The eNotes Blog No More Smokin in the Boys Room Tracking Chips On the Rise for Junior High and High SchoolStudents

No More Smokin in the Boys Room Tracking Chips On the Rise for Junior High and High SchoolStudents I have a child in junior high and a child in high school. Every day, both of them must wear their school-issued identification card on a lanyard around their necks at all times. The doors to their schools are locked at 8:30 a.m.   After being checked out on a video camera and buzzed in, parents and other visitors must present a drivers license upon entering the building, and then that visitor is issued a sticker with a scanned image of their license picture and their name in bold letters.   The sticker must be worn at all times while on school grounds. My children do not attend school in the Gaza Strip. They are in a small Texas suburb where, honestly, the biggest threat to their well-being are West Nile mosquitoes, all of which, sadly, are too tiny for State-issued sticky-IDs. Still, it is not enough. Now in addition to their dog-collarserr.. I mean IDs, soon, they, like thousands of other Texas kids, will be required to have their IDs chipped, as in microchipped with GPS tracking devices that will let administrators and, presumably, teachers, know where they are at all times. Not surprisingly, there has been backlash. One student, Andrea Hernandez of San Antonio, Texas, just won the right to refuse to wear the embedded identification.   While Hernandezs reasons for balking at the requirement may be unusual (she believes the tracking is Satanic), many parents and students also contend that the practice is invasive and in violation of their rights. It all feels a little too creepily Big Brother-ish to lots of  dissenters. For their part, schools are embracing the GPS IDs because increased attendance means increased funding. Additionally, they claim that students rights being violated is inapplicable since the students are under age. Moreover, there are voices on all sides, parents, teachers, administrators, and students, who argue that there should be nothing to worry about and no objectionsif your student (or you) are where they (or you) are supposed to be. What do you think? Yes to chips or no? And why?