Having actually read the article, I cannot fathom what is more stupid. That they do this, or that they have some weird education funding scheme that encourages this.
I can think of multiple reasons to have children wear locator chips, primarily for safety. However, doing this just to check if they are in the classroom at the start of the day is stupid, especially with the scope limited to just the school and seemingly just the classroom.
On a personal note though, I actually do not have a problem with school children being required to wear locators. It can be instituted as part of a student ID card and part of the students uniform. It can have a verity of benefits. I personally see school as a public enough environment that personal privacy is really not a relevant issue. In a world where students can be abducted or have accidents on their way to school and such, being able to locate them quickly and directly can be of great help. Like I said this is my personal opinion on the matter.
Nobody ever considers that the students have to be in school. They are required to be there. Shouldn't that make us more cautious about protecting their rights and not less?
I could support locators if the kids were on a field trip somewhere spacious and easy to get lost in, but they shouldn't have to wear them around the school, and certainly not while out of school. Schools reach too far outside of school. A girl I knew back in high school got detention for writing something about another girl that she left in her diary and then her snoopy sister brought it into school. That's reaching too far when schools assume the authority to punish people for private things written at home and never intended to be taken to school. Her sister should've been punished for violating her sister's privacy and bringing that in.
Schools need to have rules as any institution does. But they don't need to go crazy with it. Just take attendance. Record tardies. Record absences. Have some disciplinary action for too many, but be logically consistent and don't make tardies worse than absences(my school did that). Make sure kids aren't harrassing each other in the hallways or in class. Make sure kids aren't being disruptive in class. Have contact with the parents and if necessary professionals in order to help students who are having academic problems. If a kid brings a gun into the school call the cops, because that is really serious. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, confiscate, throw away, call the kid's parents and subject the kid to some disciplinary action such as suspension, no need to involve the police. Too much misbehavior means expulsion.
That's really all schools need. They don't need to be tagging kids with locators, they don't need to be policing them when they are off campus (unless it's for being absent when they should be on campus), they don't need drug-testing, they don't need dog locker sniffing unless someone thinks there's a bomb.
