Rhode Island School District 2 Microchip Students

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Unfortunately, this isn't the only school district doing this....

www.naturalnews.com/023445_children_microchipping_parents.html



U.S. School District to Begin Microchipping Students
Monday, June 16, 2008 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer




A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

Parents or school officials could log onto a school web site to see whether and when specific children had entered or exited which bus, and to look up the bus's current location as provided by the GPS device.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the plan as an invasion of children's privacy and a potential risk to their safety.

"There's absolutely no need to be tagging children," said Stephen Brown, executive director of the ACLU's Rhode Island chapter. According to Brown, the school district should already know where its students are.

"[This program is] a solution in search of a problem," Brown said.

The school district says that its current plan is no different than other programs already in place for parents to monitor their children's school experience. For example, parents can already check on their children's attendance records and what they have for lunch, said district Superintendent Rosemary Kraeger.

Brown disputed this argument. The school is perfectly entitled to track its buses, he said, but "it's a quantitative leap to monitor children themselves." He raised the question of whether unauthorized individuals could use easily available RFID readers to find out students' private information and monitor their movements.

Because the pilot program is being provided to the school district at no cost, it did not require approval from the Rhode Island ethics commission.

Learn more: www.naturalnews.com/023445_children_microchipping_parents.html#ixzz1YkNixoJ0

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Someone pointed out to me that this article was from 2008. No worries, there are plenty of more recent examples of this technology being used on students, and apparently parents do not get to opt out of this system.

www.khou.com/news/Student-badges-equipped-with-tracking-devices-in-Santa-Fe-104181329.html


by Tiffany Craig/11 News

khou.com

Posted on October 1, 2010 at 6:39 PM

Updated Friday, Oct 1 at 6:50 PM

Student badges equipped with tracking devices

SANTA FE— Students in Santa Fe have to wear ID badges to class, complete with a built-in tracking device.

The Smart Badge program started this school year, and is getting mixed reviews from parents and students.

Patrick Mann is a senior and said he feels like he’s in prison.

“Normally, the one people you would track are say prisoners or somebody that’s done something very wrong,” Mann said.

All students at Santa Fe Junior High and Santa Fe High School have to wear the radio frequency IDs.

The sensors are in the ceiling on campus, but Mann said they keep tabs of you off campus too.

He said he got busted a few days ago.

“At that Shell Station, they can see exactly where I am,” Mann said. “I know that because the school cops came up there and said,
‘Hey, you need to get back to school. We tracked you over here.’”

The Santa Fe Independent School District got the idea from Spring ISD.

Spokesperson Patti Hanssard said the bottom line is safety and security.

“I don’t understand the concern piece there because basically that is our responsibility, to make sure that we have a safe and secure environment,” Hanssard said.

If students forget their badge, a temporary ID is $1 a day.

Replacement cards are $15 and the money goes back into the program, Hanssard said.

One parent said she just doesn’t like the school tracking her son’s every move.

Letters were sent home about the new badges and an update was printed in the district’s newsletter.

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www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/florida-school-district-taking-attendance-scanning-students-fingers


A Florida School District is Taking Attendance by Scanning Students' Fingers



Roll Call, via Fingerprintbcymet via Flickr

Roll call is going high-tech in Washington County, Fla. Rather than the usual name calling and response, students are now checking into class with finger scanning devices. And to keep better track of students from the minute they come under district supervision until they are delivered safely home again, the scanners are now moving from the school building to the school bus.

The systems have been active inside Washington County schools for roughly two months, but since most of the students in the district ride the bus anyhow, officials have decided the best place for the scanners is on the buses themselves. In the next week, a handful of buses will get the scanners. If the system proves worthwhile, all buses will have them by semester’s end.

At $30 per student per year, the system isn’t necessarily cheap. But considering the uptick in attendance (which means more money from the state in many districts) and the inherent increase in accountability and student safety, it may well be worth the cost. And naturally, parents who don’t want their children fingerprinted coming to and from school for whatever reason can opt to have their kids check in with their teachers in a more analog fashion.