Slashdot Mirror
Iris Scanning For New Jersey Grade School
coolphysco1010 writes "When a parent arrives to pick up their child at one of three grade schools in the Freehold Borough School District, they'll need to look into a camera that will take a digital image of their iris. That photo will establish positive identification to gain entrance into the school..The Teacher-Parent Authorization Security System (T-PASS), a software application developed by Eyemetric Identity Systems, was installed on the front office computers at each of the three schools."
I guess this will make children attending the school totally safe - especially the ones standing around THE BUS STOP! From reading the article, it seems this system is only for parents who come into the school in the middle of the day. And looking at the school district website I find so many classes at the schools that it would be impractical to have every parent picking up a kid at the end of the day to park and go inside to get their children even if they only have 15 children per classroom. I have never heard of, and searching could not find, any cases where somebody walked into a school pretending to be a parent in order to kidnap a child. Putting all of this together, it is apparent that the "security" system is primarily in place to control the parents and to restrict them from participating in the education of their children. Want to make the school safe from outsiders coming in? The schools where I live have a very low tech way of doing things - once school starts all outside doors are locked except the door to the school office. If you need or want to come to school you just come through the office, where you will be challenged if the office staff does not know you.