URGENT! Schools starting radio- electronicly chip- tagging our kids!!!!! wear the chip or else!

[MamaPrincess]

I can't believe it! .. but sadly it is true:

.... from the article about one Texas school :

"under the "Smart ID" program, ID badges have been issued with a tracking chip, which students must wear when attending school. The school badges, worn like a necklace, contain a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and links to their social security number. This allows the school to track the student's location after leaving campus and for as long as the badge is on the student's person." :

 full article:

http://www.zdnet.com/student-expelled-for-refusing-to-wear-rfid-tracking-chip-badge-7000007723/

[Linda on the move]

I wouldn't have a problem with my child wearing that kind of id at a large school. We are looking at transferring one of my high schools from from a small school to a large school - over 2,000 students on an 80 acre campus and one of my questions was how they find students if the need arises, and how they track attendance and communicate it with parents.

Our kids current school seldom seems to know where the children are, and I find it disconcerting.

As far as tracking the student after they leave school, this is a badge, not an implant. Just take it off.

[queenjane]

A friend sent me this link as well and likened it to "microchipping" children (like we do animals)...i think thats a little silly.

A compromise to "being able to track your child anywhere even outside of school!!!" would be for the school to allow the students to leave their badges AT school instead of wearing them home. This would also prevent them being left at home or lost. Students could receive their badges from their first hour teacher and return them to their last hour teacher.
 

[ashleyhaugh]

thats my city, lol, and its causing all kinds of debates here. everything from mark of the beast, to she probably doesnt want to wear cuz shes skipping (i guess its a "bad" school)

i dont like it, and i dont think i'd want my son to wear one either. i dont think he needs to be "tracked"

[erinmattsmom88]

This is totally insane. I've been reading about this lately. There is a girl in Texas who is fighting this. Good for her! What's next? I would move if I had my kids in one of these schools. Luckily, we are homeschooling.

[JennJenn84]

This would piss me off! No way do I want my child wearing something to track them! This would make me want to homeschool.

[sk8boarder15]

Nope. I don't care what the reasoning is. Not cool, Children need to be respected and this is anything but respectful. 

The only case I'd be ok with putting an RF ID chip on a child is one who is in sever danger of hurting themselves by wandering off, and those cases are rare. 

[JollyGG]

When I worked as a nurses aid 10+ years ago we all grabbed a badge at the desk and typed our badge number into the computer so the person at the desk could see at a glance where each nurse and aid were. That way she could easily either call into a room or send someone down to relay a message or ask a question. You could also see if a nurse or aid had left the floor and was unavailable, perhaps at break or lunch.

I now work in a different career field. Two years ago we moved to a huge building. I think I spend 1/2 my time running all over the building looking for whatever person I need. I spend a lot of time trying to track my boss down. I'd love it if I could check a computer screen and see where he was. It would give me a good idea if he was busy or if I could grab him and would save me the trouble of tracking him down.

I don't know how effective it would be in a school. If a student was somewhere they shouldn't be they would simply remove the badge. It seems like a big investment for a relatively weak system for keeping track of where students are. 

[ollyoxenfree]

I understand the distaste and discomfort with the idea. These days, however, isn't it fairly common for people to be trackable by GPS on their cell phones and cars? Or have I been watching too many spy movies? I know that it's not the same as an ID badge with a chip but generally, we're becoming more connected and, yes, trackable in our society. Debate away on whether you think that's a good thing or not. 

Personally, I'd prefer it if financial resources were allocated to expenses like more teachers, teaching assistants, special education resources, support personnel including psychologists, occupational and physical and speech therapists, books and materials, gym and lab and computer equipment, art supplies, musical instruments, playgrounds, vegetable gardens and student kitchens, innovative programming, workshops, guest lecturers and artists and authors and scientists and engineers, field trips, heritage festivals........

There is a huge list of stuff that our schools - our children - need and deserve. I'd rather see the money spent on items on that list rather than a feeble security system that is easily circumvented. 

[meemee]

i am trying to understand the reason why?

is this for high schoolers? is it meant to make sure they dont play hookey? 

why do they need to track students?

i read the article but i did not really understand what's going on. 

my biggest reaction was the link to social security number. we dont provide that information in school applications do we? i guess its easy to use their SS no. to track the students if they change schools. 

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

 All a kid would have to do would be to take the thing off if they didn't want to be found or give it to a friend to carry around.  Let's face it, it's not a hard system to beat.  I think regardless of what it's supposed to do, it's a waste of money that could be put towards really helping to educate children.

[nextcommercial]

I don't like it either.  My own child didn't need to be "tracked".  If they have bad kids who need to be tracked, let them wear it.   

[serenbat]

Quote:

I don't like it either.     My own child didn't need to be "tracked".  If they have bad kids who need to be tracked, let them wear it.   yea, good luck with that happening! 

such an invasion I can't grasps why any parent would agree to it

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by serenbat 

such an invasion I can't grasps why any parent would agree to it

Because I don't see it as that much of an invasion?

I can imagine the school coming up with a safety-based rationale for this.  I know plenty of schools do "lockdown" drills for bomb scares or active shooters, I can see one of them deciding that this kind of device would help them assure safe evacuation.  I can see schools who have had issues with custody disputes and familial abduction wanting a way to easily check the location of certain students, and deciding, hey, why make certain kids stand out, let's just hand out badges to everyone.  If a school has a particular problem with gang activity, I can see how a student tracking system would let them keep ahead of situations that look like the Jets and the Sharks getting ready to rumble.

The school system in my city has dealt with gang activity and race riots in the past, and god willing will not have to again.  When I was a high school student, I occasionally heard from my class mates that they were planning to commit suicide.  Reporting those incidents resulted in a flurry of building searches.  A tag would at least give a search a place to start.  But I can see a concerned administrator wanting to tag all the kids in hopes of being able to prevent problems, or deal with them more safely if they occur. 

DH and I have sometimes worked in secure facilities and been asked to wear RFID badges.  It hasn't been a big deal for us to do that.  The RFID doesn't appear to give our employers any info on our whereabouts outside the secure facility.  Presuming the same to be true of school badges, presuming the badges are issued to and required for school employees as well as students, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[serenbat]

I see it as a direct invasion. 

If you think it's great- YOU do, not have the government force this upon other, this is my concern. If you want to know where your child is, you take the responsibility- chip your child. 

I would love to buy into that the lock downs, etc work but anecdotally I have only seen other wise. I have yet to see real static's that they do work, tons of feel good but we still have events happening.

In my town we have a tourist/child's museum that recently had to do a "lock down" for a child missing. The child was outside and they could not contact the museum to get the child back in - the procedure did not work.

My DH's company also use to have a system with drills and they found they had so many problems with keeping track it is not used. They were to stand in a designated spot for fire drills outside. The fire company came and told them- if there is a fire- "get the F out and stay far away from the building", not stand in a designated space, besides if you have a real emergency they close the office and you still have no idea who should and should not be in there- that info in kept on site and if defeats the whole purpose.

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by serenbat 

I see it as a direct invasion. 

If you think it's great- YOU do, not have the government force this upon other, this is my concern. If you want to know where your child is, you take the responsibility- chip your child. 

Serenbat, I was responding directly to your prior question - "Why would any parent agree to it?" 

I feel that my need to track MY kids is adequately addressed without a chip.  I'll probably always feel that, because I have only two kids to keep track of.  Schools are responsible for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kids during the school day.  They may legitimately feel that their needs are different.

I think it's fine and fair for individual parents to have objections to this system.  What bugs me is when people start throwing around "Why would anyone?" type statements.  I can see why some people would.  It's not just about me.

[serenbat]

Quote:

Serenbat, I was responding directly to your prior question - "Why would any parent agree to it?" - I did not pose this

I did not pose a question- I made a statement, please do not put unfound words in and say I did this- completely untrue

[Linda on the move]

The article both states that the device would allow teens to be tracked after they left school, and that the chips are read by electronic readers located throughout the campus. I don't see how both can be true. If you need electronic readers to read the chips, then they are going to work once a teen is out of range.

I'm surprised by the responses here. I'm curious how many of the posters have kids who attend schools with thousands of students, or have recently visited a campus of this size. 

As Queen of the Meadow pointed out, all a kid has to do is take it off for it to not work. Although badges being worn front and center is the rule at high schools here -- anyone on campus not wearing a badge is stopped. None the less, finding one's child when they aren't opposed to being found is actually something most parents want. Actually, being able to find our children at ALL times is a pretty basic thing to most parents. I don't know many parents, even of teens, who have a "if they show up, great, if not, don't worry" attitude.

Personally, I would like a system that timestamped when each child entered campus and left campus. One of my teens was late getting home from school, and when I started to backtrack to figure out at what time she went missing, the school didn't know. It ended up that she was on a field trip that was an hour late getting back, but the office didn't have a clue where she was or any way to figure it out. They had that she arrived at school that morning, then nothing. The school we are considering switching to does attendance every hour and has an automatic system to email parents at the end of the school day with any unexcused absences. They also have 3 students out of regular class each hour of the day to act as runners to go find students who need to be found (for things like dentist appointments and what not). With thousands of students and a huge campus, this is a big job.
 

Because of cell phones, kids are easier to find OUT of school than in. They aren't allowed to use their cell phones at schools. Many schools don't even allow kids to have their cell phones on them.

[MeepyCat]

Originally Posted by serenbat 

I did not pose a question- I made a statement, please do not put unfound words in and say I did this- completely untrue

Forgive me then, I was responding to your prior statement.  I felt the question was more then a little implied.

[CallMeMommy]

Looks like Anonymous wasn't happy about it, either: https://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-jay-rfid-tracking-639/