Big Brother’s in charge of the school cafeteria
A plan to fingerprint elementary school students
when they buy lunch has some parents worrying that Big Brother has come to the
cafeteria.
Right-Wingers have always been big on tattoos
A plan to fingerprint elementary school students when they buy lunch has some parents worrying that Big Brother has come to the cafeteria.
The Hope Elementary School District [CA] has notified parents that, beginning this month, students at Monte Vista, Vieja Valley and Hope elementary schools will press an index finger to a scanner before buying cafeteria food.
The scan will call up the student’s name and student ID, teacher’s name and how much the student owes, since some receive government assistance for food.
It is meant to speed up cafeteria lines.
So, in the minds of school administrators, the question isn’t what you want to know about a student before you feed them — it’s how quickly you can find the answers.
“It raises sanitary issues, privacy issues — it is kind of Orwellian,” said Tina Dabby, a parent of two at Monte Vista Elementary. “It just sounds kind of creepy.”
Currently, the information is written on paper and transferred to computer so reports can be compiled and sent to the state and federal governments, which reimburse school districts for the subsidized lunches served.
“It’s so archaic to transfer something from a sheet of paper to a computer day by day,” Hope schools Superintendent Gerrie Fausett told the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Sounds like we’re back to the good old “bar code everyone” solution.
Posted: Mon - November 6, 2006 at 06:13 AM