UK school to fingerprinting pupils, use to control entry/exit
banana
(below), fingerprinting of school pupils is not just happening at one or
two schools in the UK. It's already happening at THOUSANDS of primary
schools, and is widely done without parental consent.
Note that it is beginning to be done not just to control access to books
and food, but to control entry to the schools themselves, and exit.
It is blatant physical assault.
Also note that in preparing the article below, the 'Guardian' presumably
spoke with the headteacher but not with the children. In his public
relations effort, the headteacher is saying it's 'voluntary'.
But see the second document, which is a letter from a pupil, also in
Berkshire.
LTKA stands for 'Leave Them Kids Alone', and is opposing the mass
fingerprinting of children.
The LTKA website was set up by parents of inmates at St Matthew's
Primary School in Cambridge who did not like the school's decision to
fingerprint children aged 5-11 WITHOUT seeking prior express consent
from their parents.
The pupil states very clearly:
>>>we feel we are being threatened and bullied into it
>>>due to the threat of exclusion
From:
<http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1821128,00.html>:
***BEGIN ARTICLE***
School in data row over plan to fingerprint pupils
Rebecca Smithers, education editor
Saturday July 15, 2006
The Guardian
Pupils at a Berkshire secondary school are to be fingerprinted and have
their details kept on a database in a controversial scheme to be
launched this autumn.
The plan to scan pupils' prints every time they enter or leave the
school has been criticised by sixthformers who claim their human rights
are being infringed. They believe the storage of their biometric data on
computer systems will breach their right to privacy. Several pupils said
using the scanners would make them feel like criminals.
Edgbarrow school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, plans to pilot the scheme
with sixth-formers for a year, beginning in September, before deciding
whether to fingerprint every pupil. Participation in the scheme will be
voluntary, the school said. Fingerprints of those taking part in the
pilot will be taken and transformed into digital data and stored on a
computer.
As students go into the school they will be asked to place their thumb
in a scanner, which will examine 20 points and identify the student.
Sixthformer Shaun Woodage, 17, said "clocking in and out" at each end of
the day would make him and his friends feel like criminals. "The lack of
trust and respect from the school to the students seems to be apparent.
We have the right to hold on to our own biometrics and have the right to
say who we shall disclose them to."
The headteacher, Robert Elsey, said the scheme was an attempt to hand
pupils responsibility for signing themselves in and out. "All our
sixthformers are being invited to take part in the pilot scheme, but
there is no compulsion to do so. We have spoken to students and received
a positive response regarding the new scheme."
He said parents would shortly receive more details of the scheme and
added that the school would be seeking their views.
A spokesman for the civil liberties group Liberty said: "Our main
concerns are what will happen to this data after the students have left
the school. We will be monitoring the scheme."
***END ARTICLE***
From:
<http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/excluded.htm>:
***BEGIN***
EXCLUDED FROM SCHOOL UNLESS WE FINGERPRINT YOU! - LTKA (against schools
fingerprinting children)
Dear LTKA,
I am writing to you because of a great concern I have which is very
closely linked with your articles of vast amounts of schools kids being
fingerprinted. It came to light recently at our sixth form, that our
head of year is implementing a fingerprint scanning scheme that we must
all conform to - or be excluded from school permanently. This is very
worrying because myself and a group of fellow students feel that this is
a breach of privacy as we believe we have the right to hold onto our own
biometrics and only have the right on who we shall disclose them to -
this especially since we feel we are being threatened and bullied into
it due to the threat of exclusion, which is rich from a school that
prides itself on its bullying policy
Our head of sixth form has already had the systems installed in the
sixth form block without the consultation of any pupils or parents -
which is quiet significant considering it will be a great change to the
school environment and also represents a huge amount of money that could
have been spent on other, more useful, resources and equipment such as
books, ICT facilities and much needed maintenance work to the sixth form
block. What is chilling further that is all of the pupils like myself
that have no choice on the matter of the system are under 18 - and yet
no parental consent, consultation or opinion is being sought. Which
makes me wonder if our head of sixth is deliberately attempting to
silence us because he is indeed well aware that he cannot force this
upon us or exclude us for not participating.
In a time when we are constantly being told to beware of identity theft
and the value of our personal data it is quite alarming that our sixth
form is telling us that our biometrics are of little worth and that we
have no choice and the matter and should therefore hand over our
personal biometric data. Unlike PIN numbers that can be changed on a
whim we have to give up our personal biometrics that once stolen are
gone forever.
We feel that this is a great concern to us and many other students in
the country that are increasingly being asked to give up sensitive and
personal data on us and have no opinion in the matter whatsoever. I
gather you are very informed on the matter and any help that you can
provide would be greatly appreciated in this matter that means a lot to
me and many other people in the country.
I hope to hear back from you soon, Many Thanks.
Yours Faithfully
Concerned Student (name and address supplied)
***END ARTICLE***
--
banana "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you
give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to
Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the
rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)
oO
"banana" <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cEcfpJAS...@borve.demon.co.uk...
> It's already happening at THOUSANDS of primary
> schools, and is widely done without parental consent.
I didn't know this. Any info or links?
> Also note that in preparing the article below, the 'Guardian' presumably
> spoke with the headteacher but not with the children.
Agree should've guaged what the pupils made of it. But shouldn't the
reporter seek 'prior express consent from their parents'?
>In his public
> relations effort, the headteacher is saying it's 'voluntary'.
>
> But see the second document, which is a letter from a pupil, also in
> Berkshire.
>
> LTKA stands for 'Leave Them Kids Alone', and is opposing the mass
> fingerprinting of children.
>
> The LTKA website was set up by parents of inmates at St Matthew's
> Primary School in Cambridge who did not like the school's decision to
> fingerprint children aged 5-11 WITHOUT seeking prior express consent
> from their parents.
I'm not surprised!
> The pupil states very clearly:
>
>>>>we feel we are being threatened and bullied into it
>>>>due to the threat of exclusion
When I first read this I thought you were claiming that a pupil aged between
5 and 11 years old wrote that. After reading the letter it appears to be
from someone older and he mentions 'sixth-form'. So is this school a primary
school or not?
Is this a teacher or pupil?
banana
>"banana" <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:cEcfpJAS...@borve.demon.co.uk...
>> It's already happening at THOUSANDS of primary
>> schools, and is widely done without parental consent.
>
>I didn't know this. Any info or links?
A figure of "at least 3500 primary schools" is given at:
<http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/index.htm>
I've asked them where they got it from.
The issue was mentioned a bit in the media in summer 2002 after a publicity
effort by ARCH and Privacy International, the latter getting it from the
former, so I'm told.
<http://www.privacyinternational.org>
<http://www.arch-ed.org>
The 2002 publicity gave a figure of "tens of thousands" of children, e.g:
<http://www.privacyinternational.org/countries/uk/kidsprint/fingerprint-
release-702.html>
but I never did manage to nail this down.
In between the 2002 stuff and today's article by Rebecca Smithers, there
was an article by Wendy Grossman in March 2006, on compulsory
fingerprinting in a North London school:
<http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/comment/story/0,,1742191,00.html>
See my Usenet post on this at:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=iL4gq4AV...@borve.demon.co.uk>
(Subject: US military/intel contractor and forcible fingerprinting in UK
schools)
Grossman reports the estimate that "hundreds of thousands" of children in
the UK have been fingerprinted in connection with the 'Junior Librarian'
'library management system' sold by Micro Librarian Systems.
Again, the figure is not nailed down.
MLS themselves say:
<http://www.microlib.co.uk/home/about_us.aspx>:
***QUOTE***
The two main packages MLS offer are Eclipse and Junior Librarian. Both are
Windows-based and run on either a stand-alone PC or network. Eclipse is a
high-end, yet user friendly solution, aimed at Secondary Schools, whilst
Junior Librarian is a purpose-built system aimed at Infant and Primary
School type libraries where there isn’t necessarily a ‘Librarian’ as such
and the children are required to issue books to themselves. It is the ease
of use of Eclipse that makes it so popular in this market and is one of the
main reasons we have converted hundreds of users from other systems. Junior
Librarian is designed to not only manage the library stock and school
resources, but also as a teaching tool to cover many aspects of the
National Curriculum and National Literacy Strategy with the recent addition
of readit. Junior Librarian and Identikit were recently featured on the BBC
News highlighting the difference the system has made to the profile of the
school library. The clip can be viewed by visiting our website. Thousands
of Primary schools in the UK already use Junior Librarian, making it easily
the most popular system in its market.
***UNQUOTE***
BUT...the 'Junior Librarian' package does not only run using
fingerprinting. It can also run using barcode label plus reader's card:
<http://www.microlib.co.uk/primary/prim_contents.aspx?PAGE_ID=1>
Something about MLS's marketing reminds me of the 'education' company
called 'Ignite Incorporated', involving George W Bush's brother Neil Bush
and which cooperates in Europe with the UK-protected Russian 'oligarch'
Boris Berezovsky.
In the US part of the function of the 'No Child Left Behind' 'education'
scam appears to be for the Bush family and friends to loot the 'education'
budget...
'Daily Kos' article:
<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/1/8/125556/7027>
'Ignite' are at:
<http://www.ignitelearning.com/index.shtml>
I am trying to encourage LTKA to get a list going, of schools that are
known to be doing fingerprinting. See my post to the forum at:
<http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=11696&sid=9a16f626fec7a418e9e74a0d3
0e24b09>
According to:
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/07/22/fingerprinting_of_uk_school_kids>
ARCH and PI got to hear of it all when a complaint came from "the mother of
a child attending Sacred Heart School in Ruislip".
Curiously, four years later, LTKA quote Ignatius Loyola on their front
page:
<http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com>
so it looks as though some of the opposition is coming from Jesuits!
(The SJ have also been involved in stuff such as opposing mass vaccination
of children using material from aborted foetuses...see (from 1999):
<http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=5XW3MAAJ...@borve.demon.co.uk>)
>> Also note that in preparing the article below, the 'Guardian' presumably
>> spoke with the headteacher but not with the children.
>
>Agree should've guaged what the pupils made of it. But shouldn't the
>reporter seek 'prior express consent from their parents'?
Fair point. But the Crowthorne school in Berkshire, unlike St Matthews in
Cambridge, has pupils up to 17 or 18. I don't know whether the journo asked
to speak with the 'sixth form council' or whatever it's called. This may
often be a 'trusty prisoners'-type body, but...at least they will include
some of the intended 'fingerprintees'...
>>In his public
>> relations effort, the headteacher is saying it's 'voluntary'.
>>
>> But see the second document, which is a letter from a pupil, also in
>> Berkshire.
>>
>> LTKA stands for 'Leave Them Kids Alone', and is opposing the mass
>> fingerprinting of children.
>>
>> The LTKA website was set up by parents of inmates at St Matthew's
>> Primary School in Cambridge who did not like the school's decision to
>> fingerprint children aged 5-11 WITHOUT seeking prior express consent
>> from their parents.
>
>I'm not surprised!
>
>> The pupil states very clearly:
>>
>>>>>we feel we are being threatened and bullied into it
>>>>>due to the threat of exclusion
>
>When I first read this I thought you were claiming that a pupil aged between
>5 and 11 years old wrote that. After reading the letter it appears to be
>from someone older and he mentions 'sixth-form'. So is this school a primary
>school or not?
The Crowthorne school in Berkshire is secondary; the website was started by
parents of children at St Matthews in Cambridge which is primary; the
letter is from a pupil at an unnamed school in Berkshire who seems to be in
the sixth form or maybe the fifth.
>> From:
>>
>> <http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1821128,00.html>:
>>
>>
>> ***BEGIN ARTICLE***
>>
>> School in data row over plan to fingerprint pupils
>>
>> Rebecca Smithers, education editor
>> Saturday July 15, 2006
>> The Guardian
>>
>>
>> Pupils at a Berkshire secondary school are to be fingerprinted and have
>> their details kept on a database in a controversial scheme to be
>> launched this autumn.
<snip>
>>
>> <http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/excluded.htm>:
>>
>> ***BEGIN***
>>
>> EXCLUDED FROM SCHOOL UNLESS WE FINGERPRINT YOU! - LTKA (against schools
>> fingerprinting children)
>>
>>
>> Dear LTKA,
>>
>> I am writing to you because of a great concern I have which is very
>> closely linked with your articles of vast amounts of schools kids being
>> fingerprinted. It came to light recently at our sixth form, that our
>> head of year is implementing a fingerprint scanning scheme that we must
>> all conform to - or be excluded from school permanently. This is very
>> worrying because myself and a group of fellow students feel that this is
>> a breach of privacy as we believe we have the right to hold onto our own
>> biometrics and only have the right on who we shall disclose them to -
>> this especially since we feel we are being threatened and bullied into
>> it due to the threat of exclusion, which is rich from a school that
>> prides itself on its bullying policy
>>
>> Our head of sixth form
>
>Is this a teacher or pupil?
Senior teacher I think.
--
oO
> In article <4hsdcsF...@individual.net>, oO <o...@oO.com> writes
>
>>"banana" <banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>>news:cEcfpJAS...@borve.demon.co.uk...
>>> It's already happening at THOUSANDS of primary
>>> schools, and is widely done without parental consent.
>>
>>I didn't know this. Any info or links?
Thanks for all this. Astounding...
Ahh I see. It seems like glaring omission. To have an article about pupils
being fingerprinted and not speak the pupils is sloppy at best.
>>snipped<<
>>When I first read this I thought you were claiming that a pupil aged
>>between
>>5 and 11 years old wrote that. After reading the letter it appears to be
>>from someone older and he mentions 'sixth-form'. So is this school a
>>primary
>>school or not?
>
> The Crowthorne school in Berkshire is secondary; the website was started
> by
> parents of children at St Matthews in Cambridge which is primary; the
> letter is from a pupil at an unnamed school in Berkshire who seems to be
> in
> the sixth form or maybe the fifth.
Thanks for explaining this.
>>snipped<<