The Northside School District requries students of Jay High School to wear RFID tags (radio frequency identification) at all times on school property so their attendance to class can be monitored. When sophomore Andrea Hernandez refused to wear it, the school district decided to expel her, and a federal judge let them.
Like every other state, schools get money based on a few different factors, attendance being one of them. The NDS swears that the tracking devices aren’t to spy on the children or track them outside of school. They just want to be able to locate children that are not in the classroom where they should be.
In 2010, the average cost of one RFID tag was 14.88 cents (source). So the school district has to get the RFID tags, the software to monitor them, the manpower to work the software to monitor them, all to get their money from the state to fund things like RFID tags? Welcome to the department of redundancy department.
In middle and high school I got caught in many a hall sweep. This was the 90′s way of controlling attendance and making sure students were where they were supposed to be. Are we so needy on electronics that we can’t have assistant principals walk around with a roll sheet and flashlight to point students in the right direction. And the height of irony in this whole ordeal is that while the courts and school boards decide what to do with young Hernandez (who has the right to be concerned about Big Brother), she’s sitting at home NOT BEING COUNTED AT SCHOOL.
Kath
01/10/2013
I hate this. Now, I would think funding is based on actual attendance, not specific class attendance, so I don’t think that really plays into it. Just playing Big Brother is all. This would have been really bad for me when I was in school. Let’s hope this doesn’t become the norm.
Andrea
01/10/2013
I have no words. you said them all. good grief.
Jessie
01/11/2013
You are so right about the money being wasted on the technology when it could have been spent. My thing is that I’ve worked places that instituted big brotheresque policies, claiming something innocent, only to implement exactly the feared results, the ones they would ‘never use it for’ later.