SAN ANTONIO, Texas (PNN) - August 29, 2012 - Students and parents are rallying against new intrusive ID badges that track student movement on the campuses of two San Antonio, Texas schools.
Father Steven Hernandez does not agree with the district’s new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) pilot program.
According to lying school officials, the new identification tags are designed to help the district improve safety by locating students at any time, while on campus, at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School.
RFID tags are also supposed to help with attendance by counting students more accurately as they enter the school building.
District spokesman Pasqual Gonzalez says the two campuses have a high rate of truancy and tardiness, and the district could gain $2 million in state funding by improving attendance at the schools.
According to Gonzalez, the system will not be fully implemented until the end of September.
Hernandez considers the new ID tags a spy chip.
Katie Deolloz agrees She lives in Dallas and felt it was important to join the protest effort.
Deolloz is a member of CASPIAN, or Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.
The group is joined by national radio host Dr. Katherine Albrecht, co-author of a book opposing RFID. She is lending her support to Hernandez.
“NISD is a school district and not a government,” said Hernandez.
His daughter has decided to wear her old photo ID even though students were told the new microchip ID is mandatory.
“It makes me uncomfortable. It’s an invasion of my privacy,” said Andrea Hernandez.
The sophomore at John Jay High School thinks other teenagers will be rebellious against the new rule and stuff the badges in a locker or hand them to a friend to leave campus.
She doesn’t think the monitoring device will stop students from skipping classes. She believes the tracking system isn’t necessary since the district already has surveillance cameras and pig thug cops on duty.
The teenager is also worried about who else might track students since the RFID tags cannot be turned off; they continue sending signals even when students leave school.
