Where do we draw the line?

BY: ABBIE B.

There's a thin line about students rights while in school. From the way the school punishes students, to the freedom of speech in class, to where we are today-- tracking devices in school identification cards. Anson Jones Middle School in San Antonio, Texas, has already put to practice the tracking devices in school id’s. One student refused to wear her school ID around her neck due to religious reasons and was suspended. Is the school allowed to track students? Is the school allowed to punish students for their religious morals?

Students and parents are using many claims to support their argument against this practice. For example, where should the kids keep their ID’s while they aren’t at school? If the student’s take their IDs home, the school is simply invading privacy. Also, what’s the punishment for a student if they lose their IDs?

What happens if the ID falls into the wrong hands? Matthew Simpson, a policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said the technology was easy to acquire, meaning people outside a school might be able to monitor a student if they obtained the student’s unique ID number. This is now a safety issue for young, vulnerable children. A Fox newscaster stated, “schools, of all places, should be teaching children how to participate in a free democratic society, noot conditioning them to be tracked like cattle.” Another news reporter spoke on the subject, “The question is: Should the government be able to force a parent to have their children tracked in the exact same way that warehouse pallets, prisoners, and migratory animals are monitored.” A newspaper writer stated his own opinion on the practice, “This practice was originally designed for shipping goods and for cattle. It was never intended for people.” All of these questions, violations, and problems are all being raised for one idea put into use by schools.

The other side of the argument is those in favor of the tracking device. Schools are claiming that students who skip class, are wasting the schools money. In Texas, school finance is a money game determined by the amount of students who show up to class. If students don’t show up, the district loses money. Pascual Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the district stated, “We were leaving money on the table.” Two other schools in Texas have used this idea to practice for several years. Karen Garrison, a spokesperson for the school district in Houston said that the school has recovered $400,000 from the new technology use. Madelene Garra was among those who supported the program stating, “It gives the kids a little bit more responsibility, knowing that we a faculty are keeping up with them. Once they get out in the real world, they’re going to have to be on the job on time, and they’re going to have to be accountable.”

When we look at the facts, it does seem like a nice idea to be able to keep track of students in order to save money, but when it comes down to the most basic human rights, tracking kids should never be allowed, school related or not. The child is not property of the school and the school has no right to know where a student is when not in school. It may help prepare students for the “real world” but, at the end of the day, people are able to make their own decisions and no one should punish them for not wanting to be tracked like an animal.