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HIGH SCHOOL TRACK

Girl Expelled for Refusing to Wear Tracking Device

All students at her TX school are required to wear the tags

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Screenshot

A Texas student has been expelled for refusing to wear a tracking device mandated for all students at her high school.

Andrea Hernandez refused to wear the tag because she said it violates her religious beliefs, and called it "the implementation of the Mark of the Beast." Her expulsion has now been put on temporary hold by a Texas judge, pending further investigation.

The tracking devices have been attached to all student ID cards in two high schools in the Northside Independent School District, as a pilot program that could be implemented in 100 other schools. The aim is to track student attendance, and ultimately, help schools attract more funding by proving higher attendance rates.

A civil liberties organization, the Rutherford Institute, has volunteered to help with Hernandez's legal defense. They claim that the tracking program gets "students used to living in a total surveillance state where there will be no privacy."

Hernandez's protest has drawn national attention to the tracking policy, sparking outrage from left and right alike.

Via RT and the BBC.

Posted Nov 24, 1pm PST.

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Is it reasonable to require students to wear tracking devices at school?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • o
    Sonny
    !
    No, schools shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff...I mean, if you want to gage attendance...what ever happened to merely having the teacher "call the roll" in the mornings...See stuff like this is not needed in our schools, and does nothing but waste tax payer money, in the forms of its implementation and the inevitable law suites that will follow.
  • marine1
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    it is a furtherance of big brother knows best with tracking of all people and activities being the end results. WHAT will they do with that information????
  • o
    Sonny
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    @marine1 Exactly..this is really getting scary. I don't understand why more parents did not come out against this.

  • View all 34 replies >

  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    This story makes me so mad. This is what happens when fools reelect obama. There will be more stories just like this. Liberals won't wake up until it's way too late.
  • DARSB
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix Did you notice this kerfuffle began at the start of the school year, well before the election? Noun-verb-Obama's fault.
  • Keyjo
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    @Neanderthal_NtheMatrix
    Tell me again, who the Governor of Texas is!?
    It would seem to be more of his baby than the POTUS.

  • View all 15 replies >

  • Zazziness
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    @marine1 In a way. I believe schools are only paid for bodies that are in their seats each day, so they are motivated to ensure attendance as best they are able.
  • Zazziness
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    @marine1 It worked when I was in school *but* I can remember many the day I took off after home room and played hookey with my friends. Most times we were caught and flogged the next day (OK, not flogged, just given detention) but there were times they didn't catch it. Nowadays things are so different with messed up kids shooting up campuses when they go crazy... they must have had some reason to implement this. (I hope it wasn't that someone on the schoolboard has a relative who owns the company who makes the chips.) I do think it's a violation of civil rights, though. But then, I feel the same way about how they use GPS chips in cars.

  • View all 14 replies >

  • wild_turkey6
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    Does anyone else have a problem with there was only one student brave enough to stand against this? How does this bode for us as a nation? Have we became so complacent with the erosion of civil liberties that we just roll over and take it?
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
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    @marine1 - More like the obamafication of the nation. People want their handouts? Now the government owns them. This is why I live by a strict motto: A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. People need to understand there is a serious price for depending on government for everything.

    I knew something like this was coming. I knew it!
  • Deb2me
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    @Neo_NtheMatrix ROFL at your ignorance...this is a school in Texas aka Republican country. Betcha believe in the boogey-man, too.
    What you obviously need to understand is that Republicans are more likely to acquiesce to the erosion of civil rights...ya know those damn civil rights those liberals are constantly standing up to protect...and this ONE student in Texas.
    Hence, why there was only ONE student in Texas willing to stand up for their civil rights...that ONE student must be ONE of the few liberals in Texas.

  • View all 14 replies >

  • Barry_T
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    If the student wants it [if in fear of abduction]; if the student is found to have a history of truancy; and if the student has been deemed to require it for medical reasons All others, NO!
  • u
    Laradian
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    I have no problem with it. If a student is doing what he or she is supposed to do then why is this a problem?

    But when she turns up missing after being snatched up by a pervert she'll wish she had that tracking device. Boy, how she'll missed the smell of mom's home-cooked mashed potatoes while her 'Lovely Bones' are hidden away some musty, damp cellar in the middle of nowhere.

    Better think this over again before passing judgment. I know some fathers and mothers who have given up ever sleeping again because they have had a a child taken away.

  • View all 11 replies >

  • ASmith
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    Only those left mentally retarded by religion believe in crap like "mark of the beast".

    Having said that, assuming guilt IS a violation of a person's rights and privacy. School is mandated, not a choice for children, and forcing them to do things that violate their person is wrong. Mandatory chips are as obscene and invasive as the idiot principal who forced female students to drop their pants and prove they weren't wearing thong underwear.
  • u
    Suff
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    It /is/ oppressive. Why should we be questioned on everywhere we go, or monitored absolutely? What about freedom?
  • John_Matrix
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    Give the partisan bullshit a rest already. Democrats and Republicans both are doing a good job of stripping away our rights and freedoms
  • Phreakwars
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    @John_Matrix The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense. Each year's act also includes other provisions. The part YOU don't like, yeah, Obama signed it, but GUESS who put that provision in there.

  • View all 19 replies >

  • Dan_Tien
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    I don't believe that the tracking device is "the mark of the beast", but I do believe that it is a violation of civil rights. The school could just as easily gotten the student's cell phone numbers to track their GPS locations, but that would have cost less. It just goes to show that the sense of privacy these days is mostly an illusion.
  • dances-weebles
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    @Zazziness have you looked around lately? my wife is a school coodinator and the students all have cel-fones which are much higher quality and much more expensive than hers. they also walk into the school carrying i-pads and laptop computers. where have you been?
  • dances-weebles
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    well, i don't much care if it's the 'mark of the beast' or not, but if i find out that there's one in either of my kids' id cards from school, then they'll find themselves tracking the nearest trash can.
  • Zazziness
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    She has the one defense that might work in Texas: "I believe that demons inhabit this microchip and if I carry it, evolution might turn out to be true." I guess since it's Texas, the kids should consider themselves lucky they're not wearing ear tags. There are a lot of cattle ranchers that have the needed equipment...
  • u
    KyleMFb
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    Yes it's your a student there it's their job to make sure your attending school how else do that bc taken roll in classes doesn't work
  • u
    tangibles
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    I agree that this is designed to get people used to being tracked all the time, it is a total and complete violation of the Constitutional rights. The school use of this device should be banned, and the school should be sued for what they have done. Some schools are also now scanning students hands when they take their lunches at school. Wake up America! There will be all sorts of reasons given for using tracking/scanning of human beings, made to seem like a good thing. There is nothing good about losing our right to privacy!!
  • stepped_in_it
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    Has anyone noticed....NO ONE believes this is right (except the parents in these two Texas schools)! Sounds like the laziness is not only these so-called parents but the teachers who refuse to take a "roll call". You know, I was just talking about where the school monies went to. Now I know.....idiotic ideas like this!!
  • u
    Hrsqsiest
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    What about the two schools in Houston that have been doing this since 04'? Didn't hear any outrage over them. But then, that was implemented during a time when we had a republican president. Hmmm..... Starting to see a trend here.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @Hrsqsiest Hmmm.....didn't hear about it before. If I had, would say the same thing! I'm an equal basher of politicians (I like to play fair that way!)
  • u
    Hrsqsiest
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    @stepped_in_it
    In researching what it is that everyone is so up in arms about, it will tell you about the Houston schools and when this began. All this talk about Obama being behind this is just assanine. This has nothing to do with political parties. It is just the electronic calling of the roll. It doesn't work when the student leaves the school grounds. And how would it track your child (even if it could) when your child went out with friends on the weekend and left their ID at home? This is a non issue.
  • stepped_in_it
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    @Hrsqsiest Well, FYI.....since nowhere above I even mentioned Obama, maybe YOU are just assanine!(spelled asinine!!). I don't "protect any politician, as I think they are ALL crooks. Read BEFORE you comment....all things work better if you do!
  • u
    Hrsqsiest
    !
    @stepped_in_it
    Hold up there for just a sec. I believe you think that I was ragging on you. Not the case. But if you wish it to be that way, so be it. Many, many comments here are aimed toward democrats and Obama being the problem with this program. Guess I should have been more specific. And yes, assanine is spelled asinine. The spell check on this thing does its own thing most of the time, and I'm not going to override it every time it does. But you knew what it was anyway. My earlier point stands. This is a non issue. It was a non issue when it started in 04' and is a non issue still. If these students and their parents don't like it, put their children in private school. Don't waste school time idiotic made up BS about these being 'trackers'. They don't track anybody. Oh, and have a wonderful day.
  • DARSB
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    The Rutherford Institute is a fundigelicals legal group with a reassuringly terrible record of success in litigation. It's most well known for pushing a creationist school program in Pennsylvania that resulted in the Dover decision, striking down creationism as a topic fit for science classes.

    So if history is any guide this young lady will be back in class with her tagged ID card in place.

    PS - starting in the 1990s federal law requires all cell phones sold in the US to be equipped with GPS chips for law enforcement uses. I don't recall religious objections then, so presumably the Mark of the Best Buy is theologically cool.
  • MongoAPillager
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    most of the Christian groups i communicate with have been warning for 30 0r 40 years about these dangers,of course a good deal of the churches have decided to go along to get along with almost anything political correctness dictates.
  • Romney2012
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    I wouldn't wear one either, the public schools shouldn't have that much surveillance of children. Everybody needs a little privacy!
  • o
    JpMonty
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    NO!!! What idiot would think this is okay??? As soon as we except this for our children, then we will except the government doing it to anybody!!!

    Like I have said on my other post, "there will be one of these Politix sheep who will think this is a good idea"!!!
  • martydotcom
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    @Keyjo want to remain off the scope? never use your cell for incoming or outgoing calls & your safe. Turning off GPS just denies commercial sites from using the info from your phone. The device remains active
  • Keyjo
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    @martydotcom
    Well, I know emergency responders can track me if I get in a jam snowboarding. Everything has a tradeoff. And like many, and an increasing number, I don't have a landline.

  • View all 9 replies >

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