School Scanned Students' Irises Without Parental Permission

Creepy

Here was what one parent, April Serrano, told the The Ledger when she found out that her 8-year-old son had been made to stare into a blue light until it changed color when he got on a bus: "Just repeating that story makes my skin crawl."

Peculiarly, no one at the schools district seems entirely sure how a security company called Stanley Convergent Security Solutions was allowed to install and operate the scanners without parents being told. Or, indeed, without a contract being signed.

Rob Davis, a Polk County district administrator, admitted to the Ledger that several mistakes were made. He said that he had no idea who (if anyone) had ultimately authorized Stanley Convergent to insert the iris scanners, which the company says have an accuracy rate of 200 times that of fingerprints.