Florida School District Begins Fingerprinting Students 294
First time accepted submitter Boogaroo writes "The Washington County school district in Florida has placed fingerprint scanners at the entrance to Chipley High School. They've also made a decision to run an alternate trial by placing the scanners on buses since most kids in the district ride buses every day. Since the beginning the fingerprinting, attendance is up, but not everyone is in agreement that the costs and risks are worth the attendance boost." Aren't there simpler and less-creepy ways to count kids, like looking at empty desks?
It certainly is creepy (Score:5, Insightful)
The nannying police state creeping into all aspect of people's lives. I would pull my kids out of any school that did that. I'd bet that "attendance" isn't the primary goal of this process.
Ah yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Getting the new generation ready for "Papers please, Comrade" and "If you go nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about" society.
Intrusive, Probably Illegal, and a waste of Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when was it ok for government to force you to be fingerprinted if you haven't been charged with a crime, joined the military or police, or work in some other high security facility?
Re:Intrusive, Probably Illegal, and a waste of Mon (Score:2, Insightful)
Since when was it ok for government to force you to be fingerprinted if you haven't been charged with a crime, joined the military or police, or work in some other high security facility?
Ever since schools became high security facilities, of course.
Wellllll (Score:4, Insightful)
We already have cops in high schools, given the principals the authority to ruin the lives of high school students on the slightest whimsy, and eroded (if not destroyed outright) any suspicion that these students nearing adulthood actually have any rights while ensuring the parents have no actual responsibility for their child's eventual success or failure.
I will point that there have been pushes to fingerprint kids in schools all over the nation for years now. Fingerprint scanners are a natural combination of this and the above. Schools are prisons and daycares now. Who needs education? Just give them a pass if they can spell their name and move on.
I've worked with finger print scanners. They suck. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wet fingers cause problems (rain, just washed your hands, etc).
Dirty fingers cause problems.
Dirty scanners cause problems.
Etc, etc, etc.
I'm thinking that this is just an excuse to spend money on "hi-tech" for the school district. Follow the money. Who's getting paid for it?
Re:Know thy students (Score:2, Insightful)
yes, blame this on teachers, not on the management that is making the decisions. good job, you've managed to blame someone with no say in this at all!
A school has no right to fingerprint (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure a school can legally take a fingerprint from a kid even the police can only do so if the person in question has committed a crime. Also, what about the kids who don't use the schoolbus?
Re:Intrusive, Probably Illegal, and a waste of Mon (Score:4, Insightful)
...yet. These sort of things ARE slippery slopes. It's definitely an overly intrusive way of taking attendance.
Re:Ah yes (Score:3, Insightful)
Society already accepts the use of law enforcement for the purposes of social engineering, there is no need for expensive measures like travel papers and universal tracking.
A good example is the use of societal resources against people found to be in possession of small amounts of unapproved substances. There is something really twisted about a societal barometer that judges the possession of a small amount of marijuana as a worse thing than detainment.
Re:Intrusive, Probably Illegal, and a waste of Mon (Score:4, Insightful)
Look at johny, he always has to sign in instead of a fingerprint, he must have a disease, and he signs to protect us. and then bullying begins. Alternative outcomes get worse if the parent opts out for their child. Anything different can be enough to be detrimental.
Re:How about ways to count kids that isn't illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
...yet. This is the way it works - first you make it optional, then you take away the infrastructure to support any other option, then you make it mandatory claiming the other way costs too much or can't be supported anymore.
Either take the enhanced search, or go through the x-ray machine whose radiation dosage is unpublished. Good good, now be on your way citizen.
Sheeple (Score:3, Insightful)
Wate of money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ah yes (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Intrusive, Probably Illegal, and a waste of Mon (Score:2, Insightful)
And the TSA states "People can opt-out from body scanners".
Except that people who opted-out got the sexual-assault 'enhanced' pat-down.
Have you learned nothing from what went on in airports?
I don't even see what are the benefits that parents can get from making their child opt for the finger-print attendance check. The normal attendance check can be flawed (a teacher might mark your kid as present when he wasn't in class, or the teacher might even not bother to check attendance most of the time) but unless your kid has a habit of missing school everyday you have nothing to worry about. And there no more than 1 kid like that per class.
So think of the case of the TSA body scanners and remember this: these schools don't spend tons of money on finger-print scanners just to have 10% of the students use them. They most likely will find a way to discourage opting-out. And whatever way they find to discourage opting-out, it won't be pleasant and it will be unfair. Kids and parents will be coerced to use the finger-print scanners, don't doubt it.
Re:Know thy students (Score:4, Insightful)
yes, blame this on teachers, not on the management that is making the decisions. good job, you've managed to blame someone with no say in this at all!
Whooosh!!!
Re:How about ways to count kids that isn't illegal (Score:3, Insightful)
Those cases were back before the Republicans started stacking the SCOTUS with partisan hacks. If those cases were argued today, the result would yet another 5-4 decision pissing on us serfs.
Re:How about ways to count kids that isn't illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
They ruled that money is equivalent to speech, and corporations deserve all the rights of actual human beings. They issued this ruling, overturning a near century of precedent, because it benefited their party in an upcoming election. Even the plaintiffs that "won" the case hadn't asked for such a ruling -- the so-called "justices" ordered them to go back and re-argue the case for no reason other than to give them an excuse to issue the ruling they had already decided on. Only an absolute fool could fail to recognize just how corrupt they are.
Re:Florida Testbed for Hanging Chad Technology (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not going to mod you down, because I think you have some valid points. You should be aware, though, that from the way you write, you sound a bit crazy. Don't capitalize random words. Say the point you want to make first. Then give your examples, and explain them if necessary. If you work to sound more rational, people will take your points more seriously.
To put it another way: if people think you're crazy, they'll ignore everything you say. If your goal is to make a difference, you have to not sound crazy.