Lawsuit targets tracking chips in Texas student IDs

Lawsuit targets tracking chips in Texas student IDs
Programme to boost classroom funds sparks debate over privacy and religion
AP
Published: 15:06 November 28, 2012

Austin, Texas: To 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez, the tracking microchip embedded in her student ID card is a “mark of the beast,” sacrilege to her Christian faith — not to mention how it pinpoints her location, even in the school bathroom.

But to her budget-reeling San Antonio school district, those chips carry a potential $1.7 million (Dh6.24 million) in classroom funds.

Starting this fall, the fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with “locator” chips in student ID badges on two of its campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision. Hernandez’s refusal to participate isn’t a twist on teenage rebellion, but has launched a debate over privacy and religion that has forged a rare like-mindedness between typically opposing groups.

When Hernandez and her parents balked at the so-called SmartID, the school agreed to remove the chip but still required her to wear the badge. The family refused on religious grounds, stating in a lawsuit that even wearing the badge was tantamount to “submission of a false god” because the card still indicated her participation.

More:
http://gulfnews.com/news/world/usa/lawsuit-targets-tracking-chips-in-texas-student-ids-1.1111375