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

[billd91]

Right to Free Speech does exist in schools. A Muslim girl in, I think, Virginia had to sue for her right to wear her headwear after the school said she couldn't because they considered it "gang related." So, while a less-than-stellar example, it does indicate that there is such a thing as Free Speech to be had in schools.

The Right to Bear Arms is not available; you are correct.

A locker search is something that, as I've stated before, is thought to be in the best interest of children but is not in all cases. AFAIK, they do searches when there is reasonable cause. Just as if the police had reasonable cause to search your home they could, given they followed the proper procedures.

The right to bear arms doesn't apply to adults in the school either. It's not a question of children having fewer rights than adults. They fundamentally don't with respect to the federal and state government except for those specifically ennumerated in the law (like voting rights). But there are other considerations that come into play. Nobody has the right to carry weapons into schools other than appropriate authorities because of the practical considerations of security and violence, not because kids have fewer rights.
Whether freedom of speech applies is a little iffy. Principals and school papers lock horns on this from time to time and the courts have been reluctant to press the 1st amendment all the way down to the local government level (of which schools are generally a part).

 

[Jdvn1]

Minors may not have as many rights as adults but they do have rights. They have every basic right guaranteed by the US Constitution, provided they are an American citizen. Nowhere does it say "Applies to Adults Only."

What do you think age limits are for? Why do you think the term 'minor' exists?

I didn't say they don't have rights, I said they don't have many. Minors don't have a voice in politics, for example. They're grossly under represented. They don't have the right to vote. In a democratic government, that qualifies as a basic right. Granted the US is a republic, but the same is true.

 

[Aristotle]

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.

 

[Hellefire]

Why don't they just skip a couple steps and implant the chip into their bodies? And throw in a couple cameras while they're at it? I'm sorry, I can't properly respond to this without getting much more political than that. So I'll just say I disagree, and would move or face jail before I would tag my child.

Aaron Blair
Foren Star

 

[Jdvn1]

To my knowledge, most of the badges people wear to work don't have computer chips in them that keep track of where you are at all times.

 

[Crothian]

Why don't they just skip a couple steps and implant the chip into their bodies? And throw in a couple cameras while they're at it? I'm sorry, I can't properly respond to this without getting much more political than that. So I'll just say I disagree, and would move or face jail before I would tag my child.
r

many schools already have security cameras.

 

[Jdvn1]

And metal detectors.

 

[Crothian]

okay, so the badges show if the kids are in class or not. it doesn't seem that they have a map of the the campus and can tell where all the kids are at all times, just if they are in class. I'm still not seeing the bad. It seems to me that people are just assuming that this is leading to mass mind control or something.

 

[Aristotle]

To my knowledge, most of the badges people wear to work don't have computer chips in them that keep track of where you are at all times.

They don't need a proper lojack. If you have to use your badge to open doors or operate elevators you are being tracked by the system that controls all of that (timestamped entries in a logfile showing what doors or terminals you've accessed).

And some do have the ability to actually track your location. Mine does. Then again I can count 5 ceiling-mounted cameras from my desk.

For what it's worth: I'm not in favor of 'big brother' monitoring every step of the members of our society, but I think that technology can be used to better us without sliding down any slippery slopes. A badge that sounds an alarm somewhere when my child is taken off of school grounds against his or her will is protection that makes me feel my child is safer... A location device that can show police where my child is hiding when a gunman is on the loose in the facility might save my child.

 

[Jdvn1]

Maybe I'd just be causing trouble as a parent.

Teacher: "What's wrong with your chip? It's not working."
Child: "My dad puts all of my school supplies over a high powered magnet."