Judge Issues Temporary Order Blocking Expulsion For Refusing To Wear RFID Tag

An anonymous reader writes with an update about the student refusing to wear an RFID badge in Texas. From the article: "A district court judge for Bexar County has granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to ensure that Andrea Hernandez, a San Antonio high school student from John Jay High School's Science and Engineering Academy, can continue her studies pending an upcoming trial. The Northside Independent School District (NISD) in Texas recently informed the sophomore student that she would be suspended for refusing to wear a 'Smart' Student ID card embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking chip."

Comments

I can understand her

[MindPrison]

It's not easy for her, she has probably heard all this fuzz about RFID tags and who knows what she thinks those things are. Yes they can transmit a radio signal, yes they can contain and ID number, heck they can even contain a complete picture of the girl, including name, address and anything else you want to put on a ROM/Ram chip in there.

But I've experimenting with RF (radio transmissions basically ALL my life as a radio amateur, yes...I'm one of those that build and construct my own gear, so I know a bit about this stuff), and I can tell you...any ID badge of this size, will not - and CAN not - due to laws of physics and much more, transmit a signal over any significant distance, not to mention battery capacity in a small badge like that (trust me on this one, I've been building and constructing record breaking bugging devices that can reach over 1km over 3 weeks on a 3v battery) and I know for a fact, you simply - can not - break the laws of physics when it comes to burning energy and emissions etc. reach that far with those badges, it just isn't possible. YET.

But I can understand her, she's a layman, she have NO clue if this is possible or not, given that scenario - I think myself...I'd refuse to carry any sort of RFID badge, if I suspected that it would do me no good, and would be of no use to me. Who knows? I've worked at several schools - and we do have RFID badges to open doors, usually accompanied with a 4 digit code we need to enter after exposing the badge to the reader surface. Even so, this RFID signal is read and transmitted several inches if not less, of no use to any sniffers or spies nearby. So no worries there. But then again, understanding this, requires knowledge, of which I suspect - she has none.