BY SABRINA VICTOR
Texas schools receive money based on the number of students counted in Home room classes. At schools like Anson Jones Middle, many students didn’t attend their homeroom periods so they were marked absent, causing the district to lose money. To solve this issue, Anson Jones became the first school to require students to wear plastic name-tags, which they believe will ensure the district receives all of the state dollars their entitled to. This form of identification is a device that allows administrators the use of technology to track the whereabouts of students. Not only does this program violate our constitution & privacy laws, but also it has potential health hazards.
First of all, putting tracking devices in students ID cards violates privacy laws. Invasion of privacy is defined as “a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into his or her private affairs, discloses his or her private information, publicizes him or her in a false light, or appropriate his or her name for personal gain”. Therefore, in making tracking IDs mandatory to all students, Texas schools are unlawfully intruding into their students’ confidential affairs. Knowing a student’s location at every moment of the day is an invasion of personal space and isn’t necessary in making sure everyone’s in their homeroom classes. This plan also violates the students’ right to free association, because the technology can monitor which people congregate together.
Requiring children to wear these tags on school grounds also infringes upon the fourth amendment right for “unreasonable search and seizure.” Forcing all students to wear these ID tags is an automatic assumption that they are skipping class. In order to gain trust from students you must first put trust into the students.
Requiring kids to wear these tags also poses a danger to students outside of school. The technology, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, is easy to acquire. This means that anyone outside of school might be able to monitor a student if they obtained the student’s tracking number. Since this technology was originally intended for cattle tracking, it wasn’t made to be untraceable, which means students may be stalked by unwanted people like sex offenders and kidnappers. These IDs are a huge danger for our students that could possibly result in a higher percentage of rape and kidnapping.
These plastic nametags can also be potential health hazards for kids. They act as a form of digital pollution that could have a negative effect on the bodies of children due to the radiation emitted from the devices. Because radiation causes cancer, we must refrain from using these devices that could possibly affect the health of students.
It doesn’t make sense for Texas schools or any school to think using these identification devices on students is acceptable. These plastic nametags violate privacy laws, constitutional rights, pose a danger outside of school, and may have some health hazards. If Texas schools want to be able to keep all their state dollars, they must find alternative solution to making sure all students are in their homeroom classes.
