Student Andrea Hernandez Expelled for Refusing to Wear Location Tracking RFID Badge

First, the article does not mention GPS. RFID cannot track someone unless they pass an RFID reader. Students should be required to wear a school ID visible anytime they are on the grounds, just like the staff are.

The RFID chips make it easier to record when the student arrived in school, and where they went (assuming there is a reader at all doors). RFID cannot "track" the students in teal time even in the building. RFID would make it easier to get books from the library, allow students easier access to some services, and help keep students out of off limits areas.

IF the students were required to take their ID's home (which they would need to do to get back in school the next day) No one could track them with the RFID outside. You have to have a reader, and the reader would need to look for specific info on the chip. SO even if a student went somewhere else that used RFID, IF the chip got hit by a reader, the reader would disregard any info from the chip because the student info would be nonsense to the reader because it would be looking for different info. It would be like trying to use your electronic motel key in a credit card reader.

This particular school may not track their students whereabouts other than when on school grounds, but some schools do. According to an article on the Huffington Post, a school system in California has initiated a pilot program utilizing GPS tracking to monitor children with attendance problems. Students are required to enter a code to track their locations five times a day: "as they leave for school, when they arrive at school, at lunchtime, when they leave school and at 8pm." Is it the school's business to know where a child is in the morning prior to school or where they are at 8pm at night? If anyone were going to lo-jack a child, shouldn't it be the parent? After all, they are the ones ultimately responsible to ensure their child attends school.

The school mentioned in this article could replace the RFID chips with scanners outside each classroom. Wouldn't this be as reliable a monitor of class attendance as the cards with the RFID chips? Students could pass their RFID card to someone else, leave it lying in the restroom, cafeteria, courtyard, in a desk, etc, so it's not as if this system is a foolproof monitor.

According to Salon.com, some schools are using tracking devices and CCTV to improve students’ eating habits. While the issue of childhood obesity is certainly a serious one, is this the best way to go about addressing it? They can't visually assess a child to determine if there is a problem severe enough to require intervention? Is it the school's place to intervene? When they determine by spying on a child that he or she isn't eating healthy, what are they going to do to deal with the issue? Take the food away? Issues such as this require intervention with regard to better understanding of healthier eating guidelines, but more importantly, it requires examining and addressing the psychosocial reasons behind childhood (and adult) obesity issues.

Even if one agrees with RFID or GPS monitoring while children are in school, there are those programs who carry it further. A school system in Illinois is attaching GPS locators to students’ backpacks in order to “locate kids in seconds” both in and out of school. The electronic reader registers date, time and location of kids. Why out of school? It's one thing to allow parents to "opt-in" to this type of surveillance, but to make it mandatory?

The potential for abuse with this type of monitoring is massive and inappropriate incidents in some areas of the country have already occurred. If their primary goal is to more closely monitor attendance, then there have to be less invasive ways. If their aim is to locate the child should he or she fail to show up for class, what will they do once they become aware the child is not in school? Bodily drag them back to class? Unless they are deemed by law to be truant, can they even do that? Wouldn't it then be a problem for the courts and the police? In my opinion, this type of invasive monitoring is a lazy and very intrusive way to attempt to solve some of the school's problems. Most children do not need to submit to this level of scrutiny.

While children may not hold most of their own rights, their parents do. I can't say I'd permit my child to accept the school or anyone else having the ability to track their whereabouts when they were not at work/school. I would want them to understand that typically, whenever you surrender some portion of your personal liberty, it is rare to regain control of it. The more we surrender, the more people attempt to require that we surrender.

Let's insert some TRUTH here! This high school does NOT require any student to wear this ID when they are off school property, after school hours or on weekends. Nearly every public high school in the US issues ID badges and refuses to allow any minor on their school grounds without this ID or an official guest pass. The only difference is the Radio frequency chip, which is already in millions of US employees corporate badges. School administrators, like employers, don't care where students are or what they are doing when they are off school property & not responsible for them. They are required to know where their registered students are during school hours. Children have limited constitutional rights, but if any parent objects they are free to send their kids to another public school with different rules. Legally, American children are entitled to public education. They have never been entitled to select which public school they will attend. No student is entitled to break school rules without consequences, like loss of privledges. Why should any student who is refusing to obey school rules & being expelled be allowed to vote or participate in ANY school functions?

Do not buy in on this "mark of the Beast" or Big Brother paranoia. The badges in this school, like in every school, is for the safety & protection of both the students & the school. Per the Huffington Post: "If successful, the tracking program could save the district as much as $175,000 lost daily to low attendance figures, which in part determine school funding. Higher attendance could lead to more state funding in the neighborhood of $1.7 million."

Students are NOT having chips inserted into them, nor do they have to carry these badges outside of school property. I had ID badges at High School, college and at every corporation I have worked. Without my badge I couldn't open a door anywhere in my workplace. I leave my office badge in my car, but not out of fear that my employer or anyone else wants to tracking it. If Americans want to panic about privacy, why aren't they objecting to the GPS devices in their cars & cellphones? Adults would do better to focus on their own privacy rights.

Having gone to high school pushing 40 years ago, I can't remember if we had student IDs of any type then. If we did, they certainly weren't photo IDs; and the most definitely had no RFID in them. We had photo IDs in college, as I recall; but, again, no RFID. And we didn't have to wear them; keeping them in the wallet was good enough.

That -- the RFID -- is really the most repugnant part, of course. I'm not sure that having to wear the ID is too terribly problematic, but I can see why many would think it is; better in the wallet or purse, I think (though it's okay, in my opinion, that it be required at least there). There should be, though, no RFID, no matter what...

...or, if there is RFID, then it should simply be for something like attendance-taking, maybe, and that's it. It should definitely not be for determining the students' whereabouts at all times. And the RFID part could still work for attendance-taking purposes even if the ID were in a wallet or purse (assuming it wasn't in one of those stupd "as seen on TV" aluminum wallets, I suppose).

Of course, the problem with RFID is that not everyone -- and, goshdarnit, it always seems to be those who want RFID who are part of "not everyone" -- subscribes to the old maxim, "just because one CAN do a thing doesn't necessarily mean that one should." Once the RFID is in the ID in the wallet or purse (or being worn), even if the wearer was promised that it would only be used for such-and-such kinda' okay purpose, said purpose somehow, over time, gets expanded -- usually without the wearer's consent -- to that which is no longer okay. Give an inch, take a mile, and all that. So, RFID, generally speaking, is a non-starter, as far as I'm concerned...

...and that's coming from someone who's been in high-tech for pushing four decades!

I take the Rutherford Institute's email newsletter mostly for the same reason that I take several other Right-winged diatribes -- including even the idiot David Horowitz's "Frontpage Mag" -- not because I agree with any of them, of course; but, rather, because, as I've always both said and written: One must always keep-up with and know what the enemy is writing and planning. Though I usually follow it up with "...I HATE it when that happens," I occasionally do find myself in agreement with at least the Rutherford Institute, as I do on this one: Someone needs to get in there and protect this kid's civil rights!

This is a hacker- child molester's dream come true.

I wouldn't be OK with wearing that, either. Shows that this high schooler is at least more computer smart, and safety smart than the adults.

Selling protection (insurance, background checks, anti-virus, security) is a big business.

Most of the incidents that people will bring up as reasons to use this are rare things that happened halfway across the country. National crime statistics show that crime is at a 30 year low.

We never needed student IDs, even in a wallet like a drivers license, years ago when crime was much higher, why needed now? Is crime up near the school to warrant this?

My kids have always had to wear the ID cards on a lanyard while in our local high school. No RFID chip, but pretty much the same thing. It is a good safety measure.

Both parties here sound dumb. What religious belief forbids you from wearing an id? The tracking thing is a bit absurd especially considering it operates even after school. But if they remove the tracking chip, there is no problem with them needing to wear id's.