Poll: Texas Students to be monitored with microchips.

[sethisjimmy]

I don't see how it's an invasion of privacy...?
Maybe I'm missing something.

School is a public place, the only place in school you actually have privacy is the washroom, and it's not like they're going to be watching you in there.
I really don't see how "privacy" is an issue in school, I mean you'd obviously take the id card off when you left the building, but what's wrong with the faculty being able to keep track of you during school hours, when you are supposed to be in class?

Personally I don't see how it's a bad idea.

 

[Geeky Anomaly]

Aaaaaand...all the kid has to do is take the ID badge off, and leave it in the bathroom. Wow....such an effective means of tracking people.

 

[DoPo]

To be fair I left my ID cards in my backpack so when I was done with school, even if the chip was still active it would think I am contantly sitting in my living room when not in school.

It knows where you live! Obvious solution here - wrap the card with tinfoil after leaving school and unwrap it when going there. If somebody was monitoring you, they'd think you disappeared from the world. Congratulations, you now only exist for school.

 

[Bat Vader]

When I read the thread title I thought it meant that a school in Texas was going to require that students have a microchip implanted in them. I am happy to hear that it is just an ID badge. I think it is a terrible idea that could and most likely will backfire.

 

[NiPah]

So how quick before the shit security of some two bit private agency leaks the personal information of children on the internet? I always love blind faith in the government picked agencies people have, especially in two years when the contract goes to the lowest bidder to save a few hundred bucks.

 

[Shuguard]

Or maybe some teachers are really bad at attendance... Most of my teachers never even cared about attendance or forgot to take it every class. I understand they want to increase knowledge of where students are located, but the implementation is wrong. Not to mention the same technology is used in shipping and cattle, where the animals and inanimate objects do not figure out how to remove the tracking chips.

 

[spartan231490]

As long as it's an ID card and just on school grounds, I still don't like it, but it would be really helpful for tracking down missing students if there's an emergency. I actually approve of it a little, just so long as it's not mandatory off school grounds, and so long as it's not implanted in the student's flesh.

 

[BishopofAges]

It knows where you live! Obvious solution here - wrap the card with tinfoil after leaving school and unwrap it when going there. If somebody was monitoring you, they'd think you disappeared from the world. Congratulations, you now only exist for school.

Any fool who works for the school knew where I lived, its not a secret, really. As for the tinfoil, I'd rather just stick it in one of those RFID chip blocking wallets, much more stylish. Invisible.

 

[Unsilenced]

I'm sure there are more cost-effective ways to provide a false sense of security.

 

[Risingblade]

It's not really an invasion of privacy since they're at school. In school search and seizure laws don't apply anyway this does not seem cost effective. I can see why they would do it but It seems too easy to manipulate they would have to be quite strict on how they enforce it.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

No this is a hideous idea it is simply an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

I think the system a waste of time, but what privacy are you trying to protect?

They're on government owned public property, are required to comply with rules concerning where they can go, what they're allowed to do, etc. Its already perfectly legal for the school to assign someone to follow the students around and report on their whereabouts and/or activities while on campus. (They don't as a general rule, mostly because it is a colossal waste of effort and resources.) The RFID chips would actually be less invasive in that sense, merely reporting physical location while on campus, information that is WELL within the school administration's right to know.

Then simply the problems already exist in law and none of these right should exist.

A person under the age of 18 has almost no rights nor do they have any reasonable basis for expecting them under the law.

Of course, the parents do have rights and I'd wonder if they are given the choice to opt out.

 

[Esotera]

This sucks, but google/apple will already know most of their locations already through GPS/network location. And they probably know yours. At least this has a decent purpose.

 

[WickedFire]

I doubt it means tracking students where ever they are. It'll likely be for opening doors and registers to see whos skipping classes etc. Admittedly I don't see much point in using it in a high school, but my university uses them to do registers quickly and to grant access to speciallist labs and building out of regular hours.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

ITT: lots of people disliking the idea of being tracked, while not realizing the thousands of other ways they are being tracked every day of their lives.

 

[Yopaz]

?It?s going to give us the opportunity to track our students in the building," Principal Wendy Reyes of Jones Middle School tells KHOU. ?They may have been in the nurse?s office, or the counselor?s office, or vice principal?s office, but they were marked absent from the classroom because they weren't sitting in the class. It will help us have a more accurate account of our attendance.?

Sounds like they're looking for a high-tech solution to their low-tech problem.

I'm not worried about the "privacy" of students at school--as has been pointed out, they don't have any. Their lockers can be searched at will, without cause or warrant, for example.

However I do worry about the effect this will have on the students later in life. Getting them used to this kind of thing in school is going to make them more likely to accept it in situations where it really is absolutely inappropriate. People already give up their privacy too easily, and this would severely exacerbate that problem.

Well, it's so much easier to have a person who is hired to watch a screen to tell you someone in in the room or not than have the teacher in the room look at the students. You can't expect teachers to pay attention to their students.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

This is horrible, it's an invasin of privacy

 

[Heronblade]

So how quick before the shit security of some two bit private agency leaks the personal information of children on the internet? I always love blind faith in the government picked agencies people have, especially in two years when the contract goes to the lowest bidder to save a few hundred bucks.

What personal information? How long on average students take to get from class to class? Or maybe how often a particular student plays hooky?

Ooh, scary stalker material there.