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

[JackieO]

SPRING, Tex. - 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.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html?adxnnl=1&8hpib=&oref=login&adxnnlx=1100714982-9HuKVczgKDkVTXSjirJ2eA

[Burma Jones]

1. OK for kids I suppose, with parental consent

I would have my kids use them at least until their teens. However, I can see the day when we're all asked to wear these chips somewhere.........

[JackieO]

3. Perhaps integrated into a national ID card

:shrug:

[__Inanna__]

5. This is very alarming to me

I can see how it's being positioned as a benefit for school kids, but to extend it to adults (which I believe will happen, and not just in the form of ID cards) is absolutely alarming to me. And the pace with which all this is happening, post-election, should make everyone really sit up and take notice. This is a step in the direction of total control over our movements and a real threat, as I see it.

[JackieO]

6. Yes

I see it as a serious threat, as well.

[Thoth]

7. Yes, very scary...

It's always sold as for our safety. Alex Jones, that Libertarian ranter is right on in his assessment of this Big Brother like intrusions into our real freedoms.

[qs04]

9. Kids > Criminals > Everyone (nt)

[Beetwasher]

2. "Keep Your 'Lectric Eye On Me Babe!"

"Put your raygun to my head! Press your space face close to mine love! Freak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!"

[iconoclastic cat]

10. I'm a space invader!

[JackieO]

14. "Someone to claim us, someone to follow

Someone to shame us, some brave Apollo

Someone to fool us, someone like you

We want you Big Brother"

[tk2kewl]

4. maybe we should just sneak up on the school yard

pick off one child at a time with a tranquilizer gun, then take dna samples and put gps transponders around their necks. works for the bison in yellowstone

[Eloriel]

8. Hel-LO, Big Brother. So glad to see you in that sheep suit.

Looking all innocent and helpful.

[montana_hazeleyes]

11. I felt goose bumps

and the hair on my neck raise up reading this. That was just my instant reaction. Damn.

[SmokingJacket]

12. Nausea. Guts rolling over. n/t

[Deja Q]

13. Why an ID card? Shove the tags in & up our legs like they do with cattle.

That'll make ID theft even more fun! :wow:

[JackieO]

15. maybe

what happens when kids keep losing their cards?

[Occulus]

16. they'll give them a ring

or some such small, personal item. Perhaps a bracelet or necklace. Kids' marketers will create trendy new ones that'll give them a discount on their Fruit Roll-ups with every fifth purchase (at participating locations).

The sad part is, I sort of doubt I'm being sarcastic. I mean to be, but... well....

*sigh*