School Tracks Kids Via Badges and Radio Frequencies
Bump and Update: Balloon Juice explains why tracking kids is so wrong.
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2/11/05
If a school ever did this to my kid, I'd be livid. So why aren't more of the parents at Brittan elementary school, north of Sacramento, making a fuss? Tracking kids through radio frequncies and making them wear badges is a practice that should be nipped in the bud....before it spreads.
The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children's privacy.
The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan.
Anyone remember the history behind REM's "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" It was about the guy who was identified as mugging Dan Rather.
In 1997, based on a tip from a psychiatrist, Rather's attacker was identified as William Tager. According to the psychiatrist, Tager, who was currently serving time for killing an NBC stagehand, blamed news media for beaming signals into his head, and thought if he could just find out the correct frequency, he could block those signals that were constantly assailing him. Hence the enigmatic inquiry.
Here's how these badges work:
Each student is required to wear identification cards around their necks with their picture, name and grade and a wireless transmitter that beams their ID number to a teacher's handheld computer when the child passes under an antenna posted above a classroom door.
....[Principal Ernie Graham] says that it is within his power to set rules that promote a positive school environment: If he thinks ID badges will improve things, he says, then badges there will be.
Hope this guy gets canned quick. With parents like this, it may not happen:
Not everyone in this close-knit farming town northwest of Sacramento is against the system. Some said they welcomed the IDs as a security measure. "This is not Mayberry. This is Sutter, California. Bad things can happen here," said Tim Crabtree, an area parent.
What's next? Will we all have to install Amber alerts in our kitchens and living rooms? Yes, bad things happen. No, you cannot take my or my child's civil liberties away because of them.
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