Texas School District Drops Embattled RFID Student IDs; Opts For Tons Of Cameras Instead
from the No-Child-Left-Unwatched dept
The Northside Independent School District (NISD) of Texas, best known for being sued by a student over its mandatory RFID card policy, is dropping the technology that originally landed it in the courtroom.
These chipped student ID cards were deployed to track students in hopes of bumping up the district's attendance numbers -- thus increasing its share of funding tied to daily attendance. Despite the court deciding in its favor, declaring the cards didn't violate the students' privacy or "right of religion," the district has decided to abandon the RFID tracking system. Apparently, the technology wasn't quite the attendance silver bullet administration thought it would be, as Slate's Will Oremus discovered.
Northside Independent School District spokesman Pascual Gonzalez told me that the microchip-ID program turned out not to be worth the trouble. Its main goal was to increase attendance by allowing staff to locate students who were on campus but didn't show up for roll call. That was supposed to lead to increased revenue. But attendance at the two schools in question—a middle school and a high school—barely budged in the year that the policy was in place. And school staff found themselves wasting a lot of time trying to physically track down the missing students based on their RFID locators.Great. So something was so direly important it needed to be battled in court, but so ultimately useless the district abandoned it a year later. The failure of RFID cards to attach these Texas schools to the state money train probably won't deter other schools from implementing this technology. If anything, the court's ruling will make it easier for other districts to defend themselves against privacy complaints.
The most disappointing aspect is that the district has decided to swap one form of surveillance for another.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez told me Northside plans to capture the safety and security benefits of RFID chips through other technological means. "We're very confident we can still maintain a safe and secure school because of the 200 cameras that are installed at John Jay High School and the 100 that are installed at Jones Middle School. Plus we are upgrading those surveillance systems to high-definition and more sophisticated cameras. So there will be a surveillance-camera umbrella around both schools."Some call it a panopticon. Some call it an umbrella. Using the word "umbrella" lends it a protective aspect, which is a bit misleading. This tactic seems unlikely to increase attendance and there's very little evidence that indicates more cameras = more safety.
The district's administrator also took care to point out that dropping the RFID cards was not a victory for civil liberties advocates.
But the backlash and the lawsuit weren't the deciding factors, Gonzalez told me. "While [privacy groups] are extolling the fact that they won, the fact is that that was a very minor part of our conversation, because the federal court and the court of appeals both upheld Northside's position on that. We were on solid ground."Well, whatever justifies the district's actions, I guess. Gonzalez' statement isn't very flattering though, painting him as someone who values control over providing a welcoming learning environment.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cameras, rfid, students, surveillance, texas
Companies: northside independent school district
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
They get paid the same if the student is in class, or in a back hallway slipping into a diabetic coma because zero-tolerance won't let the student carry a needle.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
Now I don't like all the camera's either but in today's sue-happy environment can you blame them one bit. Sure they put it in terms of protecting/locating students, but it's got nothing to do with that, is for protecting the school system. They want everything on tape (not that it let's them off the hook when it backfires and they are caught doing something they shouldn't) ... The place you can chastise the school is when incriminating tape of their mis-deeds conveniently disappears. It's time to make that an occurrence with a presumption of guilt if the tape isn't available or some such repercussions. Sauce for the goose as it were.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
for a better education experience, and for school safety.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
The RFID system goes directly against the "better experience" since it is inconvenient to some degree and a such system do not provide much increase in safety, if any...
The cameras can both better educational experience and school safety if used correctly. But it is hardly comforting for the people working there. I bet there is a significant upkeep on the system, making the potential extra funding a coverage for - maybe only some of - the surveillance instead of actually bettering education.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
When that is said, I agree that it is far down the slippery slope of data harvesting. And no, cameras do not equal any kind of active safety. I know there are places, where an attrap and warning about surveillance is set-up just to get the effect...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
In the future, there will undubitably be few locations without cameras (including audio recording). Unless you can think of a better reason than cameras don't equal safety.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not sure why this is a error on schools part?
In your opinion. In my opinion, it's a terrible idea.
I can blame them more than a bit. I can blame them at least 50% (and up to 50% of the blame is to the parents for allowing the schools to do this, or allowing their children to attend schools that do this.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But I'm sure any evidence will be 'misplaced'...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ahem.
Privacy for little mischiefs is gone. I pity the kids today. But yet I'm powerless to stop this idiocy from happening (cameras are everywhere in my former school too). I honestly wish today's adults would allow kids to be kids again with all the screw ups and hilarious mischiefs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I'm a teenager at heart: I still regularly flip off most security cameras that I see.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here's a novel concept...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The main goal was to increase profits at companies which contribute to the campaign coffers. This was achieved success, therefore they are back for more.
Ever wonder where all the tax dollars collected for school districts goes? Is this another vector in the "Starve The Beast" approach to killing education?
Yea Texass
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
We took the speaker on the PA system apart and (being the geeks and nerds that we were) we managed to override the PA system so that we could broadcast anything we wanted to. My friend had just bought his AC/DC album and brought it to school with him. The teacher had a record player which we wired up to the the PA system.
It took administrators nearly an hour to shut the PA system down and to find our radio station. The entire school got to listen to Dirty Deeds as well as AC/DC's song about their bowling league Big Balls.
[Sigh] Gone are those days of harmless pranks. I'm pretty sure if I was to have done the same thing in today's world it would be caught on tape and I would be charged with terrorism or hacking and end up fined and in jail.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As simple (and cheap) as Calling the Roll
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There is no way I buy the "all about the revenue" arguement anymore...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
We don't have the camera placement schematics yet so given the information we have now, I cannot fully judge one way or the other on the necessity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cameras
That being said, the cameras will likely have facial recognition biometrics to count attendance.
Now to drive this home, Texas absolutely relies on attendance to get funding. Schools are cut deeply in funding if 2% of their students are absent. Texas gets sponsored funding as well from text books and is often the education theory (meaning teacher training) test bed of the US because of that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cameras
Which will have the effect of making the school experience worse, increasing the number of absentees.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cameras
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cameras
The other problem is that kids aren't as motivated in poorer school districts because of their home life. It's a whole mix of things to consider.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cameras
In which case, they'll have very inaccurate attendance figures, and possible not in their favor.
We get that -- it's not unlike a ton of school district in the country. Here's the thing, though: this is an effort to fake up the attendance figures by counting students who are in the building at all, rather than students who are in the correct class.
If they really wanted accurate attendance figures, they'd do it the old-fashioned way: have the teachers take attendance before each class. There is no technology that is superior to that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cameras
Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So well this is certainly problematic, it does have much better potential to have positive benefits than the RFID tags did.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If a teacher or principal happens to take issue with any particular student, they can single out and monitor their every step, looking for anything to use against them. As well, it is the perfect system for perverts.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"...Opts For Tons Of Cameras Instead"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Perfect Attendance
[ link to this | view in chronology ]