Snapshot #3

Haven't I gone on about this kind of thing? Haven't I told you this would happen more and more? (Yes, I have - I searched Lotus for posts that contained the word "privacy." There were 91 of them.)

Sutter, California (AP, February 10) - The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will rob their children of privacy.

The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on January 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. ...

The system was imposed, without parental input, by the school as a way to simplify attendance-taking and potentially reduce vandalism and improve student safety. Principal Earnie Graham hopes to eventually add bar codes to the existing IDs so that students can use them to pay for cafeteria meals and check out library books.

But some parents see a system that can monitor their children's movements on campus as something straight out of Orwell.

"There is a way to make kids safer without making them feel like a piece of inventory," said Michael Cantrall, one of several angry parents who complained. "Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored and someone is always going to be watching you?"

The antennas for the system are now at classroom doors; Graham wants to add them to locker room bathrooms. And he says he doesn't see what all the fuss is about - after all, he says

for now, they merely confirm that each child is in his or her classroom, rather than track them around the school like a global-positioning device.

("For now" being a very notable qualifier in that statement.)

What's more, he says that it is within his power to set rules that promote a positive school environment: If he thinks ID badges will improve things, he says, then badges there will be.

The fact that the school is being paid several thousand dollars - and has been promised a cut of future sales - by the manufacturer, a local company with close ties to the school, of course had nothing whatsoever to do with his decision. It was all about his god-like authority to impose requirements on his own authority without regard for the parents and of course his dear and touching concern for student safety.

What I always think when I hear about anything like this is that if it's so damn good, let's expand it. Not only students have to wear the suckers, teachers do, too. And custodians. And cafeteria workers. And administrative staff. And the principal. Especially the principal. And since it's obvious that no one should be able to check on themselves, then while the principal can check on the students, the students should be the ones to check on the principal, to be able to monitor him everywhere he goes. After all, doesn't he want to be safe, too? And wouldn't he feel so much safer with so many eyes keeping watch over him?