Texas: Legal to Force Students to Wear RFID Chip at School
Justin Bathon on Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 2:50PM A district court judge in San Antonio upheld the expulsion of a student at a magnet school for refusing to wear a RFID chip (radio frequency identification: the technology that allows for geographic tracking at all times, like the thing you can have implanted in your dog). Not surprisingly, the ACLU jumped into the case on the part of the student, arguing that this violated the students privacy and is an unacceptable step toward a surveillance society.
The school argued that this is all harmless and that the chips were only used to locate students that are not in the classroom, but still in the school building (they said it cannot work outside the school building and would not be given to third parties). The district was convinced they were losing over a million dollars a year in state revenue because students were in hallways and not in classrooms. Further, as a magnet program, the student can return to their home school if she did not like the policy.
A lively discussion already developed on twitter, but let's continue the conversation (with longer arguments) in the comments. I will put my thoughts in the comments also.
So, pick a side. Are you okay with this policy and this ruling?
H/T: This came from Jon Becker's twitter feed with the hashtag #SchoolLawWTF attached. Appropriate.
