School girl in Texas suspended from refusal to wear RFID

In Texas, a scandal inflames with the Ministry of Education pilot project called the Student Locator , which is being tested in two San Antonio schools. The project involves tracking students through radio tags (RFID), which are automatically registered at the entrance to the school.

Most parents and the administration are satisfied with the technical innovation: now they always know what time the child came and went. You can set up SMS notification about each child’s entry / exit from school. They say that the attendance of classes has significantly increased, especially since 200 surveillance cameras have been placed throughout the school.


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True, not all parents are pleased with the innovation. There were activists who organized a protest against “illegal spying on children”, they invited television and got publications in the press. Now the scandal has reached the national level. Reddit users also protest: they say that such surveillance programs must first be tested on politicians. And only after a couple of years of successful trials, if there is no objection, it can be extended to children.

RFID badges were positioned as voluntary, but the school administration gradually began to impose restrictions on the few “renegades” who refused to wear them. First, they set the entrance to the school library by ID, then vote at school elections only by ID. In the end, there was only one rejected girl. A few days ago, the school administration suspended her from classes for refusing to wear a radio tag.

Similar automated student enrollment programs have already been tested in California and the same Texas, including in elementary school and pre-school classes. Obviously, at such a young age, students were still unable to protest. Unlike preschoolers, Andrea Hernandez (Andrea Hernandez) is a second year student at the Academy of Science and Engineering at John Jay High School, and is able to stand up for himself. She categorically refused to wear RFID for religious reasons, as she is a Christian and considers the bar code and the numbering of people to be the act of Satan. In numerous interviews, she explains that such numbers are the so-called Sign of the Beast . In addition, it is an illegal invasion of privacy and a violation of human rights.

The Northside Independent School District Education Department (NISD) has already invested half a million dollars in the Student Locator pilot project and, of course, is not going to make changes to the program because of one high school student. The girl is strongly recommended to transfer to another educational institution.

Wired magazine writes that the case of Andrea Hernandez came to court - and yesterday he had previously lifted the ban on attending school without RFID, until further proceedings.

However, such projects will certainly continue to be implemented throughout the country. Human rights activists express concern that in this way the authorities are teaching the population to be constantly monitored, starting from a younger age.