http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-school-id-hernandez-033/ mixed feelings......... I've already thought about putting a geo-tracker on my kids' belts or something.
I have mixed feelings about it as well. I'm not a fan of RFID badges, yet I wear one for my work. What happened to taking attendance at the beginning of each class? I just don't see how have the RFID badges will reduce truancy rates. Unless the plan is for those kids skipping school to give their badge to someone staying in class and then the badge can be scanned, making is seem like the kid(s) are in class? Not true, the RFID tags do not "broadcast" without the reader activating them. It's not like the kids are wearing GPS monitoring devices that track their location at all times. Now this is totally UNACCEPTABLE! No way that information should be provided to anyone!!
Google the mayor of San Antonio.The students already carry IDs and taking the roll at the beginning of class would take little time and serve the same purpose as these RFIDs IF it was about truancy. IMO it has nothing to do with attendance.Just another way to indoctrinate from an early age. These trackers can be activated at any hour not just school hours and the student is threatened with punishment,transfer,even expulsion for refusal to wear the device rather than the ID they already have.What this WILL do is give every perv with the 75 bucks for a reciever a way to track these kids.Looking back on my own high school years I see these kids coming up with many dozens of ways to screw with the system and I say GO FOR IT! They can't and won't send 50% of the school to FEMA camps,at least not yet.(WOLVERINES!?) or even flunk their fuzzy butts. It might just wake up even more of our young people to the direction our "leaders"are taking us as it has the young lady in the news report. Yes having raised two sons and letting them live even through their teen years I'm the first to admit,even advocate, spying on them.Driving around sometimes making sure they were where they said they would be. Checking with other parents of their friends to see if anything was amiss. Taking the chair that they left outside the unlocked window to their room back inside.Talking to them trying to help them make good decisions.That is a parents job. NOT the school system's.
I am so glad my youngest will be out of school in 4 yrs. There is no way I would allow my kids to be tracked by a school district. Guess they would have to try and punish my wife and I. I am with ghrit that this matter is the parents duty not the guberments. Our school district has an automated calling system that informs you, if your kid was not in attendance that day and which periods they missed.
wait until they have to use their thumb as ID when they get on the school bus, walk into class, get a hot lunch, go to a school function. 'Watches' that determine if the kids are sendentary after school school laptops that spy on them Who wouldn't want someone else to watch their kids ?? Yep, send that stuff home, I'll take care of it. Might even send it back with a cold or something. DOWNLOAD THIS MF'rs.
Question #1. Can we get a receiver that reads the data on RFID? Question #2. Can we get a machine that duplicates RFID signals? Question #3. Can we make fake RFID cards?
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/c/usb-serial-rfid-readers-tags-kits.aspx I would think the way to combat it is to use their own devices against them.
sshhhhhhhh, they might be listening. we don't want them to know that their technology isn't fool proof.
1. the school does not, nor will they ever have my permission to track my children. Never ever will I allow that. I am sure my school district will try to start this soon. 2. I don't think we would need need to track our children as parents. I believe that good solid parenting would eliminate the need for parents to spy on their kids. 3. If society would put down their phones, gadgets etc.. and start paying attention to each other, I feel that society would become a bit safer.
The answer to all three is: Yes Yes And Yes..... Unless they encrypt the interrogator pulse, and encrypt the associated response....
Most kids have cellphones these days, I think since age 8 or so, my nieces and nephews have had them. Can just track them with an app, viola. Oh, we're talking about NOT tracking. Got it.
As I work in the Florida Department of Education here, that bit about the use of the FOI act is scary and totally wrong in my eyes - we handle 'personally identifiable data' everyday, and much of our work involves "Exceptional Students" wherein letting certain data go public not only endangers the student and can adversely affect their getting scholarships and in other ways, it also can open us in the FLDOE up to lawsuits from the parents. Parents need to send the school districts and their municipal governments a resounding "" to the idea of tracking students and making their names and locations public, even if unintentional. I carry a 'fob' at work that sends to a computer system each time I enter or exit certain doors, including the main entry doors of the building - we employees accept this as a part of our job. But students should not be subjected to being tracked.
More parents need to read a short story "The Ransom of Red Chief".......and quit worrying so much about the boogymen snatching their yard apes.
Update...... Duh... I wonder who paid for this boondoggle............. Texas school strikes devil's bargain, drops RFID student tracking CCTV replaces 'Mark of Satan' By Iain Thomson, 22nd July 2013 The Texas school that expelled a student for refusing to comply with its plan to track pupils with RFID tags has dropped the scheme, saying it just doesn't work. In November, Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, Texas, began a trial of RFID tracking for students in an attempt to cut down on truancy. The district gets extra funding if students don't skip out after the register is taken, so NISD spent $500,000 on its "Student Locator Project". The school issued students with a lanyard containing the RFID system, and insisted that they be used to get full access to the cafeteria, library, and even some restrooms. One student, Andrea Hernandez, gained national prominence when she was suspended for refusing to wear the lanyard on privacy grounds and because it conflicted with her religious beliefs. "I feel it's the implementation of the Mark of the Beast. It's also an invasion of my privacy and my other rights," she said at the time. The courts didn't buy that argument, and Ms. Hernandez was kicked out in January and moved to another school. The NISD suffered the apparent attentions of Anonymous over the case as well. Now the scheme has been dropped, but NISD spokesman Pascual Gonzalez toldSlate the publicity had nothing to do with the school's decision, and that the system was dropped because it simply didn't work. Gonzalez said that the pilot system hadn't appreciably cut truancy rates, and had in some cases been more trouble than it was worth. Teachers spent too much time trying to physically track down students marked as missing by the RFID system, so instead students would be put under enhanced camera surveillance, he explained. "We're very confident we can still maintain a safe and secure school because of the 200 cameras that are installed at John Jay High School and the 100 that are installed at Jones Middle School," he said. "Plus we are upgrading those surveillance systems to high-definition and more sophisticated cameras. So there will be a surveillance-camera umbrella around both schools." You might think that from a privacy perspective this is a bit of an own goal, but that didn't stop the Rutherford Institute, which represented Ms. Hernandez in her legal fight with the school, from claiming a victory. "This decision by Texas school officials to end the student locator program is proof that change is possible if Americans care enough to take a stand and make their discontent heard," said its attorney, John Whitehead. "As Andrea Hernandez and her family showed, the best way to ensure that your government officials hear you is by never giving up, never backing down, and never remaining silent – even when things seem hopeless." There's no word on what the new camera upgrades will cost, nor if the school will have to hire extra staff to monitor their output, or if hoodies will have to be banned to ensure the CCTV gets a good headshot. The NISD is also hiring more police officersto patrol the halls. But El Reg suggests that the truancy issue could be remedied by ignoring the technical fix and going down a more old-fashioned route. The school could spend the money getting class sizes down to a reasonable size where the teacher actually has a chance of spotting if someone is playing truant. It's old-fashioned, but it might just work.
Just one more reason to opt out of the public school system. I may not be able to keep their hands out of my pockets, but I can keep their hands, and their eyes, off of my child.
