A different kind of tagging in schools
Parents in a California school district are up in arms that a school has outfitted its students with RFID tags and installed scanners throughout campus. Just in case you don't know (and I don't mean to insult anybody's intelligence), an RFID tag is that thing you wear around your neck and swipe at a scanner in order to get into your office building. I couldn't tell from the story whether students have to hold their cards up to a scanner or if the scanner is strong enough to read the card as its holder passed by. According to the story, the point of the system is to keep tabs on attendance. Sounds like the school didn't do a great job of communicating to the parents what was going on, but in theory I am hard pressed to find anything wrong with the system itself. Okay, there's the odd blip about scanners at bathroom doors, but even that could possibly be used to keep tabs on kids out of the classroom with a bathroom pass.

Just seems to me people are too paranoid about Big Brother scenarios. Why would anyone - goverment, business, or other entity - want attendance records other than to, um, record attendance? Color me naive, I suppose.

On the other hand, these guys ain't complaining about it. - served up by Ralphie @ 2:11 PM