Learning the Hard Way

Some of the H&B readers and lurkers may be familiar with RFID, AKA Radio Frequency Identification. Basically, it’s the use of a microchip to detect your presence. Ranchers use this for cattle.

And now schools use them for students.

[T]he Northside Independent School District will be issuing RFID-equipped identification cards that the kids have to wear on lanyards any time they’re on campus. And then, in some corner of the principal’s office, the students show up as moving dots on a map of the screen like some real life game of Pac Man.

When NISD first proposed this, they defended it by masking it with concern for truant children. But the reality is, it is a way to keep taking money from the state. You see, school budgets are intertwined with attendance, and if kids are not in his or her seat when roll is called, that means the school doesn’t get money for having a kid in that seat.

Now, y’all may think that parents are ok with this because the schools are using it, right? Noooooooope. Parents were told, not even asked that this programs was to be implemented. Now, that was their first mistake. Their second mistake was implementing it at a magnet school. One very intelligent young woman stood up for her rights and refused to wear the lanyard with the tracking chip, and for that, she was expelled. She in turn took the case to court, and a judge will be ruling on her temporary injunction next week. And as it happens, someone decided to wreak a little havoc to bring attention to this rather obvious infringement on privacy.

Personally, I am not a fan of the entity known as Anonymous. In their quest for equilateral anarchy, they tend to leave a mess in their wake. But they are an equal opportunity pest, and sometimes they do hit a nail in a coffin pretty well. This Anon person makes a valid point: ASK THE PARENTS FIRST!!! They are the ones paying the taxes for the school system. Further, I have an issue with their whole “first period attendance” thing. According to my source, attendance is taken in the second period, because students do run late, have mishaps on the road, or buses can be late getting in. By second period, everyone who is at school is there anyway. Any student that has a doctor’s appointment, for example, is counted present when he or she check into the attendance office, so that excuse is weak at best.

The whole program reeks of control. Anyone who claims that this is for the safety of the children is either deluded, or in collusion. Just think what would happen if a pedophile hacked into the database. What’s next? Spying on students’ webcams?

Oh, wait…. that already happened.