A school in California has declared that chipping its young pupils is mandatory - and parents are furious about it.

Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, California, introduced a scheme last month to use RFID to identify its pupils. The RFID chips are worn around the neck in the form of ID badges and can be used to monitor where the children are on school grounds, and carry the child's name, photo, grade and unique school ID number.

A recent letter sent home to parents from the school said: "It is important the badge be worn at all times during school hours. This additional step will help keep your child safe while at school."

The letter concludes: "Students who lose or destroy their badges will be accountable for the cost of replacing them."

According to the school's weekly bulletin, the system allowed the staff to find when a non-student was in the school, due to the interloper's lack of badge. The bulletin also says the RFID tags could be used to help identify any missing children in the event of an emergency.

The newsletter adds: "Questions have arisen regarding the safety of the materials used in the badges. The chip that is used to activate the attendance of a child entering a classroom does not have any radioactive elements."

Parents aren't just complaining about the chips on health grounds, they're complaining about the civil liberties implications too.

Michael Cantrall, parent of one of the children at Brittan Elementary, said: "Are we trying to bring them up with respect and trust, or tell them that you can't trust anyone, you are always going to be monitored and someone is always going to be watching you?", according to a report in the Associated Press.

Some parents have complained to the school authorities about the use of the tags and civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have taken up the cause.

Principal Earnie Graham told the AP that he hopes to add a barcode to the RFID tag to allow the children to pay for meals at school and take out library books. He said that while the whole school must wear the badges, only the seventh and eighth graders are being tracked.



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“Stand out firmly for Justice as witness before God, even against yourselves, against your kin and against your parents, against people who are rich or poor. Do not follow your inclinations or desires lest you deviate from Justice. Remember, God is the best of Protectors and well acquainted with all that you do.”
-Qur’an 4:135

"Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces."
--Jean Paul Marat, 18th Century French Visionary (and revolutionary), murdered in his bathtub by Royalist Charlotte Corday