself, what would your reaction have been?

 

[Piratecat]

I believe as long as people keep this free of politics and personal attacks, the mods will probably keep an eye on it but let it go as long as they can.

Yes indeedy. Be kind to one another.

 

[LightPhoenix]

This idea is going just a weeee bit too far. Schools are secure enough as it is. The only violence perpetrated inside of schools is by students against teachers and other students. Knowing exactly where they are isn't going to do JACK in terms of keeping them safe.

I agree with the three out of four sentences.

Unfortunately, I can not agree with the second. I really don't think schools are safe at all. Honestly, I think it's a bit of a modern miracle that there aren't more incidents involves students getting violent and hurting people.

I know this says nothing about the security of any schools but the ones I went to (and some others in Syracuse), but one year a news crew decided to see just how many schools they could walk through without being stopped, and how long they could be in there for. Elementary schools were somewhat okay, but I distinctly remember them being able to walk freely around almost every high school without being stopped for quite a while. The exception was the city schools, which have checkpoints and metal detectors.

As a last note, anyone who says that kids don't know what's best for themselves has, IMO, forgotten what it's like to be a child. Think back to when you were 14 and in the eighth grade; if someone told you then that you weren't old enough to decide what was best for yourself, what would your reaction have been?

I would have given them the finger. And I don't mean the pinky.

I remember exactly what I was like when I was fourteen. Oh, fourteen years olds always know what's best for themselves. The problem is that at that age most of them (myself included, so many years ago) only realize short-term immediate consequences/goals. They don't think about the long-term, and they don't think about the complex consequences of their actions. Which is why some other people may be more qualified to decide what's best for them.

Of course, I don't particularly think this is it. In fact, I think it's a prime example of why some people aren't qualified. The worst mistake an adult can make when dealing with a kid is to underestimate them in any way.

 

[Humanophile]

As a last note, anyone who says that kids don't know what's best for themselves has, IMO, forgotten what it's like to be a child. Think back to when you were 14 and in the eighth grade; if someone told you then that you weren't old enough to decide what was best for yourself, what would your reaction have been?

Children are young and foolish. But at the same time, they're not utterly stupid. Trying to crack down on them harder and harder just turns into an intellectual arms race, one that the children have a habit of coming out ahead in. My rule of thumb is to treat them with respect in the hopes that it makes imparting my hard-won wisdom easier. (It's never easy, mind you, but there are degrees of difficulty.)

The thing that I wonder is the people who would gladly have their twelve year old undergo this. What they butt up against is the upswell if ill will that provides - and that's bound to come to a head the day the child turns eighteen and is no longer legally obligated to put up with their crap. You want to watch foolish antics, watch a teenager who feels they've been given an escape from their humdrum tedium.

 

[reveal]

It seems the company who makes these decided to pull out of the agreement.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050217-4622.html

California school drops student RFID badges

For a technology on the cusp of widespread adoption and touted as the solution to a plethora of problems, RFID really gets people up in arms. Last week, we reported on a California public school's intent to have elementary school students wear RFID badges at all times. Brittan Elementary School officials in Sutter, California have been forced to drop the program when the company supplying the technology terminated its agreement with the school.

Aside from keeping track of wayward students, the uses of RFID are numerous. One of the more creative uses involves fixed RFID chips and mobile transmitters that can receive data about museum exhibits or other information for visually-impaired individuals. Commercially, RFID is hyped as a surefire way to stay on top of inventory and prevent loss due to theft. Wal-Mart is at the forefront of RFID adoption, mandating that all its suppliers use the technology with their products by 2006. The US State Department has plans for RFID-equipped passports, while the FDA has approved implanting the tiny transmitters in humans.

You don't need to be a member of the tinfoil hat brigade to see the privacy issues here. With an RFID-equipped passport, anyone who is able to get close enough to you with a reader will be able to access all of the information stored in your passport's RFID chip. The same concern holds true for the implanted VeriChip, which would make your medical information readable in much the same way. Whether the chip is transmitting only a unique identifier that links you into a larger database (and we all know how secure databases full of personal information maintained by third parties are), or more detailed data, you have less control over how and when that data is accessed.

It's not just civil libertarians that are up in arms over RFID. Some Christians (and I'm guessing they are mostly dispensational and historical premilennialists) see the mark of the beast in the VeriChip medical tag. You can debate whether or not RFID is a tool of Satan. What is certain is that as it gets more popular, concerns about privacy and potential misuse will grow as well.

 

[EricNoah]

Interesting development.

As the son of a minister, I have heard many, many sermons from many, many slightly different stripes of Christian. I do recall one sermon where the guy was very concerned about barcodes. VERY concerned. And not just barcodes tattooed on people -- barcodes in general.

 

[Arnwyn]

You know, this just all seems so stupid. In seventh grade I think most people are smart enough to just take off the bloody tag before they leave. Or give it to a friend in their classes or something. Really.

Yeah, but we all know that this type of technology includes the "blow up your head" failsafe if you take it off.

Hello!

 

[Krieg]

I do recall one sermon where the guy was very concerned about barcodes. VERY concerned. And not just barcodes tattooed on people -- barcodes in general.

Umm what exactly bothered him about barcodes in general? Not sure I see a connection between the number of the beast and being able to scan my milk though the checkout using a laser.

 

[Raloc]

Yeah, but we all know that this type of technology includes the "blow up your head" failsafe if you take it off.

Hello!

And each student is assigned a partner, and all students are given a random weapon. Only one pair can win.

 

[d20fool]

Your Damn Skippy!

I just don't see how it instantly becomes "tagged like an animal" (other than to give it a more negative image so that folks on the fence will also see it as a bad thing). It's a badge that is worn during school hours, not an implant or clip that is painfully and permanently applied to your child.

Many adults wear badges in their place of work. Those badges serve a variety of purposes (mostly to protect the employer's interests, but also to protect some of the employees' as well). Would you not take a job that required that you wear a badge? Even if jobs (particularly those without badge requirements) were difficult to come by? I don't think I've had a full-time job in the past decade that didn't have some sort of badge that I was required to display, and in the past 5 years they've all been 'smart' badges.

These badges for school kids sound like a hassle, but they aren't mind control. They are a method of tracking children in an environment where the children outnumber the adults 20 (or much more) to 1 and the adults are held responsible for the safety of those children ... in a world where abductions happen on school grounds every day and in a country that has been plagued in recent years with violence in schools; I say whatever non-intrusive means at their disposal should be used to keep our children safe. Just so long as it doesn't cause my child any harm or interfere with his/her primary reason for being there; to be educated.

Thank you! I am a teacher at a school that uses ID badges, but not ones this advanced. We do have bar codes on them for lunch and library checkout, and that is their primary use.

Having said that, this in not Animal Farm people. This is an elementary school, these kids are not "tagged like animals". That is just ridiculous. I would welcome technology that would help us locate students quickly. We have to worry about any number of problems dealing with children, such as children that habitually run away (We had one that stole a bike and took off), get on the wrong bus (one young man lied to a driver and got on the wrong bus, his mother blamed the district, not him), hide out in classrooms and bathrooms after hours (one girl hid in a classroom so she could eat a bag of candy she stole from a teacher), and so on. We need to know where these little guys are. They would be very welcome at the high school, where student might just get up in the middle of a class and leave or go that whats-his-name's across the street for a smoke (or worse.) There are innocent times too, like the kid that goes to his speech therapist without telling his substitute teacher (who doesn't know he usually goes at that time) and they need to find him. We've had that happen too.

Finally, there is the fear of abduction. EVERY YEAR I am warned about non-custodial parents that might show up to take a child. Thanks to our IDs, I can spot an adult that hasn't gone to the office right away, direct him where to go and call the office immediately to let them know we have someone in the building. Three years ago we had a bomb threat that evacuated our building all day, and we take security seriously.

You child does not have any rights violated by wearing such a badge. Further, the benefit is great and adds to your child's security. Let's stop with the knee-jerk overreactions to what is frankly a good thing.

John "d20fool" McCarty