Catholic Online Forum

A federal judge in Texas next week will consider whether a San Antonio high school can force a student to take part in a program that equips students with microchips to track their attendance, despite the student's protests that the surveillance system violates her religious views.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — To 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez, the tracking microchip embedded in her student ID card is a "mark of the beast," sacrilege to her Christian faith — not to mention how it pinpoints her location, even in the school bathroom.

But to her budget-reeling San Antonio school district, those chips carry a potential $1.7 million in classroom funds.

Starting this fall, the fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with "locator" chips in student ID badges on two of its campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision. Hernandez's refusal to participate isn't a twist on teenage rebellion, but has launched a debate over privacy and religion that has forged a rare like-mindedness between typically opposing groups.

In this scenario a student could simply refuse to take the card with them to school.

David,

I think the girl and her family are going over the top. It is more a privacy rather than a religious issue.

At which point they would be marked absent from school.

Just about what I figured, now think Jeff. How about half the foot ball team giving their cards to the other half while taking a day off. Or the guys and gals switching cards (or chips) while everyone is watching the girls go the the guys bathrooms. Think of all the fun you could have.

Unless the cards are embedded with biometrics it could be interesting.

Unless all the teachers remember them being there. Or they claim that they forgot it, or one of a million other excuses.

Just about what I figured, now think Jeff. How about half the foot ball team giving their cards to the other half while taking a day off. Or the guys and gals switching cards (or chips) while everyone is watching the girls go the the guys bathrooms. Think of all the fun you could have.

All new US passports are supposed to have a tracking chip in them.

No. They have RFID chips in them so that the information can be read quickly, securely, and easily at very close ranges. The chip is not trackable like the chips in these ID's are. There are ways to read RFID's at a distance, but those ways are targetted, not broadcast. You can't just say in an airport "Where is #90485345?" You would have to point a high-gain antenna at a specific passport and read the information.

The fly in the ointment is that these radio chips can be read by high powered readers if and when the passport is open so in effect, yes they can track you.

“Tracking.” A chip that is protected by the BAC mechanism denies access to its contents unless the inspection system can prove that it is authorized to access the chip. However, these chips still allow the Unique Identifier (UID) to be communicated with the reader, which could theoretically allow the document bearer to be “tracked.” To prevent the use of the UID for “tracking”, we use a Random UID feature. A RUID presents a different UID each time the chip is accessed. In order to be considered random, the e-passport must present an RUID that cannot be associated with UIDs used in sessions that precede or follow the current session. Each chip uses its onboard hardware random number generator (RNG) module, thereby utilizing a true RNG base to derive a RUID.

ICAO standardizes machine-readable passports worldwide.[7] Such passports have an area where some of the information otherwise written in textual form is written as strings of alphanumeric characters, printed in a manner suitable for optical character recognition. This enables border controllers and other law enforcement agents to process such passports quickly, without having to input the information manually into a computer. ICAO publishes Doc 9303 – Machine Readable Travel Documents, the technical standard for machine-readable passports.[8] A more recent standard is for biometric passports. These contain biometrics to authenticate the identity of travellers. The passport's critical information is stored on a tiny RFID computer chip, much like information stored on smartcards. Like some smartcards, the passport book design calls for an embedded contactless chip that is able to hold digital signature data to ensure the integrity of the passport and the biometric data.

A biometric passport, also known as an e-passport, ePassport or a digital passport, is a combined paper and electronic passport that contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of travellers. It uses contactless smart card technology, including a microprocessor chip (computer chip) and antenna (for both power to the chip and communication) embedded in the front or back cover, or center page, of the passport. Document and chip characteristics are documented in the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) Doc 9303.[1][2][3] The passport's critical information is both printed on the data page of the passport and stored in the chip. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is used to authenticate the data stored electronically in the passport chip making it expensive and difficult to forge when all security mechanisms are fully and correctly implemented.

On 15 December 2006, the BBC published an article on the British ePassport, citing the above stories and adding that:

"Nearly every country issuing this passport has a few security experts who are yelling at the top of their lungs and trying to shout out: 'This is not secure. This is not a good idea to use this technology'", citing a specialist who states "It is much too complicated. It is in places done the wrong way round – reading data first, parsing data, interpreting data, then verifying whether it is right. There are lots of technical flaws in it and there are things that have just been forgotten, so it is basically not doing what it is supposed to do. It is supposed to get a higher security level. It is not."

Imperial seal

The mark A. Gk., charagma, χάραγμα, in Revelation 13:16 had been attributed to the imperial seal of the Roman Empire that was used on official documents during the 1st and 2nd centuries.[37] In the reign of Emperor Decius (249–251 AD), those who did not possess the certificate of sacrifice (libellus) to Caesar could not pursue trades, a prohibition that conceivably goes back to Nero. The significance of this imperial seal had been paralleled to verse 17.[38]

Currency

In 66, when Nero was emperor, about the time some scholars say Revelation was written, the Jews revolted against Rome and coined their own money. The Greek word translated as mark (of the beast), χάραγμα, also means stamped money, coin or the impress on the coin hence, "no one buys or sells without the money of the beast."[39]

New Testament scholar Craig C. Hill suggests that the mark symbolized the all-embracing economic power of Rome, whose very coinage bore the emperor's image and conveyed his claims to divinity (e.g., by including the sun's rays in the ruler's portrait).[40] Zealot Christians from the 1st century refused to carry, look at, or manufacture coins bearing any sort of idolatrous image.[41] Thus it had become increasingly difficult for Christians to function in a world in which public life, including the economic life of the trade guilds, required participation in idolatry.[40] Adela Yarbro Collins further denotes that the refusal to use Roman coins resulted in the condition where "no man might buy or sell" (Rev.13:17).[42]

A similar view is offered by Craig R. Koester, "As sales were made, people used coins that bore the images of Rome's gods and emperors. Thus each transaction that used such coins was a reminder that people were advancing themselves economically by relying on political powers that did not recognize the true God."

I agree that they are over the top on the religious issue, but I wouldn't want my kid required to wear a tracking chip.

Here we see another stupid government program...

Not far off. The objective is to increase attendance (and accuracy of attendance) in order to get more funds from state and federal education departments.

Back in the dark ages of leaded gas, monophonic radio and (gasp) slate blackboards with chalk and erasers we all assembled in what was called our Home Room first so an accurate attendance could be obtained. The name of any student not present was referred to the Truant Officer and the school secretary who ascertained if the student was absent with a valid excuse and if the student's parents know of the absence; the truant officer would proceed to attempt to locate the missing student(s) if truancy was discovered. Amazing how well it all worked without microchips, GPS tracking systems and computerized school offices!

But that's the thing. It doesn't work as effectively as the technology does for the same reasons Bob pointed out; you can game the system, as I'm sure your fellow students figured out.

But that's the thing. It doesn't work as effectively as the technology does for the same reasons Bob pointed out; you can game the system, as I'm sure your fellow students figured out.

I don't think so.

Certainly, either system can be gamed, but...

Doing it "old school" - a live teacher saw with their own eyes if a student was present at homeroom (or for any other class). With this chip, as described, a machine determines that a student's card was present in the building.

The new doesn't strike me as effective as the old.

Amazing how well it all worked without microchips, GPS tracking systems and computerized school offices!

Not far off. The objective is to increase attendance (and accuracy of attendance) in order to get more funds from state and federal education departments.

It might also be an objective to lower costs of keeping attendance by eliminating the need for teachers/administrators to take/report attendance.

I could see something like microchips being embedded in student IDs and the students having to scan their cards at card readers at each of the classrooms as they enter. Teachers could check the process by ensuring that each student scanned only one card as he/she entered the room.

Teachers could check the process by ensuring that each student scanned only one card as he/she entered the room.

Prison? Bah! For years I had to carry a picture ID with an embedded chip tied back to me at work and scan in/out at various places, and work under the glare of cameras at each of the monitored doors to boot. Not only did the cards allow me entry to the various buildings to which I had access, it tracked my in/out time for auditing purposes. Much ado about nothing.

Basic difference is you were there by choice, in most cases children are required by the state to be at school.

I attended a Closed Campus Catholic High School, where one simply did not cut classes nor skip school, all absences were reported to the parent or Guardian Daily, and as I mentioned above my Father was not someone that I wanted to mess with.

Prison? Bah! For years I had to carry a picture ID with an embedded chip tied back to me at work and scan in/out at various places, and work under the glare of cameras at each of the monitored doors to boot. Not only did the cards allow me entry to the various buildings to which I had access, it tracked my in/out time for auditing purposes. Much ado about nothing.

And, on the flip side, such a system would correct for errors by teachers. Several times in the past few years one of my high school children has been marked absent for a class when she or he was surely there because the teacher was asleep at the switch. Several times, a teacher, especially a substitute teacher, has lost an assignment that my children have turned in, to the point where I was beginning to demand that the TEACHER sign a receipt that my son could keep for his records. I wouldn't mind a bar-code scanning system for assignments either.

There are many reasons why students aren't doing so well and bailing. Many of them start at home with incompetent parents. Many are with incompetent teachers. I wouldn't blame the technology, which is trying to compensate for failings in both.

And, hence, it was more of a prison than schools are today, which eliminates BobA's contention that I make school sound more like prison with these badges. It's simply not the case.

You seem to be objecting based on potential cost to you.

Such a system makes sense if cost savings and greater accuracy/security can be realized. I assume (perhaps wrongly) that a school system would do such an analysis first, just as a business would do such an analysis before investing in a similar system, looking at short and long-term costs. The school district where I send my kids does a very good job of stewardship over our tax dollars.

If the system saves money, which is good for taxpayers, and is more accurate than humans, then the government requiring conformance from students, who are already required to be in attendance, isn't really a bone of contention.

I've never said that putting a computerized system into the process for its own sake is a good idea.

It might also be an objective to lower costs of keeping attendance by eliminating the need for teachers/administrators to take/report attendance.

I could see something like microchips being embedded in student IDs and the students having to scan their cards at card readers at each of the classrooms as they enter. Teachers could check the process by ensuring that each student scanned only one card as he/she entered the room.

Is anyone here familiar with the author George Orwell?

Is anyone here familiar with the author George Orwell? What the heck, lets just implant a microchip at birth, just think of the "efficiency" that would gain the government. Works for our dogs and cats, why not our children; oh, by the way, they won't be "our" children anymore, they will be wards of the State. Oh, just so the authorities can readily recognize that everyone has a chip implanted we can tattoo their foreheads; I like Fr. Angel's "666", maybe in Roman Numerals to placate us Catholics. Maybe we could implant an interactive device that glows when we violate some obscure government rule instead of a tattoo thereby saving the police all that wasteful stuff they presently engage in. Sounds like a couple of movies I think I've seen, how odd.

If I had children, and technology could implant a microchip in them that assured they could be found immediately if they wandered away from me, you better bet I'd have it put in them, right after birth.

My German Shepherd had one of those chips inserted when he was a puppy, and it is a source of no little consolation that if he is lost and scanned at an animal shelter or veterinarian clinic he will immediately be identified as mine. With the thousands of children that go missing or are abducted every year, I would think parents would also want to keep track at all times of their most precious treasure.

Do we perhaps not deserve what we are getting from the newer generation? Why does Dean not have more support in what he is saying?