Fingerprinting Of Elementary School Students To Begin For Lunch Line

[matcom]

<snip>

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Some parents are worried about a plan to start fingerprinting youngsters at three elementary schools in California.

Beginning this month, children at the schools in the Santa Barbara area will press an index finger to a scanner when they buy food at the cafeteria. The scan calls up the student's name and ID, teacher's name and how much the student owes. Some children pay different amounts because they have government food assistance.

The district has to submit reports to the state and federal governments in order to be reimbursed for meals. The superintendent said fingerprint scanning simply speeds up a system that currently relies on pencil and paper.

But some parents are leery. One called it "Orwellian" and "kind of creepy."

http://www.wftv.com/education/10254822/detail.html

[underpants]

1. Until we improve your business acumen

Loyal to the Bank of America
-REM "Exhuming McCarthy"

Johnny owes fifteen dollars!!!
Johnny owes fifteen dollars!!!
Johnny owes fifteen dollars!!!
Johnny's family is POOR!!!

[Cairycat]

2. As a lunch lady and a mom, I'm in favor of these

At my kids' elementary, where I work, there are bar codes for each kid that are scanned. The scanner makes a certain noise for a low balance (approximately the cost of one days' lunch) and very low balance (three lunches or more) but neither the scanner nor the child know the exact balance unless the scanner looks it up. Neither the scanner nor students can tell if a child is on free or reduced lunch. (This is also true in the secondary schools here). The system creates automatic low balance notices that go home with the kid or can be sent to the parents' email. Also, the parent can add money to the kid's account online, see what they're eating, and get information about free and reduced lunches.

At the junior high, there used to be a biometrics system (it's not the finger print per se, but rather measurements of an individual's finger) but that was declared an invasion of privacy by the Iowa legislature. My 13 year old is on his seventh lunch ticket this year. Since the biometric system would NOT have had a fingerprint usable by police or other agencies, and my son's measurements would have been discarded upon leaving the school, I would really prefer to have the biometric system.

It's easy to condemn these systems as an invasion of privacy (particularly by people who aren't trying to feed hundreds of kids in the space of an hour or two) but if you look at the specifics you might find they really do offer both convenience and privacy.