Post by Mech on Mar 2, 2004 13:15:14 GMT -5
HI-TECH SLAVERY ON THE SCHOOLBUS.....FOR YOUR KIDS "SAFETY" YOU BETTER THUMBSCAN JUNIOR.
GUILTY UNTILL PROVEN INNNOCENT IN HOMELAND AMERICA
Have your thumb ready to ride the bus
Pinellas County FL schools ponder a $2-million system that would require students to use their thumbprint to get on the bus.
By NORA KOCH, Times Staff Writer
Published February 28, 2004
The Pinellas school system is ready to approve a new technology that uses student fingerprints to keep track of who is riding school buses.
Beginning in the fall, the fingerprint system would identify students as they board and leave. The goal is to ensure they are getting on the right bus and getting off at the right stop.
School officials say the $2-million project will save money and dramatically improve safety for students, whose fingerprints will serve as authorization to board and disembark.
If the School Board approves the proposal March 9, Pinellas will become one of four Florida school districts in the process of implementing Global Positioning Systems with a student-tracking system.
"This is Management 101 in transportation. Now we will have good, factual information that we can use in a very timely manner to make our services as good as humanly possible," said Terry Palmer, the district's transportation director.
But some parents and national organizations are concerned about the implications of fingerprinting 45,000 bus riders, some as young as 5.
"This is probably a really good idea, but in my mind it was just this terrible feeling, like they're watching my kids wherever they go," said Nancy McKibben, mother of three teenagers at Palm Harbor University High School and president of the school's PTSA.
Critics say programs of this nature raise significant privacy concerns and teach students at a young age to accept what amounts to a "Big Brother" surveillance society.
"We are conditioning these children to understand that they have no personal space, no personal privacy," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Technology and Liberty.
The School Board has given administrators a preliminary go-ahead, which allowed the district to put the proposal out for bid. Last week, the district sent schools a brief outline of the project to include in school newsletters.
"If my child was in elementary school, I would welcome this with open arms and say, "please, please, tell me my kid got on the bus and got off the bus,"' said School Board chairwoman Jane Gallucci.
Gallucci said the district plans to cover the system's $2-million price tag with savings from construction projects that came in under budget and from sources that are separate from monies for classroom costs and teacher salaries.
Superintendent Howard Hinesely said the district also plans to apply for a federal Homeland Security grant that could reimburse some of the cost.
In three years, the expense should be recouped through efficiency savings, Palmer said.
The state reimburses local districts for some transportation costs, based on the number of students riding the bus. With more accurate computerized accounting, Palmer said, the district will get more money from the state.
Palmer said the closer monitoring of bus routes and timetables will reduce driver costs by shaving 15 minutes per day per driver. That will lead to at least $432,000 in annual savings, he said.
School bus safety has been getting more attention since a January 2002 bus hijacking in Pennsylvania. A Berks County school bus carrying 13 students was overtaken by a man with a rifle, and found in Maryland six hours later when the hijacker turned himself into police.
Now districts want to keep track of where students are at all times. Many schools require identification cards with sensors or bar codes to log students in and out of schools, and some have started using similar devices on school buses.
Fingerprints, which can't be loaned out or traded between students, are the latest bus identification tool.
Under the Pinellas plan, the district's nearly 700 buses will be equipped with GPS transponders, student identification devices and communications equipment and software.
The system will allow the district to monitor the fleet's safety performance, watching out for speeding, railroad crossing procedures, stops and compliance with route assignments. The program also will provide detailed data on how many students use specific stops, and the efficiency of routes, particularly useful as the district adapts to the choice program.
Michelle Bianco of St. Petersburg put her three young children on a bus for the first time last week. Until then, she had been driving Travis, a kindergartener, and Trevor and Erika, third- and fourth-graders, to Jamerson Elementary School.
"I was a nervous wreck," she said. "I even followed the bus to school the first day."
Bianco felt she had reason to worry. On its morning trip, the bus drops off children at another elementary school before taking the rest to Jamerson. There have been times when kids have gotten off at the wrong school and a school official has had to go pick them up.
She thinks a fingerprint system would be a good idea. Not only would it prevent children from getting lost, she said she has no qualms about her children's privacy being compromised.
"I wouldn't be concerned about a privacy issue, because I know the School Board is very concerned about not letting anyone get hold of that information," she said.
School officials and the software company, GeoSpatial Technologies Inc., said student data will be safe. Fingerprints will be encrypted into a binary number, which will be linked to the student's school ID number. The bus database will be password protected, and kept separate from the database that holds a student's personal information.
GUILTY UNTILL PROVEN INNNOCENT IN HOMELAND AMERICA
Have your thumb ready to ride the bus
Pinellas County FL schools ponder a $2-million system that would require students to use their thumbprint to get on the bus.
By NORA KOCH, Times Staff Writer
Published February 28, 2004
The Pinellas school system is ready to approve a new technology that uses student fingerprints to keep track of who is riding school buses.
Beginning in the fall, the fingerprint system would identify students as they board and leave. The goal is to ensure they are getting on the right bus and getting off at the right stop.
School officials say the $2-million project will save money and dramatically improve safety for students, whose fingerprints will serve as authorization to board and disembark.
If the School Board approves the proposal March 9, Pinellas will become one of four Florida school districts in the process of implementing Global Positioning Systems with a student-tracking system.
"This is Management 101 in transportation. Now we will have good, factual information that we can use in a very timely manner to make our services as good as humanly possible," said Terry Palmer, the district's transportation director.
But some parents and national organizations are concerned about the implications of fingerprinting 45,000 bus riders, some as young as 5.
"This is probably a really good idea, but in my mind it was just this terrible feeling, like they're watching my kids wherever they go," said Nancy McKibben, mother of three teenagers at Palm Harbor University High School and president of the school's PTSA.
Critics say programs of this nature raise significant privacy concerns and teach students at a young age to accept what amounts to a "Big Brother" surveillance society.
"We are conditioning these children to understand that they have no personal space, no personal privacy," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Technology and Liberty.
The School Board has given administrators a preliminary go-ahead, which allowed the district to put the proposal out for bid. Last week, the district sent schools a brief outline of the project to include in school newsletters.
"If my child was in elementary school, I would welcome this with open arms and say, "please, please, tell me my kid got on the bus and got off the bus,"' said School Board chairwoman Jane Gallucci.
Gallucci said the district plans to cover the system's $2-million price tag with savings from construction projects that came in under budget and from sources that are separate from monies for classroom costs and teacher salaries.
Superintendent Howard Hinesely said the district also plans to apply for a federal Homeland Security grant that could reimburse some of the cost.
In three years, the expense should be recouped through efficiency savings, Palmer said.
The state reimburses local districts for some transportation costs, based on the number of students riding the bus. With more accurate computerized accounting, Palmer said, the district will get more money from the state.
Palmer said the closer monitoring of bus routes and timetables will reduce driver costs by shaving 15 minutes per day per driver. That will lead to at least $432,000 in annual savings, he said.
School bus safety has been getting more attention since a January 2002 bus hijacking in Pennsylvania. A Berks County school bus carrying 13 students was overtaken by a man with a rifle, and found in Maryland six hours later when the hijacker turned himself into police.
Now districts want to keep track of where students are at all times. Many schools require identification cards with sensors or bar codes to log students in and out of schools, and some have started using similar devices on school buses.
Fingerprints, which can't be loaned out or traded between students, are the latest bus identification tool.
Under the Pinellas plan, the district's nearly 700 buses will be equipped with GPS transponders, student identification devices and communications equipment and software.
The system will allow the district to monitor the fleet's safety performance, watching out for speeding, railroad crossing procedures, stops and compliance with route assignments. The program also will provide detailed data on how many students use specific stops, and the efficiency of routes, particularly useful as the district adapts to the choice program.
Michelle Bianco of St. Petersburg put her three young children on a bus for the first time last week. Until then, she had been driving Travis, a kindergartener, and Trevor and Erika, third- and fourth-graders, to Jamerson Elementary School.
"I was a nervous wreck," she said. "I even followed the bus to school the first day."
Bianco felt she had reason to worry. On its morning trip, the bus drops off children at another elementary school before taking the rest to Jamerson. There have been times when kids have gotten off at the wrong school and a school official has had to go pick them up.
She thinks a fingerprint system would be a good idea. Not only would it prevent children from getting lost, she said she has no qualms about her children's privacy being compromised.
"I wouldn't be concerned about a privacy issue, because I know the School Board is very concerned about not letting anyone get hold of that information," she said.
School officials and the software company, GeoSpatial Technologies Inc., said student data will be safe. Fingerprints will be encrypted into a binary number, which will be linked to the student's school ID number. The bus database will be password protected, and kept separate from the database that holds a student's personal information.