NYT: In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye(RFID)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html?ei=5006&en=edeb6cd5169d554b&ex=1101272400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=

In front of her gated apartment complex, Courtney Payne, a 9-year-old fourth grader with dark hair pulled tightly into a ponytail, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Alan Bragg, the local police chief, standing in a windowless control room more than a mile away.

Chief Bragg is not using video surveillance. Rather, he watches an icon on a computer screen. The icon marks the spot on a map where Courtney got off the bus, and, on a larger level, it represents the latest in the convergence of technology and student security.

Hoping to prevent the loss of a child through kidnapping or more innocent circumstances, a few schools have begun monitoring student arrivals and departures using technology similar to that used to track livestock and pallets of retail shipments.

Here in a growing middle- and working-class suburb just north of Houston, the effort is undergoing its most ambitious test. The Spring Independent School District is equipping 28,000 students with ID badges containing computer chips that are read when the students get on and off school buses. The information is fed automatically by wireless phone to the police and school administrators.

[Rose Siding]

1. Some repub company is making a killing on this

Texas schools are in such great shape that it must have been quite a strain deciding where to spend all the extra money.

[frank frankly]

2. look. this RFID shit isn't going in or on my body. never.

here's some more delightful quotes!

<snip>

It is "naïve to believe all this data will only be used to track children in the extremely unlikely event of the rare kidnapping by a stranger," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the A.C.L.U.

Mr. Steinhardt said schools, once they had invested in the technology, could feel compelled to get a greater return on investment by putting it to other uses, like tracking where students go after school.

Advocates of the technology said they did not plan to go that far. But, they said, they do see broader possibilities, such as implanting RFID tags under the skin of children to avoid problems with lost or forgotten tags. More immediately, they said, they could see using the technology to track whether students attend individual classes.

[kedrys]

3. Get your passports now...

Passports are next; get yours before they start lojacking them. Google "passport rfid" for details.

[BluePatriot]

4. OMG! That's the district I went to school in

Man, I can't imagine how I would have felt wearing a chip around my neck. When I was there, they had just implemented picture ID badges for all students, and the students really hated them. This must be going over like a lead balloon in my old high school.