SUTTER COUNTY Students kept under surveillance at school Some parents angry over radio device
Greg Lucas, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, February 10, 2005 http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/10/BAGG0B8I4D1.DTL Sutter, Sutter County -- Angry parents, saying their children's privacy rights are being violated, have asked the board of the tiny Brittan School District to rescind a requirement that all students wear badges that monitor their whereabouts on campus using radio signals. Located between the massive silos of Sutter Rice Co. and the Sutter Buttes, this small town has 587 kindergarten through eighth-graders who are the first public school kids in the country to be tracked on campus by such a system, which is designed to ease attendance taking and increase campus security. "This is the only public school monitoring where children go, with kids walking around with little homing beacons,'' said Nicole Ozer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer aiding several parents who oppose the badges, which students wear around their necks. Although all students have identification badges, only seventh- and eighth-graders are being tracked in a test run, according to school officials and representatives of InCom, a Sutter-based company developing the system. "There is no danger or I wouldn't put it on my son,'' Florrie Turner, a school district employee helping the company develop the software, told the school board at its Tuesday night meeting. The student tracking system uses radio frequency identification technology used mainly to monitor inventory and livestock. Ozer said a district in Texas was testing the technology for use on school buses to see that students get on and off. Several parents in Sutter complained they weren't given a choice about their child participating in the new system and argued that the badges violated their children's right to privacy. "Our belief is these children have never done anything to give up some of their civil rights. They've never done anything wrong, and they're being tracked," said Michelle Tatro who along with her husband, Jeff, wrote a formal complaint to the school board protesting the program. Tatro said when her 13-year-old daughter came home from the first day of school in January, when the students began wearing the tags, she had waved the tag in her fist and said, "Look at this. I'm a grocery item. I'm a piece of meat. I'm an orange." Their daughter was threatened with disciplinary action if she did not participate in the program, according to a letter sent by the district. Although the board said nothing in response to parental complaints, several attendees defended the system, saying it would keep kids in school, free up more time for teachers to teach and increase security for pupils and teachers. "It's baffling why so many people are bothered by the district being able to tell them where their kids are at," said Tim Crabtree, a high school teacher who said he hoped the technology would come to his classroom. The Tatros' complaint and objections by other parents to the tracking system have led the district to relax its rule that all children wear the tags. If parents send a note saying their children don't want to wear the tag, they don't have to display it, but they must carry it on their person until the board makes a decision on the program's future at a special meeting called for next Tuesday. The badges contain a photo of pupils, their grade level and their name. On the back is a tube roughly the size of a roll of dimes. Within it is a chip with an antenna attached. As the chip passes underneath a reader mounted above the classroom door, it transmits a 15-digit number, which then is translated into the student's name by software contained in a handheld device used by teachers to check attendance. Seven classrooms were equipped with the readers, as were two bathrooms. The bathroom readers were never turned on, according to school and company officials, and were removed Wednesday by InCom because of objections by parents. InCom has also disabled its system and deleted data it has collected to date. Readers have been turned off until the board reaches a decision next week. Developers of the system say parents concerned over privacy violations don't understand the short range of radio frequency identification devices. "The tags physically can't be read from a long distance," said Doug Ahlers, an InCom partner. Several of the aspects of the program the Tatros didn't like were not the idea of InCom but of Principal Earnie Graham. InCom said it could have tested its software simply by mounting the chip on a blank piece of paper carried by students. It was Graham -- who also wears an ID badge -- who wanted the chip attached to a student identification card with names and photos. Parents still objected to the requirement their children wear the badges. "You're saying, 'We don't have a choice. They have to wear the badges or they'll be suspended.' That's my child, my blood," said Toni Scrogin, whose daughter attends the school. 'It should be my choice." Graham said that in retrospect parents should have been consulted about the program rather than simply notifying them about it with a brief blurb in the school newsletter. But a dry run on the badge readers during summer school caused "no outcry, " Graham said. "It wasn't an issue." Despite testing the new system, the school is still using its old software to take attendance, Graham said. Allowing the testing of InCom's system cost the school nothing, Graham added. Ahlers said the company had donated some computer equipment to the school for its trouble. E-mail Greg Lucas at [EMAIL PROTECTED] You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
