Judge stops school from expelling girl who refused to wear tracking device

[jettakd]

A Texas high school student will be allowed to continue going to class for now despite her refusal to cooperate with a program that forces pupils to be mandatorily tracked with computer chips.

Andrea Hernandez was told she’d be expelled from John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio starting next week if she insists any

Comments

[fenris_lorsrai]

Generally unless its set to actively broadcast (EXPENSIVE) RFID are only read when you point a detector at them or you pass close enough to a detector. so it's similar to using the ping from cell phone tower to locate someone. it gives you a very vague idea where the RFID chip is. You really need two to get more precise location than "within this circle". (three being even better)

Bare minimum for this to make any sense if they've got them set up at the doors to pick up when people enter or leave the building. Similar to a swipe system like you'd have at universities, its just harder to circumvent. With a swipe system, you can get people holding the door for others and you miss recording that the person entered... or left. Most swipe systems aren't set up to require a swipe to LEAVE, for safety reasons. If a fire occurs, you don't want people fumbling with the swipe system to open the door... or have it totally fail due to lack of power.

So RFID chips would let them know if and when the student arrived and left. If they upgrade and add more detectors so they can determine if people went to class, that adds a lot more cost... and is a lot more invasive. If all it does in monitor in and out, then it's basically automated attendance with the ability to determine when folks snuck out.

securitywise, it does also have some advantages in is something goes WRONG, they can compare in and out logs and give first responders more precise info. If they have 50 in, and 49 out and it even TELLS them who's missing, it makes first responders life a lot easier.

If it's JUST in and out, that's probably a reasonable security procedure. if it's set so they know when people enter and leave classrooms... gets a little dicier. If its set up with a total grid so they know where everyone is on campus at all times and who they're standing next to... YEAH, NO.



this... YEAH, NO.

If it's set up so its just Elvis has entered the building, Elvis has left the building, that's totally different.

[makemerun]

THANK YOU

I stopped reading at "...she told World Net Daily"

[kaelstra]

I agree, but at the same time, I can see where this becomes a slippery slope and if people allow RFID for one thing, it becomes much more difficult to protest it for another thing, or even become aware of it if they change the use/purpose of it. Once it's in place, it's easier to abuse it for more horrible privacy invasions.

(Also lol at that gif. What's weirder to me isn't the alleged couple kissing in the corner, but the person who was apparently invisible who was watching them do it)

[timepassedyouby]

Ooh, yeah, I like it if it's what you're suggesting. Anything else... um.

[naketano]

Yeah. I don't think RFID chipped ID cards are that crazy. I think it's a good way to deal with truancy. It's not like its reading where you are outside the building, miles away.

The best thing you would have to do is put portals at every room. So if a kid is supposed to be in classroom X at a certain time but they are showing up in the lunch room or not in the building at all, you can catch truants. maybe not in he act of cutting class, but you could definitely notify the parents after the fact.

I work with RFID technology in retail and it's not that crazy, big brother shit people make it out to be. It's not going to know if you're in the Starbucks a mile away. It ain't that sophisticated.

[fenris_lorsrai]

Someone posted link to website for teh school above and while they don't explicitly state how they set up the system, it does seem to indicate they can tell whether you're in class or not. They seem to be using it to deal with kids arriving on campus, then not actually making it to class.

[mamasboo]

I think the idea that's scary is that it can lead to other things, more detailed tracking etc. "Hey if this works well, let's make it even BETTER!" That kind of thing. Like restricting abortions. Once you restrict for one thing, you aren't sure where it will end. I think that is what fuels a lot of women's rights campaigns -- not what one little thing might do but the weight it carries into future decisions.

[lolahead]

In my opinion public school budgets are strapped enough and with republicans continually finding ways to cut them as it is, I highly doubt the expense of the level of technology required to be full on Big Brother would make it through a school board budget meeting... Just my opinion, but yeah, upon first reading the story I was thinking of those micro chips you put in your pets just in case they run away... Maybe we'll be chipping our children next!

[tabaqui]

Maybe we'll be chipping our children next!

Some people have. Fairly freaky.

[ms_maree]

Maybe we'll be chipping our children next!

It happens quite a bit in Mexico, as a way to protect and track their children if they are kidnapped. I can see it becoming more popular as time goes on elsewhere, mostly because parents will want to protect their children and that will drive demand.

[naketano]

I see what your saying but a system that sophisticated is ridiculously expensive. the system in my store is more sophisticated than the one in this school, and it cost the company $5 million to install, and a couple hundred thousand to maintain each year. But it isn't even at the level that you can pinpoint exactly where an item in a room is. Just what room it's in.

For the level that you're talking about, like the above mentioned full on grid system, I'd guess it would cost almost double that. And the store I work in like half the size of a high school. I don't see public schools investing 10,000,000,000 per school for that.

RFID chips are in your credit cards and debit cards you carry around with you all the time and no one is freaking out about that. Also metro systems like in London have RFID chipped passes. (and I think NYC in the future Will have it) and I believe even new passports have them. and also RFID software is not universal so if a kid with an RFID chipped ID walked into my store, it would recognize the frequency but it would be like an unknown tag, not like I could get all his personal info on the computer and know exactly where he is at all times.

[synthesizia]

RFID chips are in your credit cards and debit cards you carry around with you all the time and no one is freaking out about that.

I didn't know that. Kinda scary in a way. But at the same time, that's too many people to monitor to get very decent info on.

[layweed]

STOP WITH THE LOGIC!?!

[maladaptive]

Yeah. They keep saying "tracking device" so the first time I read this I thought it was some sort of GPS ankle thing. Then I found out it's a swipe badge.

Like, I believe students need more privacy rights than we give them, but pretty sure this is just a swipe in/swipe out for the school, since schools make money for the students that attend/actually show up-- shitty system in and of itself, but I think that's what these badge systems are for.

[eveofrevolution]

[bleakwinters]

They're having sex, aren't they? :o