St Louis area schools to be fitted with biometric security

[buckthesystem]

Some of you won't mind this at all, but others definitely will. I find the idea of giving out biometric identification to be very creepy. I even "kicked up a fuss" when my work had arranged to install a fingerprint scanning timeclock, the office workers for our factory were really being fed a load of lies about it, and swallowed them, not only that they thought all the factory staff would be just as uncaring or as gullible as not to bother to find out the facts for themselves, as well. I had to get hold of a lot of written information that supported what I said and get enough people on my side, to insist that the company provided an alternative to "fingerscanning". I won in the end, but it took a lot of time and research. We just have to all do this sort of thing. I suspect that that is what is happening with these schools, people just haven't bothered to check on whether it is illegal, or immoral, or what.

Also one thing that comes to mind is that I wonder if this is in support of "real id". First federal buildings, then all "public buildings" and schools?

________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________

http://edwardsvillejournal.stltoday.com/ar...olboard.ii1.txt

Edwardsville district getting high-tech security system

Board also approves bid for digital projection equipment at EHS

By Scott Cousins

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:08 PM CDT

As part of the Edwardsville School District's new building program, new and renovated schools will be getting a high-tech security access system that includes biometric scanners for staff and photo IDs for visitors.

While the system is expected to be installed in the new and renovated schools by the start of the school year, it will take approximately 18 months to install the system district-wide.

Director of Information Systems and Services William Miener gave a short presentation on the plan at Monday's school board meeting.The system includes video monitors at all building entrances, biometric ID badges for staff, and the ability to scan visitors' ID and do a partial background check before allowing them into the buildings.

Staff members will have an ID with an embedded biometric scan. To enter a secure building, they would have to scan their card, then place a finger or thumb on a scanner to confirm their identity.

Miener noted that the fingerprint would be on the card only, rather than being stored on a computer.

Visitors would have their state ID, such as a driver's license, scanned. The scan would reveal if a person was a registered sex offender.

The scan would also generate a photo ID visitor's badge.

Miener said Tuesday that the hardware and licensing agreements for the security system itself will be about $685,000, with some additional costs to plug it into the district's computer network.

The board also approved a $302,128 bid from Schiller's Imaging Group for the installation of digital projection equipment in 100 classrooms at Edwardsville High School.

The project has a Sept. 28 completion date, but Miener said it would probably be done before that.

The board also approved new health curriculum for the district.

The cost will be $209,000, with the district picking up $87,000 and the state paying $122,000.

The board also heard two presentations.

EHS English and history teacher Jamie Hemken and Woodland Elementary third-grade teacher Wendy Adams spent part of their summer touring Thailand as part of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange.

The program gives young professionals a chance to visit different countries.

The two had been recommended for the trip by Superintendent Ed Hightower, a Rotary member.

"We were dealing with an entirely different culture, but we met some extraordinary people," Hemken said.

The trip included small journeys into Myanmar and Laos, and was "an adjustment," according to the two.

One of those adjustments was the food.

While Adams talked about how thrilling it was to find a McDonalds, Hemken tried crickets and bamboo worms.

"It's really not bad at all," she said.

The board also heard a presentation about the district's cooperative educational programs with the Watershed Nature Center.

Sandy Fultz, the district's full-time teacher at the site, gave the presentation, saying that in the past year 6,736 students visited the center or participated in outreach programs at their schools.

[Xan]

What are the facts that were not presented in the article?

[rvanderwyst]

Just another way to take away our so called "freedoms" and track every move we make, this is a sad, sad time we are living in.

[other one]

My wife teaches in the lower grades here, and it is a problem to identify people who pick up kids from school. Broken homes and just plain weirdo's are always problems as to has the authourity to pick kids up at school.

I can tell you that I think both identifying the children and those who have permission to pick them up would be a good thing in most of the minds of the teachers and administrators that I know. Schools have grown large enough to be impossible to know everyone. If a school lets a non authorized person pick up a kid from school they can be held liable for any consequences of what might happen tot he child.

This is not just a cut and dry subject.

As for the real ID, that isn't a bad thing either if it weren't for the database that goes along with it. I like the idea of knowing who a person is, but no one has the right to massive invormation about each of us that is to go along with the idea of a secure ID.

We passed a law here in Oklahoma that forbids anyone in the state from complying with the national ID database until and unless the Federal Government can show both the need for it, and that it can be kept secure (neither of which has been done).