Slashdot Mirror
Student Refusing RFID Badge Now Fights Expulsion Order
BeatTheChip writes "Lawyers representing Andrea Hernandez, a science and engineering student at John Jay High School, are fighting an expulsion notice issued a week ago for refusing to wear a Smart ID badge. To represent her, lawyers filed a preliminary court injunction, seeking legal restraints on the school. She maintains stance of refusal to wear any badge containing an RFID tag for reasons of basic privacy and conflicts with her belief system. The controversial decision for her school to adopt the NFC badges is part of the Student Locator Project, tracking attendance. Local schools started issuing the lanyard badges this fall despite parental outcry at NISD school board meetings."
Wear it all day long.
The school has a right to watch its costs and protect their students. If not then the lawyers will go after them for not using RFID yada yada.
For someone who works in the education system, I have to say the reason for this is money. The budgets are set on enrolled students. Not paper enrolled but physically enrolled each day. If a poor inner city school has a 20% truancy problem, then the budget is cut 20% and the teachers are fired.
I am more upset at the lawyers who are costing teachers jobs and I doubt their parents are in it for their child. They have a free lottery ticket at someone elses expense. Perhaps if parents were not so sue happy American schools could successful compete with Asian and European counterparts.
Schools have a right to enforce a learning environment as oppressive as some of the highschool slashdotters readers who want to say otherwise. At work you have to do what your boss says or you will be shown the door. What is so different with school. These are not implanted chips or anything and with drug dealers, pedophiles, and other problems it is not a bad idea to track where each student is.
http://saveie6.com/
I just had a rather fascinating an illuminating conversation about this with my significant other (an English teacher) about this topic. It really seems to come down to the question of whether or not students should have a right to privacy in school. I'm not sure they should. I'm also not sure they shouldn't. My significant other was attempting to convince me that they should not and her argument was largely based on property rights. That is, since the school owns the property, they have a right to require students to be tracked in order to allow students to use said property.
What does Slashdot think?
Thank you for fighting for our freedom. Too few people do. Best regards, mrjb
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
For many Christian families, including the Hernandez’, the mandatory policy is eerily close to the predictions of Revelations 13: 16-18, which warns of the Mark of the Beast:
16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or[a] the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (New King James Version)
This is no different than if an employer requires an employee to wear an RFID badge at work. If you choose not to wear the badge you are fired for not following policy. Same thing at this school; if you don't wear the badge you are expelled (virtually the same as getting fired).
The "parental outcry" should result in voting in a different board of trustees.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"for reasons of basic privacy and conflicts with her belief system"
I agree with half of her case.
But someone's "belief system" shouldn't exempt them from following the rules and laws of the land. Otherwise pedo Mormons could marry 13 year-olds, hardcore Muslims could keep their female children out of schools, and fundie Christians could stalk those who are having abortions.
You should oppose a rule because it is wrong for the population, not because it conflicts with your belief system.
'The controversial ID badge includes the photo and name of each student, a barcode tied to the student’s social security number, as well as an RFID chip which pinpoints the exact location of the individual student, including after hours and when the student leaves campus.'
RFID chips don't work that way. They don't know their location. They seem to be worried that the RFID will be read by someone else when the student is off campus. All the student has to do is remove the RFID chip when off campus.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Sorry, I won't "get used to it" perhaps you should get "used to the idea" that people don't want it.
Om, nomnomnom...
The old USA continues to get scarier and scarier
Every job I've had since graduation in '99 has come with the requirement of an RFID tag either as a key fob or in my ID. I wore it with no question because otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to open any doors.
XDInd
It may well violate her religious beliefs for which she should be exempt and it has long been the case that students' 4th Amendment rights are suspended while on campus at a public school. Since the ID only applies during school hours, is not implanted and is not actively transmitting her location, I fail to see this problem. It isn't dehumanizing to keep track of students on campus, it is responsible. It isn't a violation of her privacy as on school grounds you have relatively little. It isn't eavesdropping on her personal conversations. It's to keep students from cutting class! Nothing more. Can someone please explain why this is a problem?
Both links are to infowars. Just so you know whose website we're talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Jones_(radio_host)
"Alexander Emerick "Alex" Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American talk radio host, actor and filmmaker. [....] His websites include Infowars.com and PrisonPlanet.com."
"Jones has been the center of many controversies, and has accused the US government of being involved in the Oklahoma City bombing and September 11 attacks."
"In 1998, Jones organized a successful effort to build a new Branch Davidian church as a memorial to those who died during the 1993 fire that ended the government's siege of the original Branch Davidian complex near Waco, Texas. He often featured the project on his Public-access television program and claimed that Koresh and his followers were peaceful people who were murdered by Attorney General Janet Reno and the ATF during the siege."
Anyone whose brings "against my belief system" to a court of law and expects special consideration because of that should lose.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Student Refusing RFID Badge
refusal to wear any badge containing an RFID tag
school to adopt the NFC badges
One of these things is not like the other.
Okay what is your alternative?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The school letter says that they offered her the opportunity to wear an ID with the "battery and chip removed" on two occasions and she refused.
So this isn't about RFID, it's about wearing ID.
Technological "invasion" of privacy is not a problem when it simply augments what is already in place physically, i.e., I have no problem with security cameras at a bank, because it is a public area which you enter with the expectation of it being fully monitored and guarded at all times, regardless of whether a camera system is installed. Adding a camera system does not fundamentally impact your expectation of privacy at a bank. I *do* have a problem with sticking cameras on every telephone poll in the city. I expect police to patrol the streets, and give periodic checkups on how things are going, but monitoring every nook and cranny simultaneously and being able to follow my movements camera-to-camera is a gross change and significant limiting of my normal expectation of privacy.
In this case, the girl is minor for whom the school is assuming responsibility during school hours and it is *expected* that they will be supervising her at all times. If teachers don't know where she is or what she is doing at any time during her stay that is indicative of negligence on their part, regardless of whether an RFID monitoring system is in place. So, as long as an uncovered and functional RFID tag is something she is only required to carry on school grounds, and she can put it in a foil sheath before and after, I do not have a big problem with the school adding some automation to what is already a comparable level of physical monitoring.
I'm not saying there aren't some slippery slopes to be vigilant against, but as it's been described, I don't think she is losing much if any privacy by using the school ID card.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
...is that so many others complied.
Government schools have degenerated into starter-prisions.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
After reading the article, I can't find any issues here that can really be raised for a minor in school, that the school is responsible for, that is essentially any different than the school id I had 20 years ago. In the article, it even states the school offered to remove the RFID functionality so that the picture / barcode was left. Even then, wtf, its RFID, not GPS. It's not going to track her location at home and even then, the school isn't telling her to never take it off outside of school hours.
Just more random thoughts:
1) Just like my id from 20 years ago, we had to scan in the mornings for school for attendance which actually made it more efficient for school admins to get a quick idea of who wasn't there and contact parents quickly. The other option is having teachers do it manually, typing into system, and wasting their time.
2) She's a minor that during school hours, the school is responsible for. More power if the school during those hours has a way to keep track of students on property (or lack of being on property) in a more secure way. I bet if for some reason she snuck off and something happened, these parents would be suing for neglecting to keep track of their kid during school hours.
3) If this is such a huge issue, why aren't people going bat shit crazy having to wear their work ids, which most have barcodes, pictures, and rfids these days. Really no difference here people. Wear to work / school, both track you entering and leaving, then that is it.
4) Their reasoning for religious is pure bs. My kid shouldn't wear a badge with the picture during school hours is the mark of the beast. Can you reach any harder for non sense. Again, lots of people for work do the same thing.
She was offered a badge without an RFID chip in it. She refuses to wear a badge of any sort.
This system very likely is networked with the entire school district so as to collect total attendance numbers for the district.
Considering the average level of network security that exists in most public school system IT departments (ie pwn-able by a savvy 12-yo), this looks like "Easy Internet Shopping For Pedophiles" as they can confirm their targets' location and schedule. And/or, they can snatch a kid, then just insert fake card-swipe data events to mimic the kid being at school and not chained to a wall somewhere. "Little Suzy has perfect school attendance, although nobody has seen her for months..."
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
NFC traces its roots back to radio-frequency identification, or RFID.
Internet literacy has never been too high. Just check out the site out. (Infowars.com ... )
Do they also not use cell phones or the internet?
Baffled.
Why does there have to be one? You're starting from the solution to an as yet undefined problem. I see the solution as the problem.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Why do people insist on technological solutions for problems that don't need them?
Voting machines - pointless; the number of volunteers or local government workers that can be drafted for a day scales with the size of the population.
RFID badges for students to track attendance? Don't kid these days spend their lesson in front of a teacher, who could check attendance manually in about 30 seconds....like they have always done. I mean, what problems are they trying to solve?
no taxation without representation!
Either John Jay High School is a private school or it's a public one.
If it's private, the girl can switch to another one unless it's been prescribed by an MD or she could be harmed by the switch.
If it's public, there must be a law allowing the director to enforce the RFID. If there's none, then the RFID is optional, not mandatory.
But maybe I'm wrong as I don't know the USA law (I'm an outlaw myself).
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
I think it is important to make a distinction between RFID and NFC. NFC works only at very short ranges (a cm at most). So basically is only useful for tapping your card on a reader. This has a very different implication to RFID which can be scanned from several feet away, allowing much more ubiquitous monitoring without the input of the person being monitored.
Where you are taught and tested on how to have no free will and give up any rights someone in authority asks for so that one day you can be a model slave, errr.... worker.
Wrong.
Where you are taught that rules apply to everybody and you don't get to be excused by inventing some bullshit about being offended.
If she doesn't want to wear an ID badge, then she has plenty of ways to try and get that policy changed. She is not a special fucking snowflake and should not get special exemption. If the rule shouldn't apply to her, then it shouldn't apply to anybody, period.
Whatever your position, you're ill suited to it and doing students a great disservice. Get out, now.
This is about ego not money. This is a student at a magnet school. If her attendance was poor, her grades would be poor. If her grades were poor, she would be removed with good reason. Someone is offended that she isn't complying with a policy detail and has taken their offense to an unreasonable extreme.
Expulsion is an indelible mark on a student record that can have negative, life altering effects and should be considered with great care, and only after all other options have been exhausted. Even with a seemingly simple school switch as this, university admissions committees will wonder. It is sure to reduce her college options. Therefore if the student is otherwise in good standing, her refusal to wear an ID badge resulting in expulsion cannot be argued by an honest mind to be warranted.
In addition, said mind would be for and not against parents fighting that bureaucratic extremism with whatever means of process is at their disposal. They are not seeking damages, this is not a "free lottery ticket" as your surmised, this is trying to stop a terrible injustice.
As indicated when you said you were upset with the lawyers, and as shown when you failed to identify what is the root of the matter, you responded to this post emotionally. I could nevertheless understand these things. There are an unfortunate number of frivolous lawsuits out there that do great harm and your feelings attached to that could mask the ego at play here.
What disqualifies you from your job is not that. You must seek other employment, for the greater good, because you treat the heavy handed, life altering, negative act so lightly. That is what is most fundamental here. This is an execution to punish a passionate cry for reason.
I don't know, not giving people means of tracking you everywhere you go?
I know it's a hack thing to mention 1984, so I won't. *wink wink*
Whether this is an issue or not, linking to infowars is irresponsible of slashdot. Inforwars is a conspiracy nutjob site, not a credible or trustworthy news source. Find a better source or don't post BeatTheChip
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Does anybody care to explain what's wrong about tracking children within school? Many comments here imply that it's 'obviously a bad thing', but I don't understand why. Thanks.
Please remind me again: why do we have police and a law system ? I mean, things like robbery, murder, etc. have been around for more centuries than RFID has been around in years. Shouldn't we than not just accept them too ?
Seeing that police and law have been around for the longest time I'm going to say that your 'just suck it up' suggestion isn't universally accepted. :-)
All students and faculty required to wear an identifying id not an invasion of privacy this is very normal if the parents dont like it home schooling is an option so is private school and they could send the student off to another school.
You can refuse to follow a rule or law if it conflicts with your beliefs? Please tell me more, because I strongly disagree with left-wing and right wing ideologies.
If she were a good "science and engineering" student, she would know precisely what a Faraday bag is and either make or acquire one.
So let me get this straight. A school is supposed to be a place where one learns stuff for his/her own future.
Now if you don't learn and you go play XBox all day long and F-up your live they want to tag you ( 1984 ++ ) and force you to be present ?
What will that do ? if a person does not want to learn it does no matter where his physical presence is. He is not going to be there.
Because of these idiots all those who actually want to learn suffer. So you degrade the system to get to the lowest possible denominator.
I think what is needed is to raise the bar in schools and let those not able or willing to learn fail in their own way. Help where help is needed and asked for.
As a side note, it seems that all the freedoms in the USA are eliminated except the 2'nd amendment ( bear arms ).
I wonder what we would be able to do if we would replace the second amendment with:
- The right and obligation to learn and evolve for the betterment of all of society.
Over and out.
Also, what has happened to English teachers? Mine were a collection of anti-authoritarian left-wingers (went to those hotbeds of Leninism Oxford and Cambridge). They would all have been horrified by this kind of measure because they believed that herding people destroys individual responsibility.
Since 1990, the USA and the UK have become more like the Soviet Union. And I notice that more and more people post on Slashdot in defense of the authorities, or supporting the arbitrary actions of employers. facilis descensus averni
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Clearly educational standards in the US haven't been raised by the supporters of RFID tracking.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Where you are taught and tested on how to have no free will and give up any rights someone in authority asks for so that one day you can be a model slave, errr.... worker.
I know what are these schools trying to do, prepare students to get a job someday?!
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
she carries a cell phone w/ GPS.
The 'problem' is solved with a 15$ shielded cardholder ...
Assuming she finds work as an engineer somewhere, she will probably be issued an employee badge. She will then be asked to "badge in" when she comes to work each day. Is she going to sue her employer because this is against her belief system? Sorry, I agree with her in principle, but I' afraid she has just torpedoed her career.
1. Place student badge in microwave
2. Enter in 30 seconds
3. Press Start
4. Mission Accomplished!
but rather, being *removed* from an *OPTIONAL* magnet program (where students and parents are expected to follow ITS rules and policies, which will often, and in this case do, differ from the "regular" schools) and placed back in the regular, traditional high school which does not use these ID tags.
she is not being denied an education, she is not being denied a publicly funded education, her civil or constitutional rights are not being violated -- it was HER OWN CHOICE to apply-for and attend the magnet school instead of the 'regular' public school...
now, if ALL the schools in the district did the RFID tags or the district FORCED a student (without a history of disciplinary problems) to attend a school that did.. that would be different.
I think it has to do with degrees of removal from reality.
When there's a realistic system in place, people go along with it because it makes sense.
When there's not a realistic system, there's usually an "ideology" used to compel people to obey.
This drifts farther and farther away from reality and as a result, the state uses more control on its citizens.
They in turn react passively by being less productive and more corrupt.
Futurist Traditionalism
What ever happened to the teacher with the clip board taking attendance and the call home? So much for this high tech solution, again another example of a system that was never broke and got a fix and a better example of lazy ass teachers not wanting to do any work.
If she is so opposed to the wearing of ID based on her religious beliefs then perhaps she shouldn't be in science and engineering. She is eventually going to have to deal with a lot of stuff that violates her religious beliefs. Of course, that is only the case if they actually teach her science.
Ever since Columbine, we now have to treat our schools as institutions where kids are now treated no differently in some cases as inmates in a prison. Parents and administrators want complete situation awareness of where the kids are and there are thousands of vendors out there who will sell you any solution to fit any imaginary problem. I can certainly understand where this student is coming from because these solutions are often in direct conflict with educational institutions being safe and open places that foster learning and creativity. All of this however is throw out the window where potential benefits such as "tracking" and "safety" start getting thrown into the conversation. Other terms like "efficiency" and "freeing up teachers to teach" also get put into the sales pitch.
RFID is a cheap way to control access and for location tracking. If a parent comes to school to take their kid to a Dr. appt. No problem, just have the sensors ping and you can find the kid. The problem is that it all starts to sound a bit Orwellian and it will eventually lead to simple associations like "well if we put an RFID badge on them, why not a GPS?" It's a slippery slope and once it starts who knows where it will lead.
Look at the controversy now over license plate scanner technology. A tool to catch parking ticket violators and felons on the run has now turned into a tracking system whereby even if you're not a suspect you're getting tracked and now it's a source of data that can be mined. It's already started with putting these scanners everywhere, even the DEA wants to put them on highways to track drug traffickers.
The question we should all be asking ourselves is "Wait, where does this stop? Where does my privacy come into all of this? Where does my right to go about my business or travels freely without tracking my every stop come into this equation?" The sad, simple answer is that your privacy is the last thing any of the bureaucrats ever think of and trust me there's a stack of information on all of us now being collected, stored and probably mined that you don't have any visibility to. Yeah sure, we all want to prevent crime and we want our kids safe but this isn't the way we should be doing it because it creates a lot more problems than it solves and these are the kinds of problems that allow our government agencies to control us. Everyday now we have patents (like the one just mentioned this week from Apple) about new ways to track our every movement in every sense of the word and we should all be very, very concerned about this.
We should all have a right to "be forgotten" and not to be tracked for every damn thing we do. We should be able to opt-out and to actually know who's tracking us and why but guess what, you don't have that right.
So, let me give you a pragmatic example. I have two sons in High School. After Columbine and after a few other events like it, the local schools have essentially become locked-down campuses, most with dedicated local police onsite. If I go to the school for a meeting, I have to show a government issued photo id that is scanned into a computer to make sure I have no warrants or other items in my file somewhere that would represent a threat to the students, my kids, or staff. What criteria that is, the school will not tell me. If I'm in a divorce, could that mean I could be barred from taking my kids out of class? I don't know they won't tell me and that's all to have a parent conference or to attend a school function during regular school hours when the administrators are on the job. After class hours, the barriers become a little less constrained.
At the same High School where my sons attend, recently a girl was abducted on campus right after the school day ended by a known person, taken a few miles away, shot and dumped into a river. This known person was awaiting trial for
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
The way to stop this trend is to use the "Think of the Children" argument. All it would take would be a well publicized case of a pedophile with a really nasty record caught following kids around town with an RFID reader & tracking them via their badges. If that happened, school RFID badges would be gone tomorrow.
There is probably a willing pedophile living under a bridge somewhere (since he cannot find work due to his record, and cannot get housing without money) that would do this just to get back at "the man". All you need is a main-stream media journalist to "investigate" & an RFID reader.
The big-brother monitoring-loving people or the crazy Christians?
This is like deciding between a phone OS from privacy-haters Google or from walled-garden Apple; you lose whichever you choose
I'm curious, how is this RFID badge any different than what corporate employees everywhere use on a daily basis? It seems to me that the whole point of this technology is to ensure safety and convenience. Instead of walking around with a plastic card some school employee has to visually inspect all you need here are wall mounted sensors. The school even offered disabling the card so. And seriously, what kind of privacy concerns would this kid possibly have?
Of all the legitimate concerns out there this one seems rather ridiculous. I notice some people complaining that it's a mark of conformity. This has always struck me as one of the more obnoxious aspects of American culture, the whole mentality that you should "be yourself." But the irony is that no culture seems so comfortable pigeonholing itself like Americans do. They're more likely to have their entire lives defined by specific interests. They're "being themselves" by wholly conforming to whatever niche to which they've decided they belong.
What the hell does carrying a damn card have to do with conformity anyway? You're in school to learn. If conformity is that big a concern, perhaps you should consider home schooling.
of the Deh-villlle!!! I am surprised that, if this is such a religious issue, she is already being home schooled by her Sister Moms
“16. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17. and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or[a] the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” (New King James Version)
The second you bring religion in to the mix you open up the right for anyone to deny anything because it's written down. There is nothing stopping me from saying I shouldn't be harassed for drinking and driving because my "bible" says
Thou who shall drink before driving will live in the lords presence, thou's who shall not will burn in hell.
The issue is that your arguing based on the fact a random book tells you to do something, a random book can tell me to do a lot of things, I'm just smart enough to not do them.
Where in the bible does it say an rfid tag is the mark of the beast?
This is not about conforming to "what we want you to know". It's about conforming to "how we want you to behave".
Im surprised that no one thought of installing a card reader in each classroom. Student enters classroom, slides their card thru the reader on the teachers desk for attendence, done. Strip could easily be attached to the student ID card
If you have an RFID badge that you're forced to wear, just run it over the device they use to clear merchandise at many retail stores. Another thing you can do is short bursts in the microwave (1 second maximum) on high. Wait for the badge to completely cool down before doing mutliple doses, though! Remember, you're only required to wear it, not for it to actually work. And if you get questioned, be prepared to play dumb.
First of all even in school people have a right to privacy. As an example- I would not like anyone to know when and for how long my kid is in the bathroom.
Second, some people claim that this somehow would protect from pedophiles. Even if we assume it might (which it won't), what if the pedophile is one of the teachers, we know this never happens, right? "Oh, Molly is alone in the bathroom, jolly good, here I come!"
Third, my guess is that some vendor was friendly with the principle...
Anyway, there is no excuse for this program. I would go and kick some butts if anyone attempts to implement this in my kids' schools.
>Is she never going to carry ID? I guess she win't be driving, joining a club, getting a job or leaving the country.
>All of these require carrying a numbered card which she refuses to do.
Generally you're right, but we're talking about Texas in this case.
Texas may be a little more liberty-loving than most places.
Consider Michael Badnarik, Libertarian Party candidate for president in 2004 and also a Texas citizen.
In his book(1), he claims that by consistently refusing to _have_ any government ID, much less carry one,
he can and does legally drive without licensing his car or himself. He also claims that this interpretation
has been tested in Texas court in the 1940s.
Perhaps the other things you mention would still require an ID in Texas, though I've heard that crossing :-)
the Texas-Mexico border without ID happens a lot.
(1) "Good to Be King: The Foundation of our Constitutional Freedom" ISBN 1-59411-096-4
Northside ISD is harnessing the power of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) to make schools safer, know where our students are while at school, increase revenues, and provide a general purpose "smart" ID card.
Empasis added.
The FAQ would seem to confirm this.
Q. What does this pilot cost and what is the projected additional revenue expected?
A. NISD will spend approximately $261,000 on this pilot for the two schools and expects to realize $2 million in additional revenues.
So, they expect an additional $1.739M in revenues out of this deal.
This would match up with my personal experience. I remember being told how important it was for students to be in school during a certain week in September or October, because this determined how much federal funding the school would get. Another example of the feds taking money, then using it to ransom state and local entities to get it back. "See also 55mph speed limits and moving the drinking age up from 18 to 21.
Reading the rest of the district page is fascinating. They go on to say, "The "smart" ID cards only work within the school." Interesting. I didn't know you could turn off an RFID chip, especially one with a battery powering it. Is there some supposed to be some way for it to be turned off automatically when they leave the premises?
After referring parents to the website of the contractor implementing the project, "Wade Garcia & Associates (WGA), we get some pseudo useful technical info.
Q.1 Could someone manufacture a copy of a WGA RFID reader and use it to intercept information transmitted by student RFID tags? A.1 WGA has approached this as an issue of system architecture. By ensuring that the âoesmartâ ID contains no information of interest to anyone, WGA has simultaneously removed any motive for cloning its reader and removed any problem if someone does clone its reader. The premise is simple: There is no information stored on any WGA âoesmartâ ID except its serial number. Therefore, an intruder or âoehackerâ can only learn that the tag serial number is, for example, #69872331, but that does not provide any useful information. The tag serial number is not the studentâ(TM)s school I.D. number. The studentâ(TM)s school ID number is stored on the school or Northsideâ(TM)s internal server and one would have to have access to the school or school districtâ(TM)s server and data base to determine what tag number can be associated with a studentâ(TM)s school ID number.
They don't address the first thing the kids will think of, how to clone the cards and have their friend carry it around and make it look like they are in class. I wonder what happens when someone figures out how to clone the cards, and there are 5 copies of every kids cards wandering around the school. That would be an interesting way to hack the system.
The FAQ also goes on to give some shocking information about Texas law regarding what information is "public", quoting from Texas Public Information Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 552.
Another exception permits a school to non-consensually disclose personally identifiable information from a student's education records when such information has been appropriately designated as directory information. "Directory information" is defined as information contained in the education records of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. Directory information could include information such as the student's name, address, e-mail address, telephone listing, photograph, dat
file:
Keep the card in a RFID shielded wallet until you are sitting down in class. Then take it out to mark your self as present and put it back in.
Used to kids didnt have to go to school at all.
Then kids had to go to school.
Then they had truant officers to make sure kids stayed at school.
Then the schools would send home notices if a kid didnt show up at school.
Then they had child welfare officers the schools reported to if kids didnt show up a lot.
Then they had cameras installed at schools
Now they have police officers at a lot of schools.
The future is RFID badges for students.
Its nothing more than the natural progression of schools to impliment in order to keep students in line and at schools. Why? Because schools are becoming more and more legally responsible for students because more and more students and parents sue schools. Public schools dont have much money to begin with and a lawsuit can devistate them financially so the schools have to do everything they can to protect themselves from lawsuits and to protect their students. In this day and age of lawsuits for the tiniest thing is it really any surprise schools have to resort to greater measures when they are solely responsible for hundreds of students for 8 to 9 hours a day 5 days a week? And not only are there hundreds of students there, they are all minors entrusted to the care of the school.
Besides its just highschool. Keep the stupid badge on you while your at school and when you graduate you throw the thing away and never have to use it again. It violates no laws, it does nothing to violate a students personal life and has absolutely no impact on the student whatsoever. The only students who have to worry about it are ones who plan on doing things they shouldnt be doing.
With all the problems schools have no a days this isnt a surprise either. With more bullying, more school shootings, more bomb threats, more fighting and so on why shouldnt the school try to keep track of more children? Then you have things like what if there is a fire, or if there is a shooting or some other disaster and not all of the students are accounted for? If there is a fire and a student is hurt inside the building and cant get out if they have the chip on them they can pinpointed within the school and rescued vs fire fighters having to search the whole building trying to find the student. All it will take is for one little girl to burn to death because the fire department couldnt find her in time and everyone will go screaming to the school as to why they didnt do more when in this case they did try.
RFID on students is a practical and reasonable step in the progression of schools using more technology to keep their students under better care.
If she goes to college it will be more of the same anyway because at the college I went to we had to use our student ID's for everything like opening doors after hours, when we printed something in the print lab, when we went to classes, when we parked and so on. Now why does no one bitch about that? Were being tracked and its mandatory for students but no one complains. A lot of schools also have video cameras which track students, how come they dont complain about that? This is the exact same thing here though its just more efficient and like I said, if youre a good student and follow the rules you have nothing to worry about.
There is no real problem here but people want to make it a problem simply because they love to complain. They love to think they are somehow important enough that their personal and civil liberties are being violated when really they arent at all. People want safety and security, they want all kinds of things but they dont want to sacrifice shit to get them, they want everything with no effort on their part at all. Well part of the safety and security here is kids have to carry a stupid badge with them while they are at school, Id consider that a very small price to pay and it insignificant.
This is an issue of property; all we have to do is ask these simple questions. Once you have answered these questions, the problem can be solved very easily.
Is the property public or private, or better, who owns the high school property? If the property is private and person X owns the property, than property owner X establishes the rules of attendance since they own the property, as a result, you are granted the PRIVILEGE to attend, not a right with the understanding that the rules of attendance can be changed. If in determining the owner of the property to be public land and publicly funded, than all you have to do is ask the owners(by vote), do you not want this initiative. If they answer in the affirmative, than the question is answered and the problem is solved, no RFID.
Find who the owner is, and you can solve the problem.
... and soon we'll have a while generation that thinks it's ok to walk around the streets with a tracking tag under their skin. OPA ORSON-WELLES STYLE!
Since when is Infowars.com regarded as a reliable media outlet ? I always thought it was a moonbat site with clockwork elves and other batshit insane theories. #JustSaying
Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser? Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich
It's a definite privacy invasion. But really, isn't it kind of ridiculous to also claim it's wrong because of her "beliefs"? That's just a glorified way of saying you don't think you should have to do so something because you don't like it. It's not like she's a Jehovah's Witness being forced to have a blood transfusion and risking eternal damnation, there's no religious or philosophical consequence of carrying an RFID badge. Making silly premises like that is one of the best ways to shoot your own case in the foot - if you go to court saying something's an invasion of your privacy and goes against your beliefs, and you can't make any kind of rational argument for the latter case, it's going to hurt your overall position. (Captcha: lawyer)
What would hapen if all the students their tags were put on just one back pack and then goes thru the reader?
So we went on an expensive Oldies holiday ['vacation'] in very foreign parts. The hotel wanted us to wear yuckie plastic adolescent wristbands to prove our right to unlimited 24-hour booze. Did I hell? - some of us have principles. (Yeah, but it made a great waterproof watchstrap when cut, and the bouncers respected that.)
There is an obvious solution to the matter though I am not advocating it, nor am I a lawyer. All it takes is one student covertly bringing in an RFID scanner with a reasonable range for a day. They could loiter near the enterance as students came in, gleaning name and typically student ID. The results would then be publicly posted similar to this article.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/fed-rfid/
The school is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of FERPA related data. It is possible that this data may be used to grant access to further information through the online gradebook system. What do you the school administrators will do when the OCR is breathing down their neck? Destroy all the badges.
Heck, even if a student didn't do that, if an official from the school reads this post and is aware of the possibility of a data breach, they would be remiss not to take action. If they truely understood the vulnerabilities inherent in such a system, they would revert to teachers taking attendance.
Pretty much every tech. company, and a good many financial, travel, hospitality, law enforcement, and education employers, all use a similar system for security purposes. Good luck with that future career!
Just run the ID through a microwave oven. One caveat though - the overload may cause the card to erupt in flames!
The need for RFID is less than her need to obey her religion.
Therefore, unlike pants (going about clothed is considerably more important than a nudist faith's demand to be nekkid), she shouldn't be forced to wear an RFID tag.
Don't you find it funny that the 1st reaction of parents is complaining about the privacy of their kids??
To them, the fact that the kids are NOT IN SCHOOL is more important ... but would sue the school if their kids are hurt while playing skipping classes. It is the same parents who fight for the right to have their daughters dress like hookers and their sons to dress like idiots (pants down to their ankles) during school hours. The same parents who would ask for the resignation of a teacher because he/she "gave" their kids a bad grade (ignoring the fact that their kid was never in the class because he/she was hanging out with their friends at the mall).
What's funny about that is California has a non-identifying drivers license. I've used one for about 2 months.
"Surely this evil thing can't be happening. Someone would have done something!" is echoed throughout history.
To track the students....it has worked for CENTURIES. Ok class, be quiet...I need to TAKE ROLL CALL.....
A lot of these problems with schools could be solved if parents would get involved in their kids education and stopped using the school system for a glorified a babysitting service. What ever happened to a strong PTA? Back when I was in school my parents would attend regular PTA meetings. When there was a policy in the schools that the parents didn't agree with, they would tell the school board "no" and that was the end of it.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Bueller. Bueller. Bueller.
If this is about attendence, why not just take attendance at class like they have been since the first school since the dawn of time. Its not like this is a hard thing to do. Why the need for an RFID tag anyway. People already carry around ID if that is the concern. Why waste money on RFID tags and lawsuits and spend more money on books. Anyway I don't see the big deal about it either way for or against.
F.A.Q.
Northside ISD San Antonio
112 schools
100,000 students
RFID Pilot Program
Jones Middle School and John Jay High School
4,200 students
THREE GOALS
1.Increase student safety and security. Our students' parents expect that we always know where their children are in our schools.
2.Increase attendance. Through more efficient attendance management, schools can generate additional revenues by identifying students who are not in their seats during roll call but who are in the school and locate them. (Increased attendance = increased state revenues)
3.Provide multi-purpose "Smart" Student ID card. The Student ID will provide access to the library and cafeteria, serve as a photo ID, and allow for the purchase of tickets to schools' extracurricular activities. Other uses will be rolled out during the pilot program.
"Smart" Student ID Cards
I can't think of many big campus-like environments in the adult world --- whatever their purpose --- that don't restrict physical access, movement and access to services through the use of keys, cards, badges and so on.
Game the system and you will be out of a job.
Parents send their kids to the STEM magnet school because they are looking academic rigor and discipline in a safe and secure environment.
> One kid left in class, carrying 20 badges...
You might recall the scene from Real Genius, with the entire class represented only by tape recorders. ... and then the lecturer replaced by a tape player.
Of course nowdays, the lecture would be on an MP3 file on the teacher's web site for kids to ignore. Or maybe download and listen to. My money is on "ignore", though.
Following this idea, your driver licence is the mark of the beast. Last time I checked no christians, no matter how fundamentalist, still carry it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/us/25mennonites.html?_r=0
Amish and Mennonites having to move to a different state due to their rejection of new drivers licenses and having to give up travel to Canada because they won't accept the passport such travel now requires.
Woof woof!
The right to life trumps the "right to profit." A rental property (or other non-occupied property) with a squatter in it doesn't violate the owner's rights. If the owner is occupying the property (and no, showing up after they hear about a squatter isn't occupying it), then the owner has full rights, as someone else in their house does infringe on their rights.
Todd Akin lost his Senate race for saying the same thing about a squatter's right to occupy an unused uterus being more important than the uterus owner's rights to choose whether it will be occupied and by whom.
Can't believe you even snuck "right to life" into your post, you right-wing anti-abortion troll.
This student is under the mistaken impression she has the same constitutional rights as adults. Nope. The courts have ruled that student's rights are void if they could conflict with the educational mission in even the remotest way. For example, students cannot hold a banner across the street from a school on a public sidewalk if the message on the banner affects the educational environment in any way that the administrators don't like. That was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
I seriously couldn't agree more. The very structure of our country is formed, or maintained, by what is taught in our schools. If students are not taught to think critically, and to stand up for reason, how can we expect them to be well informed voters? How can we expect them to handle something new, something harmful, something that there is yet no law against? Most simply, why are people in power always so willing to discard entire lives for extremely minor infractions? How wasteful, how absurd.
Court Grants Rutherford Institute Request to Stop Texas School from Kicking Student Out for Refusing to Wear “Smart ID” Tracking Badge
Read more here: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/victory_court_grants_rutherford_institute_request_to_stop_texas_school_from
what would be unpopular and shouldn't be said is that it's okay if you're born rich and part of the upper class or could get their in time as this stuff would never be applied to you
It "conflicts with her belief system"? Give me a fucking break. If you want to go there, you wear the badge - simple.
It also "conflicts with my belief system" to have to hand in time sheets to my employer, but if I want to get paid, I had better do it. It might "conflict with your belief system" to have to take a drug test or aptitude test, but if you want to get hired, you'd be well advised to do both.
People use religion, disability, and all sorts of other excuses to say "I don't want to". Sometimes the answer is "you have to.".
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face...; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime..."- George Orwell,1984, Book 1, Chapter 5
as title says
Her expulsion is what they're fighting. It's the injustice and it is an injustice. She wasn't refusing an ID card, she was refusing to wear a device that allows them to track her location at all times. Did they offer her a way to not be tracked and simply appear to be in the program? Yes, but isn't that damning in itself? They wished the appearance of compliance more than actual compliance.
She isn't otherwise disruptive. There is no history of violence. It is a magnet school, so you can be assured her grades are in good standing else she wouldn't be there. Considering the irreparable harm an expulsion represents, do you really believe this minor infraction warrants it?
And in reply try explaining why rather than being condescending, rather than belittling the crime that is this punishment. Be adult about it.
That girl really needs to read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
I assume this person is fighting the "mark of the beast" thing that preachers have been spouting.. Unfortunately, by fighting a simple id card, which she could simply have left in her locker at day's end, she'sonly giving the legislators ideas on how to force compliance when the *REAL M.O.T.B.* comes along, injected under the skin, and unremovable without drastic surgery..
The price of freedom is CONSTANT VIGILANCE not CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE.
The FREE are supposed to be VIGILANT, not SURVEILLED.
I would like to know what the sales guy told the school board, that started this whole thing.
Sales Guy: "What can be wrong with students wearing this little badge."
School Board: "Students have rights"
Sales Guy: "Students don't vote, they didn't vote for you (students have no rights)"
School Board: "Riiight"
Hi, this is really an easy fix.....All you have to do is get a hammer, find the location of the chip in the id, place the card ona hard surface (VERY flat stone or metal so the force is distributed and the card doesn't crack) and give it a couple of solid taps....shazam, no more RFID!!
Microwave may do it too, but the hammer approach is less noticeable.
If ALL of the "skulls full of mush" (i.e. students.....hitler youth) did this (repeatedly) they teachers would have to at least "Earn"a ticket taker at a movie theater's salary .....may be above many of their pay grades though, probably need a student aid to help.
WOW
I think it is the right of the school to require attendees to wear this, or they could be 'chipped' (their choice with approval of parents), or to not be allowed to attend the school. If they want to attend school they could be voluntarily incarcerated and attend a 'secure facility' provided by the state. Since no malfeasance is involved (in which case the state would provide this service through everyone's taxes over and above school tax) the parents should be required to pay for the additional fees required to maintain incarcerated persons. (In the order of $30K to $60K/yr in many places).
Or the parents could pay to have the child attend a private school, then it is not the problem of the school district.
Lots of options available. The judicial system (only because they are already being taken to court) just need to be 'creative'!
... "When you pry the source from my cold dead hands."
Throw the card in a microwave oven for a little bit, it should be exposed to enough energy to fry out its electronics then you can wear it all day without worrying about being tracked, of course it won't work to open doors anymore but that's not what they are really using them for is it.
What if the school keeps her out long enough to let her teachers flunk her for missing tests or homework?