Friday, July 19, 2013

Tracking Students

I've never been one to believe that minors have exactly the same rights as adults do, but this is Orwellian even if it is legal:
San Antonio School District Will Track Students With RFID

Some parents, though, are not happy:
Protesters say the RFID chips infringe on civil liberties, privacy rights and religious freedoms and children don't need to be "tracked."
Personally I don't see any violation of religious freedom here, and to argue such is patently silly.  Doesn't mean the RFID chips are OK, just that that's not a good argument against them.  The other arguments, though...
After a drawn-out battle waged in court and within the community, school officials with the Northside Independent School District have announced their decision to stop using a student tracking program that relied on RFID tracking badges containing tiny chips that produce a radio signal, enabling school officials to track students’ location on school property.
If we teach kids to accept to accept such surveillance, how can we expect them to think like free citizens as adults?  For that same reason I deplore so much of what is taught in schools....

5 comments:

  1. J appreciate the concern of the school district, since during school hours they are responsible for student safety wherever they are ... but this is an idiotic way to do it. If the students leave school grounds, they aren't in class, and that's what attendance is for.This seems like a very expensive way to tell the school something they already know, and is also easily fooled. As to Dallas removing bathroom stall doors ... horribly demeaning. But also something my kids complained about in ELEMENTARY school in San Juan. I guess it did make it harder for them to shoot up heroin in third grade, though ...

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  2. I wish our kids did have to wear ID's in school. At every meeting we're told to enforce rules in the classroom, the halls and public spaces. That's hard to do when you have no idea who the major players really are. And for PDA incidents it would eliminate a great many false names being given.

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  3. "Personally I don't see any violation of religious freedom here..."

    Well, there are some who see programs like this as fulfilling some of the prophesies from the Book of Revelations. As I understand it, they see it as being counted and marked with the Sign of the Beast.

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  4. "If we teach kids to accept to accept such surveillance, how can we expect them to think like free citizens as adults?"

    Who says they want free, thinking citizens? Sheep are so much easier to control -- and easier to fleece, as well.

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  5. I know the Revelations business is what they *say*, but that doesn't make it any less silly--and it's certainly not establishing a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

    On the contrary, one *could* make the argument that these actions are merely the fulfillment of prophesy, and *not* to go along with them would be injurious to the Christian religion :-)

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