An elementary school in the rural town of Sutter, Calif., has pulled the plug on a new student surveillance system after the technology came under fire by parents and privacy groups.
Brittan Elementary School, located about 40 miles north of state capital Sacramento, is shutting off the high-tech student-tracking system because the company supplying it backed out of the deal, the school said Tuesday.
"It treats children like livestock or shipment pallets, thereby breaching their right to dignity and privacy they have as human beings."
--Cedric Laurant Electronic Privacy Information Center
The company, called InCom, put a kibosh on the project after some parents and a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union aired complaints at a school board meeting last week. Their protests became the subject of numerous media reports.
Parents and privacy advocates were concerned that student badges containing tiny radio devices would infringe on kids' privacy--and that the radio waves could pose a health risk.
"Monitoring children with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags is a very bad idea," Cedric Laurant, policy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said in a statement.
"It treats children like livestock or shipment pallets," he said, "thereby breaching their right to dignity and privacy they have as human beings. Any small gain in administrative efficiency and security is not worth the money spent and the privacy and dignity lost."
A profit-sharing agreement between the school and InCom, also located in Sutter, further fueled the anxieties of parents and privacy groups. InCom charged the school nothing for its services and equipment. In fact, the school was set to gain a share of the company's revenue from sales to other schools. In addition, one of InCom's founders is a contract network administrator for the school.
All 160 Brittan Elementary students who were issued badges returned them on Wednesday. Principal Earnie Graham said he regrets the demise of the program. "It's a tremendous loss," Graham said. "We had the opportunity to be on the cutting edge."
The school introduced the badges to seventh- and eighth-graders about a month ago as part of a "wireless attendance program." Students wore the badges around their necks and scanned them upon entering class. The school hoped the technology would reduce attendance tracking errors and be a timesaver for teachers and administrators.
The system could also record students' location and monitor their arrival and departures for "enhanced security," according to InCom's Web site.
The student badges employ the same technology used in building access badges that companies commonly issue to employees for security purposes.
Drivers who sign up for quick-pay toll programs use similar devices to quickly cruise by toll booths. RFID technology has recently found its way into chain stores, passports, casinos and libraries.
If the school can save 30 instructional minutes a day (5 minutes per class taking roll), the educational advantages to the kids are obvious. The ACLU once again is on the wrong side of the action.
It's also teaching them to submit to the police state and Big Brother. Shock collars would save time and money on the discipline of the students. Would you approve of that? Or do you just knee-jerk against anything the ACLU says?
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
MIT creates a simulation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spacewar. A relic of the early days of minicomputers, it was one of the first computer video games and set the stage for many others, including Asteroids.
Shock collars would save time and money on the discipline of the students. Would you approve of that? Or do you just knee-jerk against anything the ACLU says?