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

[Aristotle]

Assuming there are other schools in the area. Some parents can't afford to send their children to another school because the busses won't take them to said new school.

Agreed. Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to accept the additional responsability and costs associated with what you want. A parent who feels that strongly against the practices of a school, after exhausting all means at his or her disposal to make sure that what the school is doing is legal and can't otherwise be stopped, may have to assume those responsabilities and costs if the only other "option" available to them is another school that does not make use of the same practices.

The choice, "whether or not you like your options", is not in how the school runs (so long as it is being run legally and within the guidelines it has been given) but what school your child goes to.

 

[reveal]

Agreed. Sometimes, to get what you want, you have to accept the additional responsability and costs associated with what you want. A parent who feels that strongly against the practices of a school, after exhausting all means at his or her disposal to make sure that what the school is doing is legal and can't otherwise be stopped, may have to assume those responsabilities and costs if the only other "option" available to them is another school that does not make use of the same practices.

The choice, "whether or not you like your options", is not in how the school runs (so long as it is being run legally and within the guidelines it has been given) but what school your child goes to.

I wholeheartedly agree. Hopefully there are enough parents who will voice their opinion to the school, favorably or not, and hopefully the school will go with the wishes of the parents (majority rules).

If this were my son and the school decided to do this whether or not they went with the wishes of the parents, I would move my son to another school.

 

[Desdichado]

Work or be destitute. Big choice there, huh? Oh... or I could flip burgers for minimum wage. That's plenty of cash to take care of a home, vehicle, and dependants.

This entire discussion about the security at your job is a non sequiter that doesn't apply at all to the situation. I also absolutely refuse to believe that you had only one job option other than flipping burgers anyway. Even if you were adamant about staying in the local area.

 

[Aristotle]

This entire discussion about the security at your job is a non sequiter that doesn't apply at all to the situation. I also absolutely refuse to believe that you had only one job option other than flipping burgers anyway. Even if you were adamant about staying in the local area.

The discussion about the job was to equate badges at a place of work with badges at a place of education, rather than as homing beacons used to restrict a child's personal freedom. I continued to reply to the discussion of job options as it related to my argument (in my mind) about what a parents actual options were in the topic at hand. Beyond that, you are correct, my job has very little to do with the discussion. I won't respond further on the matter for that reason.

 

[Krieg]

Essentially the entire program is a free marketing tool for InCom, and was instituted by two employees of the school district who also happen to be the companies founders.

Can you say "conflict of interest"?

Strangely enough the teachers at my elementary school in the 70's were able to take attendence without the aid of technology. They were also quite capable of picking out someone who didn't belong on the school grounds without needing to look for a badge.

Perhaps the school should just hire competent teachers.

But what do you expect? It's California. I'd be willing to place a hefty wager that the school system has tried to put most of those kids on Ridlin in the past anyways.

Hopefully the residents of Yuba City will make sure that the current members of the school board are all unemployed after the next election.

 

[WayneLigon]

Essentially the entire program is a free marketing tool for InCom, and was instituted by two employees of the school district who also happen to be the companies founders.

Well, pretty much any support I'd have for the idea just got shot down. Of course, if I did have kids they'd probably all be implanted with something similar soon after birth. The idea of abductions alone would make it worth it. The basic idea doesn't bother me that much because (1) it probably stays broken more often than not, based on what RFID manufacturers trying to meet the Wal-Mart deadlines say (2) I'd see badge trading becoming the new school pasttime.

 

[LightPhoenix]

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.

This isn't going to do much to curtail truancy, if that is this purpose. It will make it much easier for them to detect it, but not much else.

How about the important lesson that you take responsibility for your actions? Sure, it's their right to skip if they want to. Now there's a direct consequence for that - you get caught, you get in trouble. Children are generally short-sighted... none of them are even thinking about how this would affect their future. All sorts of people who dropped out of school often wish later that they could go back and tell themselves not to. Cases where they get rich in spite of dropping out are the exception, not the rule.

What I've never understood as a punishment is being suspended. Chances are you didn't want to be in school anyway, and then they send you home? You should have to go to more school when you get in trouble, and not just some stupid punishment where you sit in a room doing nothing for an hour, or sit and do your homework on a saturday morning.

 

[shock the monkey]

While it's only somewhat related to the topic, I think the security and safety concerns are well-founded. All parents have imagined the nightmare scenario in which their child is kidnapped. If I could, I would have a tracking device surgically implanted in my daughter.

 

[WayneLigon]

This isn't going to do much to curtail truancy, if that is this purpose. It will make it much easier for them to detect it, but not much else.

Actually I would think it would increase it. It should take a kid all of two seconds to figure out 'Hey, I can stick this under a desk with some gum and go across the street to the arcade; if they look, they'll think I'm in class'.

 

[Krieg]

While it's only somewhat related to the topic, I think the security and safety concerns are well-founded.

And how exactly is this program going to prevent a kid from getting ganked?