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I like this, but I do think they should have asked parents for consent rather than just instituted it without notifying parents. I would have liked this for high school classrooms because it would eliminate the errors in tardies and absences and kids who cut would get caught.
The days of kids remembering an ID number, carrying around a meal card, or even having their name checked off a lunch list seem to be coming to an end thanks to finger scanning technology.
"It's just a way of keeping track of how often a student is eating and what those lunch and breakfast charges are," says Principal Cassie Burgess.
Burgess says the system works by scanning a portion of a fingerprint. The computer then assigns a numeric number to the pattern and can recognize it with a touch of the pad.
At Northside Primary Center in Herrin, students use the technology to charge what they purchase for lunch.
Burgess says the scan takes the place of manually checking names off a list.
"That became kind of a book keeping nightmare," she recalls.
My school district has this, Before they put it in, ( and each year after) the parent can opt out, for there child. Opt out once s/he is out till you then opt/in. For middle/High school kid just enter there student ID number on a keypad. and up pops a picture of the kid so the casher can verify that the number matches the kid, For Elem school the casher has a grid of all the teachers, top blue/bottom red. Blue pops up a picture of all the boys in the class, Red pops up all the girl, Casher touches the picture of the kid that is standing there. (Classes go to Lunch by grade/teacher) so it very fast.
In middle school my son for 1 never carried his ID card. He's in HS now but they have not been issued yet. Mostly the issue is he does not have pants most of hte year that will easly keep track of it. Due to weather he in the basketball kind of shorts most of the school year. His ID card was on a little rubber band cord that was attached inside his backpack. But there backpacks stay in there locker, so its no use in the Lunch room. also the library, cafe, offices all work off his picture to verify who it is, Also in the library he jus tell them him student ID, or name.
In middle school my son for 1 never carried his ID card. He's in HS now but they have not been issued yet. Mostly the issue is he does not have pants most of hte year that will easly keep track of it. Due to weather he in the basketball kind of shorts most of the school year. His ID card was on a little rubber band cord that was attached inside his backpack. But their backpacks stay in there locker, so its no use in the Lunch room. also the library, cafe, offices all work off his picture to verify who it is, Also in the library he just tell them him student ID, or name.
Ours were supposed to wear ids around their neck in high school. However, they often did not and would often also not give them to you when you asked so checking identity sometimes meant getting a security guard to do it when an infraction of the rules happened.
You can't lose your finger, you can lose an ID card. You can't give your finger to someone else, so scanning it would mean you actually have to be in the place you are supposed to be in. Also, if we did this for attendance, it would mean more time for the teacher to teach instead of taking attendance every class period in high school. It would help substitutes to identify kids who were supposed to be in class too. Our kids would cut when subs where there and also would have their friends coming to their classes so they could socialize instead of working.
Is carrying around an RFID card that difficult that they need to start using fingerprints?
Apparently. God forbid we actually hold kids accountable for remembering to be responsible for something.
As for me, it's too intrusive. I wish they'd just go back to simple cash.
In this day and age, it is far TOO easy to use those scans for anything and everything, and WAY TOO easy for some diabolically intelligent criminal to get ahold of them and use them for whatever purpose.
Jeesh, they can't even keep simple credit card info safe now.
Uh uh. That's far too Orwellian for me thanks anyway - my kids will have to pack a cold lunch.
Ours were supposed to wear ids around their neck in high school. However, they often did not and would often also not give them to you when you asked so checking identity sometimes meant getting a security guard to do it when an infraction of the rules happened.
You can't lose your finger, you can lose an ID card. You can't give your finger to someone else, so scanning it would mean you actually have to be in the place you are supposed to be in. Also, if we did this for attendance, it would mean more time for the teacher to teach instead of taking attendance every class period in high school. It would help substitutes to identify kids who were supposed to be in class too. Our kids would cut when subs where there and also would have their friends coming to their classes so they could socialize instead of working.
Can't they memorize a student number?
Why is this incredibly intrusive idea necessary? Do we not hold kids accountable for their actions at all anymore? <---rhetorical question there.
Is there no consequence at all for their actions (as in socializing instead of working)? Do the subs not have a list of student names? Are the teachers not required to provide a list of student names for the sub?
Are security guards employed to deal with infractions, or are they simply there to keep out the riffraff?
Personally, I think it's just the continuous march onward to laziness and blatent lack of accountability.
Do the subs not have a list of student names? Are the teachers not required to provide a list of student names for the sub?
Of course the subs had a list of student names. I even left a seating chart. However, subs do not connect the name with a face. What the kids in our inner city school did was switch ids and go to other people's classes and socialize with their friends. The kids who did this were usually supposed to be at lunch, btw. It was pretty odd, but this is what happened.
If you think it is easy for a sub to get the kids to work, you would be quite wrong at least in the inner city schools I taught at.
At least if they had the finger scanner, the sub would know that there were not kids in the class who should not be there. Subs did not call security because they took attendance by calling names and kids can answer to anyone's name.
Of course the subs had a list of student names. I even left a seating chart. However, subs do not connect the name with a face. What the kids in our inner city school did was switch ids and go to other people's classes and socialize with their friends. The kids who did this were usually supposed to be at lunch, btw. It was pretty odd, but this is what happened.
If you think it is easy for a sub to get the kids to work, you would be quite wrong at least in the inner city schools I taught at.
At least if they had the finger scanner, the sub would know that there were not kids in the class who should not be there. Subs did not call security because they took attendance by calling names and kids can answer to anyone's name.
Heh heh...no. I don't think it's easy at all. Personal experience tells me that.
What did they do before the advent of computer scanning? Were the kids ever held accountable, or was it just too big to find out who the offenders were?
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