Schools to fingerprint infants.

[Henny Penny]

Source: Daily Telegraph

"

Schools to fingerprint infants

By Graeme Paton, Education Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:08am BST 25/07/2007

Children as young as five can be fingerprinted at school without their parents' consent under plans unveiled yesterday.

Official guidance published for the first time says that head teachers have the right to collect biometric data for security reasons. Information can also be used to monitor attendance, pay for food or allow pupils to take a book out of the library.

Schools should destroy personal data when children leave and information cannot be shared with third parties.

The move has been criticised by civil liberties groups as an "infringement of children's rights". There are also fears that school computers are not secure enough, leaving pupils at the mercy of identity thieves."




Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/nschools124.xml

---

...continues.

Get them used to it because God knows what society will be like by the time they grow up.

[wakeme2008]

1. This has pluses

A lot of schools in the US use fingerprints to pay for lunch. IMHO, not only fingerprints but photos of these kids should be taken JUST in case a kid turns up missing. Parents in the US CAN have their children fingerprinted just in case but most don't.

[snappyturtle]

2. I had my children finger printed back in the early 80's. The local

police department provided the service to the schools...it was not mandantory. There was only one set and it was given to the parents to keep......I was present when this was done. Most of those who did this, did it because, God forbid anything horrible happened to our children we'd have ID. I still have those prints in safety deposit box.

[DRoseDARs]

5. I was fingerprinted in the 80's as a child, part of a missing children program to help safeguard us.

I've yet to be "disappeared" into any secret prisons, nor has my identity been stolen in the 20-ish years since the prints were made.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Fingerprinting by the parents is the appropriate method

And only the parents keeping the prints. The police don't need a copy and should not have a copy until the child is lost.

[rocktivity]

10. DING DING DING! LiberalFighter, you're our grand prize winner!

Fingerprinting by the parents is the appropriate method...And only the parents keeping the prints...

There MUST be another way for children to pay for their lunches or check out libarary books without fingerprinting them. For instance, why can't the school just send parents a monthly bill? NO FINGERPRINTING WITOUT PARENTAL CONSENT AND POSSESSION!

:headbang:
rocknation

[mikelgb]

14. and JUST IN CASE your child becomes a terroist...

Agent Mike is gonna go ahead and hang onto copies of that biometric data for you...

[Ilsa]

15. Do the fingerprinting and keep the card & pic yourself in the event of a missing child. nt

[SeattleGirl]

3. Mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, fingerprinting children is good, in case they go missing, and there is a possibility that the child's fingerprints could be found somewhere that would help find the child.

On the other hand, I feel very uneasy about schools or ANYONE having the right to fingerprint children without parent's permission.

I also feel uneasy about this little statement: "Schools should destroy personal data when children leave and information cannot be shared with third parties." Yeah, right. I wouldn't trust THAT little statement farther than I could throw a rhinoceros. Not in this current climate anyway.

[snappyturtle]

11. In my case, #2 above, we were given the opportunity to do this.

The parents had to be present when their children were finger printed. I have the ONLY copies....trust me I would never have allowed the school or police department to put my kids prints on file!!!

[Knightly_Knews]

4. This is data mining....

I have brought this up before...
Fingerprinting should be done by the parent, if it is done by the school, a parent should be notified and present.
They are doing something similar at amusement parks around the Country..

Every time we go through the gate we have to scan our Pass and Scan our Fingertip, EVERYONE with a season pass that is. They say it is to thwart off terrorism.. If that is the case then why doesn't a single day pass holder need to be bioscanned? How many terrorists buy a season pass to blow up a park?
As we walk through the gate, I welcome every patron to the new NSA Amusement Park!
My Fiance gets rather pissed when I do that, I don't really care, I like to expose shit for what it really is!

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Do you have something to hide? Because otherwise, what's the harm?

And yes, I'm be sarcastic.
The fingerprint scans at amusement parks are about reducing "sharing" of passes, nothing more and nothing less. Even the data mining is a side benefit. If someone told me it was about thwarting terrorism I'd need to be carried away in an ambulance after splitting my sides laughing.

People who have no issue with it can go ahead and use such devices, but when they make a biometric marker a requirement I take my money elsewhere.

[LiberalFighter]

6. This guy is an idiot.

But Jim Knight, the schools minister, said: "I have seen at first hand how well these systems work. They can speed up lunch queues, remove the need for children to carry money and take away the stigma of singling out those on free school meals. More-over, schools can register pupils more easily as they move from class to class."

Fingerprints are not needed for this purpose.

They could provide school debit ID cards instead. The cards would have the photo of the student to prevent other kids from stealing them for their own use. Those receiving free or discounted meals would receive the same cards as other students. If the student has a debit account the amount of the meal would be deducted if the the student receives free or discounted meal then their meal would be recorded. This would speed up the lunch QUEUES just as fast.

Register pupils more easily? A student ID card would make that happen too.

Hey Jim Knight. Are you a dork? Looks like this guy has absolutely no experience in schools. His credentials below. He is a government official.



Minister of State for Schools and Learners
Jim Knight

Jim Knight’s principal policy areas include raising school standards including public examinations and national tests, the national curriculum, 14-19 education and Diplomas, school funding and capital including Building Schools for the Future, and school workforce issues.

Jim Knight was first appointed as Minister of State to the then Department for Education and Skills in May 2006. Previously Minister for Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity since the 2005 General Election, Jim Knight was elected MP for Dorset South in June 2001.

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rosie Winterton at the Department of Health between 2003 and 2004, before going on to serve as PPS to the Department of Health’s Ministerial Team.

Jim Knight, 41, was educated at Cambridge. Before entering Parliament, he managed a publishing company, based in the West Country, for 10 years. Prior to that, he managed arts venues and worked for a small scale travelling theatre company. He is married with two children.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Someone should cut Knight's fingertips off.

[Trillo]

12. Why not just microchip 'em?

They're considering micro-chipping HIV carriers in Indonesia.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Microchips-mulled-for-HIV-carriers-in-Indonesias-Papua/2007/07/24/1185043106038.html

Just think of the benefits to schools: administrators could keep tabs on all the kids, all the time, electronically. Academics could even study the nuanced behavior of mass migration of kids from classrooms to bathrooms. Better firearm the teachers as well, cause you never know when one of your chipped "abusees" will turn on you as you bark out authoritarianism.

Just think, paying for lunch could be entirely automated! Make sure that lunch bill gets sent to the central government, cause pet owners are responsible for the care of their animals!

Probably should microchip the parents as well, cause the government should be paying the parents for room and board and caring for the governments pets during non-school hours.

Guess I better use the "/sarcasm" disclaimer, just in case someone misunderstands.

[saigon68]

13. Why not just tattoo a number on their arms

That's one way to keep order

</sarcasm>

[The2ndWheel]

16. You say that as if that's not where we're going

It's really just the simple trend of human history.