And people ACTUALLY complain about a Nanny state

[Racket_Man]

but when it comes right down to it they sit in relative silence. but some have gained a voice

Texas school puts an RFID locator chip in school IDs and requires students to keep ID on them

The article does not say WHY the San Antonio school distrct is implementing this policy but this one does: High rate of absenteeism and truancy prompt RFID IDs.

Heck I could come to school and simply LEAVE my ID at school and slip out of the building.

I also wonder how secure the system is. AND can it be used/abused/hacked outside of the school setting/building

[Andara Bledin]

If the school can track the IDs, then so can anyone else who gets ahold of one.

This is going to go over as well as the police putting notes on people's cars to hide their valuables.

^-.-^

[bex1218]

I'm not as worried about the tracking as much (smartphones being popular and what not) as the fact that this whole thing is flawed.

[Duelist925]

Oh yeah, because the security guards, or janitors, knowing when some young girl is alone in the bathrooms with no one nearby is a perfect idea.

Because no one outside the school system could ever POSSIBLY gain access to this system and use it for nefarious purposes.

Oh god this is so stupid it hurts.

[siead_lietrathua]

it's not really a GPS.
it's a small radio broadcast signal. it only works within the school building itself.which makes it doubly stupid. if it's not a GPS chip that can tell where the kid is out of school to a generic location (like a cellphone one) then how will it help with their truancy? all it will say is kid XYZ isn't here (or their card is broken), which is the exact same data that the damn attendance sheets will show them.
if i was one of those kids, the battery would be pulled out, or i'd be fixing rare earth magnets to the back of the card to fuck up the electronics. or jsut refuse to wear it.
this is such a damn money waster and pointless.

@ Duelist, i think accusing janitors and security people of being ephebophiles is a scaretactic.
and even if someone outside the school got the data.. it's useless. they would still have to be inside the school to find the student. once the student is out of the range of the reciever it's useless technology.

[Andara Bledin]

It's an RFID tag. If it has the range to tell the school where a kid is on the grounds, then it has the range for someone to do something nefarious to a kid that has one on them. The idea that it "only works within the school building" is really inaccurate.

It's a trivial matter to build a receiver. Here, have a few dozen how to guides for just that purpose: How to Build an RFID Skimmer

I really want to know how the hell this system will "improve safety," as one official claims. The kids bent on doing mischief sure as hell aren't going to be wearing their tracking devices when they do it.

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[siead_lietrathua]

if a kid's skipping school i doubt they would carry their badge around. it would be left at school to try to fool the teachers, or left at home so it would read "at home" if they were faking sick. so a portable scanner would also be useless. you said yourself "The kids bent on doing mischief sure as hell aren't going to be wearing their tracking devices when they do it." building an RFID scanner won't be any good if there's nothing to scan.
but ya, the whole program is a fancy, electronic attendance sheet that's pointless.

[Andara Bledin]

It doesn't follow at all that a portable scanner would be useless.

Sure, the kids who are the problem that this is supposed to (and probably completely fails to) address won't get hit by such a thing, but the honest kids, who likely make up the majority of the student body will be dutifully wearing their RFID tracking devices, and a portable scanner is likely to catch them just fine.

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[insertNameHere]

Lets not forget the fact you can spoof an RFID tag, so now I leave my Id somewhere safe, grab the tag of someone I don't like, go do something stupid making sure their ID pops up in the area.

Possible scenario, some creep learns they don't check for students ID cards until 30 min till the school day has started he sits in a van next to a sidewalk waits for a student to walk by alone, confirmed by RFID scanner, jumps out grabs kid, and knows there is about 1hour till anyone starts looking.

Sure there is a limited "range" but there are plenty of theories and guides on how to make it easier to read tags from a distance.

[Andara Bledin]

While the scenarios being put forth in this thread are not particularly likely, such things do happen, and there's no excuse for making it easier for the people who would do such things to do so.

There is no upside to this system. The fewer people involved in actually calling roll and interacting with these kids, the less control the school will have.

^-.-^

[siead_lietrathua]

It doesn't follow at all that a portable scanner would be useless.

Sure, the kids who are the problem that this is supposed to (and probably completely fails to) address won't get hit by such a thing, but the honest kids, who likely make up the majority of the student body will be dutifully wearing their RFID tracking devices, and a portable scanner is likely to catch them just fine.

^-.-^

yes, i agree. the good kids will be wearing them. at school. where the normal grid is in place anyway.
if the kid leaves school, be it after classes are done or as skipping, they will probably not take the card with them. they wouldn't carry it around the mall, or on weekend trips, or anything else but having it at school. especially if they know it has a tracking chip in it. so yes, i still believe a scanner would be useless outside of the school because the kid isn't wearing the badge. you can't scan what isn't there. griping about a hand scanner in the school is silly because, well, they're already in the trackable area on the school network.

[Andara Bledin]

Why wouldn't a kid who wears their tracking chip every day wear it home every night? Or stick it in their backpack that they take home every night?

It makes no sense for them to leave it on campus when the point of the things to to determine who isn't on campus or is in the wrong place.

Part of the letter sent to parents about the tags discusses discouraging their children from "leaving, forgetting, or trading" their tracking tags. That speaks to me of the assumption that the children will be wearing them outside of school.

As does the fact that the FAQ questions answered by the manufacturer start off with #1 being the concern that someone could build their own readers and dismissing it as a concern because there is only a serial number on any given chip - it focuses solely on privacy and never touches on the safety of them wearing what are, essentially, beacons.

And while they claim that the system will help prevent people who aren't supposed to be there from being on campus, I really don't see how a system designed to track people could possibly spot people who weren't supposed to be there without human intervention; it's no more effective than asking for a simple student ID card would be, just more expensive and less personal.

^-.-^

[Tanasi]

Microwave the ID card or wrap it in foil. These things are easy to spoof, being me I'd create multiple copies and distribute them around the school.

[Andara Bledin]

If you damage the chipped card, they'll replace it.

The first time is free, but every card after that will cost the students $15.

So, any bets on how long before there's a counterfeit ID ring up and running?

^-.-^

[Seifer]

How about just kicking the little shits out of school if they miss a certain number of days per year? If it's obvious the kids are losers and their parents don't give a shit, get them out of the school. They're nothing but a time sink and a waste of resources. Maybe when the parents are faced with legal issues by not putting their kids in school (and making sure they stay there), the parents will have an incentive to do the right thing.