Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Someone want to explain to me what Homeland Security has to do with education 
and schools?  Read the second half of this.

Lynda

MORE KIDS (AND PARENTS?) TO BE CHIPPED
=====================================================================

The BBC reports that "Parents who refuse to allow former partners
contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans
being considered by ministers." That's a pretty severe measure to take
against parents whose only crime is arguing with each other over 
custody
rulings. We doubt this tagging will actually happen, but the fact that
it's even being discussed is disturbing.

Meanwhile, U.S. taxpayers are paying for a program to use RFID cards 
to
track kids in Chilton County, Alabama. It's part of a "model school"
trial being run by the Department of Homeland Security. 

Think it's awful? Email your opinion to the school superintendent:
Superintendent Mildred Ellison: mellison AT chilton.k12.al.us

Sources:
BBC, 1/18/05
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4182871.stm

Clanton AL Advertiser, 1/27/05
http://www.clantonadvertiser.com/articles/2005/01/27/news/b-news.txt


=====================================================================
OPPOSITION GROWS OVER PLAN TO TAG CALIFORNIA SCHOOL KIDS
=====================================================================

If you are in the Sacramento/Sutter area or San Antonio, Texas, we 
need
your help to combat mandatory child-tagging in schools. 

The Brittan school in Sutter, California is running a trial that
requires school children to wear RFID tags around their necks. Linked 
to
readers in classrooms and throughout the school, the system is 
designed
to pinpoint students' locations, allowing the school to monitor kids 
at
all times. 

As you can imagine, parents are outraged, and some have begun to fight
back. In response to growing criticism, School 
Superintendent/Principal
Earnie Graham blustered:  

  "It's not an option," Graham said. "(The badge) is just like a
   textbook, you have to have it. I'm charged with running the school
   district and I get to make those kinds of rules."  

(Doesn't he strike you as exactly the kind of guy who *would* put an
RFID tag on kids?)

Evan Hendricks of Privacy Times has written a report on this 
outrageous
scheme in his latest newsletter. He's offered it for free to CASPIAN
members (it's normally available to subscribers only) here:

http://www.spychips.com/documents/Privacy_Times_Vol_25_No_3.pdf