Texas school district, community at odds over student tracking badges

Donjeta

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Published On: Oct 11 2012 07:28:47 AM EDT

A student locator project at a San Antonio high school could be extended to as many as 112 schools.

The “Student Locator Project” tracks students whereabouts using embedded radio-frequency chips on student ID badges.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/commu...es/-/2318820/16943610/-/11quk9mz/-/index.html

This is supposed to improve safety, reduce truancy and track the number of students.

In my day they usually tracked the number of students by looking around the classroom and seeing who all was there but that is so outdated now, isn't it?

(My inner juvenile delinquent instantly latched upon a couple of scenarios in which truancy would become easier if the school starts to rely too much on seeing an ID badge registered in the computer instead of seeing an actual child attached to it.)
 
Why is this even controversial? (I'm not saying it's foolproof, Donjeta, but you and I both knew how to skip out of school "back in the day".)
 
They ciuld get a friend to carry the badge to classes or lose their badge if theh want to skip, unless the school is going even more tech by installing baddge swiping devices in each class. I don't blame some for being upset about tracking devices. It 's most likely about money and loss of funding due to truants.
 
Lol, at figuring out ways to trip the system. Children today have more computer knowledge than most of us do. I would have just left it in the bathroom, not the best idea though.

The problem I have with any tracking devices is that it makes the child (or even yourself) a sitting duck to a computer savvy predator. A lot of these predators learn their computer skills in jail and can hack anything. This is the point no one is looking at. If I were a parent there, I would not have my child wearing a tracking device. We would have to find another school.

You can simply call attendance at the beginning of each class. It is up to your staff to be accurate, forget the $$$.
 
OK...I'm going to show my ignorance here (isn't it refreshing to admit that right up front??)...why would someone have an issue with this? Unless you felt that it put some harmful radioactive waves into your child, or you were concerned that your school employed pedophiles who could use it to their advantage?

I saw a snippet of a father on TV saying that it violated his child's religious freedom. That was all the news played, so I have no idea what he's talking about.

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this for me.
 
OK...I'm going to show my ignorance here (isn't it refreshing to admit that right up front??)...why would someone have an issue with this? Unless you felt that it put some harmful radioactive waves into your child, or you were concerned that your school employed pedophiles who could use it to their advantage?

I saw a snippet of a father on TV saying that it violated his child's religious freedom. That was all the news played, so I have no idea what he's talking about.

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light on this for me.

I'd have a huge problem with it. It's a blatant invasion of privacy.

Based on what I've read, yes schools do employ pedophiles.

IMO it's like using the argument if you have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong what's the big deal if the police search your house without a warrant.

The government can't keep track of the pedophiles they keep putting back on the street, yet want to track our children for money?

It's wrong, wrong, wrong...

I don't know if this is true or not...but I've read in the news articles that for 30 dollars anyone can file a Freedom Of Information Act request and receive the name of every child and their address in the school district.
 
I'd have a huge problem with it. It's a blatant invasion of privacy.

Based on what I've read, yes schools do employ pedophiles.

IMO it's like using the argument if you have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong what's the big deal if the police search your house without a warrant.

The government can't keep track of the pedophiles they keep putting back on the street, yet want to track our children for money?

It's wrong, wrong, wrong...

I don't know if this is true or not...but I've read in the news articles that for 30 dollars anyone can file a Freedom Of Information Act request and receive the name of every child and their address in the school district.

Here is one of many news articles stating for 30 bucks anyone can get any child's name and address in the district.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october122012/student-microchips.php
 
I'd have a huge problem with it. It's a blatant invasion of privacy.

Based on what I've read, yes schools do employ pedophiles.

IMO it's like using the argument if you have nothing to hide and have done nothing wrong what's the big deal if the police search your house without a warrant.

The government can't keep track of the pedophiles they keep putting back on the street, yet want to track our children for money?

It's wrong, wrong, wrong...

I don't know if this is true or not...but I've read in the news articles that for 30 dollars anyone can file a Freedom Of Information Act request and receive the name of every child and their address in the school district.

(above, bbm)
See, that wouldn't bother me, because I am of that mindset that, "hey, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry?" I know, I know...I am too gullible.
 
(above, bbm)
See, that wouldn't bother me, because I am of that mindset that, "hey, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry?" I know, I know...I am too gullible.

I would think the 1st, 5th and 14th would also be infringed on.
 
I see you as a very savvy person; something I am not. I am not trying to be argumentative or put you on the defensive -- I just really couldn't fathom why this would be an issue for anyone, and you have helped me to see a different side of things. Thank you! :seeya:

Not savvy at all, but thank you :)
 
Here's a silly question.

How much are the tracking i.d.'s and the tracking program costing the school versus how much the school has to gain if attendance is high?
 
I've no idea what it costs but I don't see it improving attendance figures very much unless the badges give the students an electric shock every time they exit the school area during school hours or something.

My reasoning is, if the attendance figures are currently low, it means that they have been able to notice the students playing truant even without complex tracking systems and it made no difference to the students who didn't want to attend. Switching to electronic detection will probably continue to make no difference to the students who don't want to attend.

If they do have a problem with the non-electronic detection of truant students (=can't count heads) the tracking system may come in handy but it would tend to increase the number of truants detected and make the attendance records look worse, not better (albeit more truthful).

What are the positive and negative consequences of attending/not attending school that the students experience? Will that change somehow when they adopt the electronic system?
 
(above, bbm)
See, that wouldn't bother me, because I am of that mindset that, "hey, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry?" I know, I know...I am too gullible.

If you,ve got nothing to hide, why should they track you? It all sounds very Big Brother to me, and could be the "slippery slope" to Orwell's 1984. Also, what prevents a friend, who is in class, from carrying your monitor? I don't think they have the authority to make anyone wear it, at least I hope not. It could be they're creating a bigger problem than the one they purport to be trying to solve.
 
I hope they also monitor somehow who looks at the data from the monitoring system and when. I mean, if they happen to employ any creepy pedophiles, those people might find it useful to have the whereabouts of the students as dots on their laptop screen and be able to see whenever a kid is going somewhere alone.
 
I happen to like the Constitution and my Fourth Amendment Rights.

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I like it, too, but the Supreme Court has already ruled that the constitutional rights of children may be limited. I understand that schools give notice that lockers are NOT private areas, but there is no "opt out" provision: lockers can be searched without a warrant.

I won't claim to know how SCOTUS would rule on these badges, but do children have a right to privacy on school grounds? Not that I recall, especially in K-5; kids in those grades need permission to go anywhere apart from their classmates. Kids in higher grades may not be allowed free movement except during specified periods between classes.

***

Okay, so some kids will try to foil the system, as kids have always done. Why is that an argument against giving the school a tool to keep track of hundreds of children? It wouldn't be all that hard to write a program that would alert when a badge had been in the bathroom or cafeteria or behind the dumpster for an unusually long period of time.

I've worked at law firms where confidentiality was a priority and everyone was required to wear an i.d. badge at all times. I realize employment is voluntary and a different constitutional context, but it really wasn't a big deal.

***

As for pedophiles using computers to hack into school computers and find victims via i.d. badges, some people need to step away from the true crime sites. Predators already do just fine with the naked eye, watching kids as they walk to and from schools and bus stops.
 
Here's a silly question.

How much are the tracking i.d.'s and the tracking program costing the school versus how much the school has to gain if attendance is high?

I don't know, but don't we EXPECT the school to know where our children are during school hours? Don't we depend on the school to do so with a high degree of accuracy?

To me, that's more important than guaranteeing state monies.
 
Well I admit that I have sometimes thought of installing a GPS chip on my kids myself lol. There are benefits to the system. But if I had the choice I would probably use more money to assigning more staff to watch the kids. Knowing where the badges are can be helpful but it doesn't tell us if the kids are behaving. I hope none of the school districts that get the chips eventually end up saving money by having less staff watching them in person.
 
I don't know, but don't we EXPECT the school to know where our children are during school hours? Don't we depend on the school to do so with a high degree of accuracy?

To me, that's more important than guaranteeing state monies.

How about simply taking roll and requiring students to sign in if they're late? You know.... The way it's been done since the beginning of public education and the way it's still done everywhere else.


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