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Podcasts Take Two
Could student IDs with 'locator' chips become the norm?
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Dec 11, 2012
Listen • 6:31
Could student IDs with 'locator' chips become the norm?
Next week, a federal judge in Texas will consider whether a San Antonio high school can require a student to wear a badge containing a SmartID locator microchip.
Dawn and Mike Cantrall's daughter, a seventh-grader at Brittan Elementary School, poses at her Sutter, Calif., home, wearing the Radio Frequency Identification tag that the school asked her to wear on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005. The Cantralls have filed a formal complaint against the school board, protesting the tag. The elementary school in this tiny rural school district has become an unlikely pioneer on the technology frontier by agreeing to test student I.D. cards designed to automatically take attendance. The badges use the same Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that has been used to track livestock and store inventory and have outraged some parents with privacy concerns who say they were never consulted.
Dawn and Mike Cantrall's daughter, a seventh-grader at Brittan Elementary School, poses at her Sutter, Calif., home, wearing the Radio Frequency Identification tag that the school asked her to wear on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005.
(
MAX WHITTAKER
)

Next week, a federal judge in Texas will consider whether a San Antonio high school can require a student to wear a badge containing a SmartID locator microchip.

Next week, a federal judge in Texas will consider whether a San Antonio high school can require a student to wear a badge containing a SmartID locator microchip. 

The schools says it helps them keep track of students and account for attendance, but 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez says the badge is a "mark of the beast," and wearing it violates her Christian beliefs.

However, according to school officials, if the program works as expected it could mean an additional $1.7 million in funding for the school district suffering from budget cuts.

For more on this case and why microchips could be headed to a school near you, we're joined by Declan Mccullagh, chief political correspondent & senior writer at CNET.