Erin Cox reports that a district in Connecticut is thinking of making students carry chipped ID cards so that they can track them. Yes, really.
The New Canaan school district is thinking about electronically tracking their students.
Many students are not pleased with the idea that they could end up testing new tracking technology.
[…]
New Canaan already has GPS and video cameras on all their buses, but is only exploring being part of an experiment testing such tracking. Under the program, students would be carrying an ID card with radio frequency strips. It pinpoints a student’s location, be it in the classroom or off grounds in nearby downtown.
Read more on WTNH.
This is a really, really, really bad idea. The district has a solid reputation in terms of student performance, so why do they need to surveill or track students this way? Naturally, a vendor thinks it’s a good idea and could be used in emergencies. And the last time New Canaan had that kind of emergency was… when?
New Canaan, meet Lower Merion. And the ACLU. And PogoWaRight.org.