A Maine school district is rolling out new technology to track student ridership on buses.
Students in RSU 2 schools will be issued RFID cards to record when they board and exit school buses.
The cards containing small computer chips will be around the size of a credit card or ID.
How long until the school district wants to track the location of every student 24/7?
How long until the school district wants the RFID computer chip to go inside the students’ bodies?
Those are serious questions to ask parents who allow their children to be tracked like animals by government-funded schools.
While district leaders push the typical ‘safety’ excuse, at least one parent views the technology as an invasion of privacy.
WMTW 8 had the story:
Michael Ciccarelli is a bus driver in RSU 2 and a parent of three students.
Through recent training, he learned buses will soon carry tablets for students to tap with district issued cards for the system called Tyler Drive.
“Who monitors it, right? Who can hack in and get it? Why do they need it,” Ciccarelli said.
Superintendent Matt Gilbert says the system was successfully put into practice last year in Monmouth and Richmond, two regions within the district.
The expansion of the system includes buses in Hallowell and Dresden.
“We haven’t had any issues and we’ve actually been able to use it to really speed up the process of locating kids when we’ve had situations where we’ve had a student that might be getting on the wrong bus,” Gilbert said.
The cards do not track the whereabouts of students but will record the location where students tap to enter and exit.
“As a conservative, I just don’t think my kids need to be tracked. And on the street we track our pets. We don’t need to be tracking my kids,” Ciccarelli said.
District officials say the technology is grant funded and paid for with federal coronavirus relief funds.
How long until this invasive technology is introduced to schools across the country?
Instead of aiding small businesses and impoverished individuals, the federal government uses coronavirus relief funds to track schoolchildren.
The school board and superintendent approved the technology with a $45,000 price tag.
Gilbert says no families have requested to opt out, but they will meet with families individually to discuss any concerns.
Watch the video report at WMTW 8.
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