Schools' Fingerprinting Agenda

A few weeks ago, My 12-year-old daughter came home from school telling me something shocking. Her school plans to take the fingerprints of all the pupils to create a biomentric database. I phoned the school and left a message on their answerphone. then the school librarian called me back. She was very nice and explained to me that the actual programme is that the school is taking fingerprints of children for the library only. This database is secure and the information cannot be accessed by anyone else. I thanked her, but said that this is not the point. I'm concerned that the children are being hit so young by this procedure that it will desensitize them for when they're older and fingerprint databases are everywhere. She said: "this makes it so much easier to keep track of the books and who's got them. No child can take a book out in another's name". Well, there's always a good reason why these measures are beneficial. The scheme is not compulsory... it never is to begin with! I'm sure this is just the start of more and more scemes like this until the kids will need their fingerprints just to get in through the gates every morning! I've spoken to two other parents and they're very much in agreement with me.

I found a good website that supports people in my situation: www.leavethemkidsalone.com...

I bet that if hadn't contacted them they'd never even have asked my permission. Just look at the news storries on the website! It's ironic that schools are arrogantly making decisions for our kids without any thought to our rights as parents, but then when the kids run amock, smashing windows and spraying graffitti, who do they blame!?


Last week, when the holidays were over, I wrote to the school's headmistress:

"Dear _

I thought I’d better write to you over the issue I raised (school fingerprinting) when I phoned you the other day. You said you’d call me back, but you haven’t yet. This deeply concerns me. Some very worrying rumours are circulating at the moment about similar schemes in other schools and unethical methods schools are employing to go achieve it. See www.leavethemkidsalone.com. I’m not saying that I accept them all as true, but the fact that they’re out there bothers me.

I want to be clear that I withold my consent for (my daughter's name) to be fingerprinted or have any biometric data taken from her under any circumstances. I consider this a breach of her civil liberties, not to mention my rights as a parent. If any member of staff tries to do this I’ve instructed her to refuse and refer that staff member to me. (Were the school planning on asking our permission anyway? I hope so!) Several other parents share my misgivings.

The modern world is a very violent and oppressive place, and becoming more so with every passing day. State surveillance and control is increasing and new technology, like fingerprinting machines, makes it easier for governments and big corporations to abuse and enslave the majority of people. The famous book by George Orwell “1984” is a very prophetic warning and prediction, in my view. There’s nothing inherently bad about a simple library fingerprint database and the librarian ensured me it is secure, but the point is that this could be the thin end of the wedge; it certainly is at other schools. It could lead to a situation where pupils’ whole identity at the school is governed by their entry in a computer file. This also desensitizes them to the adult Big Brother society that is looming ahead of us where people are governed and controlled by a state computer network where no penny can be turned or door unlocked without permission from this network. I assure you it is terrifyingly close. The only chance we have of stopping this nightmare becoming a reality is if we stand up to it and refuse to cooperate with it. I want today’s children to grow up in a better world, not a worse one.

HC"

Scary times, indeed! There are rumors floating my area that the school district would like to use fingerprints for children to access their school lunch accounts.

Is this country really at the point where we're willing to trade our children's civil rights for the sake of school administrative efficiency? I think not!

Well the fingerprints will be an everyday issue now a days, just like the implants, ex-ray and optical recognition will be next.

Don't you love the future?

---Ok ma'am where do you want your newborn baby to have his or her implant on? the forehead or the butt.

Hagbard Celine, in 1986 I had my finger prints taken by the cops who would come in and talk about saftey and strangers.. This must have been like when I was in 2nd grade, 3rd grade. They would bring in all their prints and make it like a fun thing.. When I think back, I remeber it clearly.
We use to have dentists come in and give us the pills that would turn our mouths red. ect. ect. So I think this has been around for some time.
Im still young yet. Only just turned 30, class of 95.. So anyone older than me remeber stuff like that at your schools?

Originally posted by maria_stardust
Scary times, indeed! There are rumors floating my area that the school district would like to use fingerprints for children to access their school lunch accounts.

Is this country really at the point where we're willing to trade our children's civil rights for the sake of school administrative efficiency? I think not!

This has been on the news. Some politicians have spoken out against it, but (predictably) few compared to those in favour or who have kept silent.

"Britain may have to give up some of its freedoms in the short term in order to protect them in the long term."- John Reid, British Home Secretary, August 10 2006

I think it's important in this issue to focus on capability rather than intent. Many of the MP's voting in favour of this now may not intend to create a database state, but have been so harangued by fear of terrorism and fraud etc that they support it. Once the infrastructure is in place, the govt can then change its intent and will have means and power it's never had at all in history.

Originally posted by zysin5
Hagbard Celine, in 1986 I had my finger prints taken by the cops who would come in and talk about saftey and strangers.. This must have been like when I was in 2nd grade, 3rd grade. They would bring in all their prints and make it like a fun thing.. When I think back, I remeber it clearly.
We use to have dentists come in and give us the pills that would turn our mouths red. ect. ect. So I think this has been around for some time.
Im still young yet. Only just turned 30, class of 95.. So anyone older than me remeber stuff like that at your schools?

Funny you should bring this up. A friend of mine told me how she'd gone on a school outing to a police station and part of the tour was a fingerprinting demonstration. She volunteered to have hers done. The police never gave her the prints and she assumed that they'd disposed of them... but they hadn't! A few years later when she was arrested as an adult and found that the police already had a file on her! They'd kept the fingerprints they'd taken from her on that study trip.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Here's a taste of the political debate over this issue. Barnoess Carnegy is in contact with LTKA and is a voice with clout in the govt. I'm speculating here, but it's interesting that the Lordsman challenging her is called Lord Adonis. Adonis is a Greek god who was worshipped by a devout cult in ancient times. It's also where the Masonic term "Adony" comes from.

Funny how they say "secure." It would probably only take one badge to get access to the whole database!

Thinking about needing a fingerprint to get into the school...... They would probably think is a good idea so kids couldn't skip.

I'm still in HS and if they tried to fingerprint me, I would probably start a riot.

-Bumross.

The issue of the child's civil liberties and parental consent seems to be that the schools take the stance that it is only the child's decision and consent as 'an individual' to state whether they accept or decline to be fingerprinted.

Schools can fingerprint children without parental consent
"The Data Protection Act talks of consent of the individual - essentially that's consent of the child," he said. "Now there's a requirement that consent is informed and freely given. That will depend on the age of the child." The idea is that as long as children can understand the implications of what they are being asked to do, they can give consent without deferring to their parents.

"The Data Protection Act is about the pupil's rights, not the parents' rights over the children's information."

Where I can see the issue of 'parental consent' coming into the matter is that the school is charged with acting in loco parentis, or legal guardian, whilst the child is attendant at the school, so has the power to act in the child's 'best interests; and to date no formal legal challenge has been mounted against child-printing to set any kind of precedent

It has been espimated that over 700,000 children have been printed so far, and there are plans to extend the remit of data collection to include retinal and other biometric data.

Say No 2 ID!

heh, that last paragraph may have been overkill to someone not familiar with the big bro state mentality. she may have gotten her tin hat out after reading that, heh.

another trend is that schools will tell parents their children are required to get vaccines and booster shots for school. This is not mandatory, but is usually described as such.

They are certainly getting kids used to being oppressed and always needing t verify their identity - we can resist all we want, but were already over half the way there.

Send your kids to a government education facility and expect what?
Home schooling, check it out.

I called the local Education authority the other day, but just got a voicemail. I'll keep trying though.

I've been interviewed by the newspapers:

www.oxfordmail.net...

It appeared as a full-page story in Thursday's Oxford Mail. The Oxford Mail is a local tabloid that was part of the Robert Maxwell media empire: Pergamon Group, including the Daily Mirror and The European. It's actually very good for a newspaper and they cover events with a lot of community interest. I'm proud to help exposing this sinister agenda.
I'm very pleased with it. Chris Buratta seemed very much on our side. I've made a few choice comments in the box, as you see. And I've been very clear that I believe this scheme is linked to the adult NID one that we're fighting to stop. The Oxford Mail has several sister papers, the broadsheet Oxford Times and a series of free weeklies, the Oxford Courier, Oxford star and Oxford Journal. Hopefully it will get into those too.


[edit on 8-6-2007 by Hagbard Celine]

I've been interviewed for the RINF podcast:

[url=http://rinf.com/alt-news/multimedia/rinf-podcast-biometric-schools/851/]http://rinf.com/alt-news/multimedia/rinf-podcast-biometric-schools/851/[/ url]

Sorry if I'm a bit indistinct. I should have spoken slower and more articulately. I was just using a conversational tone and didn't bear it in mind that it was going to be broadcast.

Still, I think this will do some good. Hopefully many other parents will do the same thing. It will only take a small percentage of people to rebel for the database to become useless.

I can understand your concerns. There's no finger-printing at my son's school so far but they have all been given I.D. cards, (for lunches, library, city buses, etc). What shocked me was that they photographed my son and asked the same kind of security questions that we adults use when opening a bank account. The main reason for this service (so they say) is that a lot of kids get their lunch money's stolen by bullies, and this is an effort to make it stop. Doesn't make sense really as instead of having a couple of quid every day, these kids will have much larger amounts on them when they queue up at the school machine to put credit on their cards. I emailed them at the time (Dec 2006) with my complaint -" " " My son's personal details, including security passwords/answers and a photograph, were taken today at school against my wishes and without my permission. I would like the photograph returned to myself or destroyed and all details with it, and I'd like a written reply telling me this has been done. Until I know more about the ID card we will be making no application for it. How much he will save off bus fares if he has this card? He walks to school and only very occasionally uses a bus service at weekends. Will he be able to use the public libraries and leisure facilities without a card? Will having a card make all the services mentioned cheaper? If so, who is paying the subsidies? What other services can be added to the card and what information will you be sharing with the Scottish executive? What other type of authorities will the ( ) Council share these details with? Finally, why would a 14 year old boy want to contact the ( ) Council then need a security password in order to be identified? I make no apologies for my questions/concerns regarding this subject. I disagree with a national ID card scheme and certainly this is appears to be the start of one. If it's just a goodwill gesture to all ( ) citizens with much cheaper services all across the board then I'd like much more details to prove this. Perhaps the ( ) council could open a couple of youth clubs and cinemas in my area and keep the gangs off my street at the weekends. " " "I'm sure I have the reply somewhere around, if I find it I'll post here.I should mention my son had the card for all of a fortnight when most of the details inc. photo scraped off in his pocket. Now he has to visit the school office every day to borrow their "blank", until he has £5 to buy a new card. So this is also a money-making scam. (When I lose my bank card I get a new one free.)

It's an abuse of our trust when things like this happen. Children are the most precious things we have and we put them into the care of the schools for at least six hours a day, five days a week. We expect the tteachers to be responsible and repectful with our loved ones and when they're not I feel betrayed.

As I explained in the podcast, the way the teachers at my daughter's school behaved made me think that they're under a lot of pressure from the local education authority to introduce this system. The headmistress was very evasive with me. The librarian was the only person who answered any of my phonecalls or letters.