A San Antonio school district in Texas is being sued by a student over a GPS tracking chip in her student ID.
The GPS chips use radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmitters and only work on campus. However, the student is refusing to wear the microchip embedded ID card because she claims it is it violates her Christian faith as the “mark of the beast.” The school agreed to remove the student’s GPS chip but still required the ID be worn, and the family refused again.
A school in California used this type of technology in 2005, and that same year a school in Houston did the same thing. The San Antonio school district based its program on Houston’s. The school spent over $250,000 to put these GPS chips in student IDs, claiming that it was a safe and efficient way to account for students in the event of an emergency. However, school funding in Texas is based on attendance and the more students seated in homeroom when the first bell rings, the more money the school receives. Marked absences impact that amount. It is estimated that the school district will receive almost $1.7 million dollars if the program is successful.
Bills have been filed since 2005 by Republican state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst ban the chips in Texas public schools.
Currently, the GPS chips are in the student IDs of all 4,200 students and no other students have asked to opt out of the program. Nor have there been any other complaints or concerns raised by other parents in the district. The case has been removed to federal court, but no hearing date has been set.
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