4 Tactics Public Schools Are Using To Get Butts Behind Desks

School competition leads to surprising tactics to keep attendance from falling.

(Page 2 of 4)

2. Microchip Tracking

San Antonio teen Andrea Hernandez, 15, made waves in late 2012 for refusing to wear a microchip that allowed her school to electronically track her location. Her case drew ire from privacy activists from both the left and the right. A federal judge ruled Tuesday, however, that the San Antonio Northside School District had the right to expel Hernandez from Jay High School (of note, a public magnet school) if she refused to wear the school ID. As Forbes notes, though, the school actually removed the tracking chip as a compromise, but she still doesn't want to carry around the location badge. The conservative Rutherford Institute, which is representing Hernandez, is promising to appeal.

Note the defense of the tracking chips in the Thomson Reuters news report:

The school district - the fourth largest in Texas with about 100,000 students - is not attempting to track or regulate students' activities, or spy on them, district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. Northside is using the technology to locate students who are in the school building but not in the classroom when the morning bell rings, he said.

Texas law counts a student present for purposes of distributing state aid to education funds based on the number of pupils in the classroom at the start of the day. Northside said it was losing $1.7 million a year due to students loitering in the stairwells or chatting in the hallways.

If they already know where the students are loitering, what exactly is the value of the tracking chips? How is somebody looking up the kids’ location on a computer and then tracking them down physically any more efficient than just having a hall monitor?

Next: Let’s stop kicking kids out of school!

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  • Aresen| |

    My one regret about my school years is that I did not skip school more often.

  • Troglodyte Rex| |

    1) Pay more to force the future burger flippers to go learn stuff they realistically won't apply in the future?

    2) As a resident of San Antonio who hears about this ceaselessly, her objection is due to the badge being against her religion as it is "the mark of the beast".

    3) See 1.

    4) Would work, but mandating the incorporation should come with a reduction in brick and mortar teacher salaries. IF they do less they should make less.

  • | |

    If you dislike the idea of carrying an RFID chip around with you, 3-6 seconds in a microwave oven will fry any RFID chip ever made. You can also use a needle to cut the antenna wires within the chip, rendering it incapable of powering itself.

  • NealAppeal| |

    The school even offered to give her a badge without the RFID chip inside but she declined. It makes sense to me. They just want to make it appear that she obeyed when she didn't. In principle, you would be symbolically showing that you support the tagging and tracking.

  • | |

    Small steps, very small steps. Having the money follow the child makes a lot of sense. Next step is to allow education to fall away from the industrialized one size fits all model. As far as I understand there are still all sorts of state/federal mandates than every school is still be bound by.

  • waaminn| |

    Sounds like some crazy smack to me dude. Wow.

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  • Agile Cyborg| |

    Well, I'm fucking clueless that this sort of bizarre shit is occurring in America. I'm absolutely fucking shocked that a fucking subhuman piece of shit cop would ticket a home-schooler. Dude, there's very little I'm NOT aware of on this planet YET somehow this article FUCKS with my pathetic mind. WHAT the FUCK! What bag of worthless intestines-hauling crap human being actually TICKETS for truancy?!!! I'm blown away. FUCKING blown away. whew

  • | |

    Charter schools whose students are in fact home schoolers... disregard the important socialization aspect of public education, do not serve the public purpose of promoting a sense of community...

    IOW, in addition to costing teachers an extra 10 grand a year in health benefits, such schools also lift the boot of social indoctrination off their neck, creating people who don't submit to authority and agree in lock-step with their peers and teachers. Oh dear!

  • Sebastian| |

    I say sudbury and democratic schools for the win! I've always just ignored what my teachers say because they have no clue what they're even "teaching" they just read from a book they're given and expect us to just believe them like they were the almighty himself come down to dwell among us. Yeah when I've read more literature then my 60 year old teacher in the 9th grade and read her stupid mandated books in one day there's a problem. What a waste of 120,000 tax dollars for 12 years of public indoctrination.

  • mr simple| |

    Yeah when I've read more literature then my 60 year old teacher in the 9th grade and read her stupid mandated books in one day there's a problem.

    Yes, it seems the school system failed you. Is this joe's law? I can't remember anymore.

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