Students in Texas to be monitored by microchip

[Dragonbreathp9d]

This is really scary. I would like to get a non RT source on this just to confirm though

http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-microchips-school-district-262/

[arcane1]

1. I wonder who profits from the tax-funded purchase of this technology

Gotta be a brother-in-law somewhere.

[tularetom]

2. And when kids find a way to mess with the system what then?

I can already see lots of possibilites. Take a female student's card and stick it in a male teacher's glove compartment. Then watch him try to explain what an underage girl was doing at his home overnight.

Of course I guess the next step would be to implant the RFID chip under the student's skin, like they do with dogs. If THAT wouldn't cause a revolt we are doomed as a civilization.

[jp11]

11. Doubtful that would happen.

Unless they use the more expensive long range tags, I'd say that is unlikely when kids are going to lose them, tamper with them, etc.

Then you'd need to have either the teacher's car be a point of identification to 'know' that it was a male teacher's car and that the student's id was in it. That can only happen if it is a long range tag OR every teacher's car has a tag reader in it to read the tags that enter them.

Then you'd need a reader at the teacher's home to read the tag OR have their home be within roughly 100-200 meters of the school's system and again have that teacher's home be 'marked' or a 'known' location.

It is all possible but highly unlikely, that you are putting the readers in people's cars/homes or going high range when the stated goal is monitoring IN the school. It is much easier to 'mark' locations in the school like entrances/exits, classrooms, etc and using the cheaper short range tags.

The next step wouldn't be under the skin for students it would be in all driver's licenses much how more recent pass ports got those chips put in them.

[MineralMan]

3. Ah, a chip in their student ID card.

They're not chipping the kids like dogs and cats. I'm of two minds on this one, really.

For the school to be able to know where the students are while on campus might be reason enough, I suppose. But, then, kids who don't want to be found will just put the card somewhere and go where they want, then pick the card up later.

This technology is used at a lot of businesses that have large numbers of employees in a campus-style setting. The technology can locate a particular person quickly, and sometimes that's important, I suppose.

[hobbit709]

5. Wait until some genius plays with the data on the RFID chips.

This could get real interesting.

[MineralMan]

8. More likely, the kids will hack the things

and put nekkid photos of themselves on them. I suppose this could be misused, but I don't think that's the idea. It's probably more to count the kids at school so they can send the attendance report off and get their money.

Now, if they know how long Bobbie and Kent stayed at the school dance before they left to do the nasty somewhere, which they could do with this technology, then it would be a little more intrusive. But Bobbie and Kent will just give their ID cards to someone else to hold while they slip away.

The inevitability of this kind of personal tracking stuff isn't going away, I think. Your next driver's license may have similar technology built in. You may already have credit cards in your purse or wallet with RFID chips in them. It's likely.

[hobbit709]

9. none of mine do.

I made sure of that.

[MineralMan]

10. Well, OK, then.

You're safe...for now...

You can always wrap those RFID cards in aluminum foil. That'll keep them from being read.

Soon, a guy will walk into a store, and his cell phone will ring. It'll be the store, letting him know that there's a sale on Aisle 32. Bet on it.

[jp11]

12. I am of two minds as well.

I don't but that students were marked absent because they weren't in class. I just don't get how they can't be on time for 'home room' to say 'here' but show up for other classes where teachers, like at least one other, must take attendance. Between homeroom and other classes the school can't be bothered to change 'absent' to late/skipped class(es).

Beyond that knowing where people's children are is what I think parents expect. I'm not a parent but if I was I'd expect the school to do their job in educating my kids AND in providing their safety/security which a huge part of is knowing where they are.

I admit it would suck for kids when they are places they probably shouldn't be as a teen I often 'snuck' into rooms where I had a legitimate purpose but perhaps didn't have 'explicit' permission because there wasn't a teacher/faculty member to supervise me or others as we worked on projects or sometimes just goofed around. Had this kind of system been in place perhaps I would've gotten in trouble for that or been denied entry as doors unlock with the chips during certain times if the school could be bothered to let students be authorized for anything like that. The easy answer is ditch the chip somewhere but who knows how long that would be permitted to go on before the chip became your 'id' and without it you were marked absent/late/sent to the office etc to make you carry it all the time and not lose it or ditch it.

The other issue of course is how/when the chips are read, to be the 'safest' it should be a short range within the school probably a few feet to read them at doors. The chips should also only contain basic information to prevent either students or others from gaining private information from the chips.

[MineralMan]

4. And parents are now able to track their children

through their cell phones. Technology presents many interesting challenges that we didn't use to have to deal with. How we deal with those changes should be an interesting thing to follow.

I don't carry a cell phone. I would, but I have no use for one. So nobody can track me as I go about my boring activities. I guess that's good. I doubt anyone would be interested, anyhow.

[brewens]

6. They already have chips planted in all of us, why not make good

use of them?

[HopeHoops]

13. Not everyone, just those of us who got the space alien anal probe treatment.

[intaglio]

7. Tell fundies it is "The Mark of The Beast"

That'll stop it dead in it's tracks

[Igel]

14. My kid's former school district had RFID tags.

If you didn't have your ID, you couldn't board the bus. The scanner said if you were getting on the right bus. The bus also wouldn't leave if the student was at school and hadn't been accounted for.

If the student wasn't in class but was on the bus, the school knew. They'd had more than a few custody battles, with parents kidnapping kids. The school could show that the kid was taken at the bus stop before or after school.

I like the idea of checking to see if kids are where they're supposed to be. Currently we get frequent "Can you identify this student?" video-capture shots.

The real problem was making sure the kids have their IDs on their persons and that their IDs are their own IDs. Bad when one kid has three IDs in his backpack.

(The tags don't have enough capacity for a picture. Sorry.)