This shit is getting really overboard. If and when I have a kid, they won't be giving thier fingerprints for school lunch. Talk about a total invasion of privacy [:(!]

[url]http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/5957915.htm[/url]

Students will scan for meals
Akron school board OKs fingerprint system
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer

Akron students will be fingerprinted beginning this fall to identify them in school lunch lines.

After a lengthy debate, school board members voted 5-2 Tuesday to spend $700,000 on a controversial, modernized cafeteria system.

Board members Rebecca Heimbaugh and Mary Stormer voted ``no,'' mirroring the concerns of parents about the cost and privacy issue involved with fingerprinting students.

``I do not believe that any parent or any student has ever had the expectation that in order to go through the lunch line or to buy a cookie or carton of milk that they or their children would be requested to first be fingerprinted,'' said Heimbaugh, who says she will probably refuse to have her three children in the Akron schools fingerprinted.

This state-of-the art, futuristic technology is only being used in one other Ohio school district -- Garfield Heights.

The system will replace the meal-ticket method that has been used in Akron middle and high school cafeterias for nearly two decades. It will not be used -- at least initially -- in elementary schools.

Students' fingerprints will be put into a scanner that will make a template of binary numbers corresponding with the unique swirls and arches of each print. When students go through the lunch line, they will place their finger on a scanner that will identify them based on the stored template.

Designers of the system say the original fingerprints will be deleted.

School board members received numerous phone calls and e-mails from parents with privacy concerns about their children being fingerprinted. Those opposed to the system will have the option of having their children use an identification card.

Board members discussed the merits and drawbacks of the system for nearly 45 minutes before finally voting. Each member spoke, explaining the reasons for his or her vote.

Stormer called the system ``extravagant,'' especially because the district is facing further cuts in state funding.

``I think $700,000 is a lot of tax revenue -- from any source,'' she said.

The money for the system will come from the budget for Child Nutrition Services, a department that is self-sufficient. This department is funded with a combination of state and federal tax dollars and the money spent on school lunches.

Several school board members said they see the new system as an improvement over the current method. It will include new touch-screen registers, software, fingerprint imaging scanners, staff training and maintenance.

``I think we need to enter the 21st century,'' said board member Linda Kersker. ``We need to move forward and not backward.''

Kersker said the stored templates could not be used in the same way that police rely on fingerprints.

``I do not see this as much different than a photo ID,'' she said. ``It is simply more reliable.''

Board President Linda Omobien said the system will enable cafeteria workers to more easily track the number of free and reduced lunches, which they now accomplish by hand-counting meal tickets. She said this is ``ludicrous'' in modern times.

School leaders spent several years researching an alternative for the district's cafeteria system, which includes outdated cash registers that regularly break down. They looked at systems that use cards or personal identification numbers.

Debra Foulk, coordinator of the Akron schools' Child Nutrition Services, said these methods were less reliable and cost about the same as the one relying on fingerprints. She said children often lose cards -- just as they now misplace meal tickets -- and forget PINs.

The new system will be piloted in one Akron middle school -- that has not yet been chosen -- this fall. It will be phased into Akron's 17 other middle and high schools during the school year.

Raymond Vasvari, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, said systems like the one adopted by Akron raise serious privacy issues. He said school leaders need to take steps to ensure that the fingerprint images don't end up in the wrong hands.

``The question remains -- is there information that would be useful to someone and how can you be sure this information is not shared?'' he said.

Board member Curtis Walker, who voted for the system, agreed that school leaders need to keep a close eye on the privacy concerns.

``We need to watch this carefully and make sure the issue of privacy does not hurt us in the end,'' he said.


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Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or [email protected]

Other than starting the brainwashing processes that being fingerprinted is an acceptable way for anyone to identify you, who really cares that a kid bought a school lunch.

How is it an invasion of privacy?  What could possibly be done with the information.  I know little Johnny ate lunch at school on Thursday.... SO WHAT.

Nope peanut butter is not allowed in alot of public schools because of food allergys

This is necessary.  We must prepare the children to be assimilated.  Having them become comfortable with fingerprinting will make it easier when it is time to implant the microchip.

About three years ago they came up with a similar plan where every kid at my son's and daughter's school was going to have their picture taken and a PIN number assigned.  This was for EVERY CHILD.  Even kids that where paying cash for carton of milk had to enter a PIN number into a keypad, their picture wold flash on a screen, and the luch lady would verify that they were using their PIN.  Screw that!!!!

After my wife wrote a letter to the local newspaper and complained about privacy issues, they created an 'opt out' plan for people who didn't want to be part of it.  End of story is the kid's picture was not taken and they do not have a PIN number.

$700,000 is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a school cafeteria.  Not that I like the idea of kids being fingerprinted just because someone doesn't want to keep track of a few meal tickets, but they will all be printed a few years down the road when they go for their drivers license.  Is that really any different or better.  Not to open that can of worms or anything.

The question is WHAT are they going to do with this information and WHO will have access to this information?

Is this information going to be sold to other companies?  Name, age, sex, address, etc...  

My kid's school has a picture of every kid at the school in their 'Lunch' database (see my other post above).  Are pedophiles able to access this information?  I was told the system in my town could be accessed on the town intranet.  Of course you are supposed to have certain permissions to access it, but how the hell do I know who is looking at the information?  Can Hackers gain access and compromise the information?

Screw that...  It would be like walking into a store and having to give your social security number to buy a Coke.

For a lot less than $700K, they could hire some extra old ladies with hairnets to count the money.

Sloppy joe, slop sloppy joe...MEATLOAF SANDWICH!

I wonder when they'll start tattooing the pin numbers to their foreheads...

IS 700,000 FOR JUST ONE SCHOOL???

Indeed

It would be Private or home schooling for my kids.

Rotten Cheeky Monkies.

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Is it any wonder why school districts go to voters practically every election for more money...  

The bozos that run the school district think this is a good, cost-effective solution to having administer a cafeteria.  

Is it any wonder they can't figure out how to teach?

Jeebus, they can't afford books and they want to spend $700,000 for a fingerprinting system???

Fire every one of the fools who voted yes for frickin incompetence.  If meal tickets and cards are soooo much of a problem then hire two old ladies, and buy two regular cash registers for $500 each.  OK it isn't the latest technology but it works and is waaaay cheaper.

I was freaking out that we had to have our SS number be our ID# in college. Fingerprints? on a town intranet? Come on, I can get into much higher security things than that with my 486

They don't do sh*t like that down in TX.  We have old ladies with hairnets.  The only "technology" we have is a PIN number for those who set up an account with the school so they don't have to take money to school and those who qualify for reduced cost lunches and whatnot.  For 700k they could do a lot to improve the school.  They could start by dividing it among the teachers, they are way underpaid and thats come from a teenage shit.

Thats really messed up here in New York some of the schools have a small machine in which you swipe your school ID its like a creditcard scanner at any grocery store, these, are alot cheaper than your finger print scanners and even though i still belive there an invasion of privacy there not nearly as much as an invasion as the finger print scanners

And people called me strange when I had my kid's fingerprints surgically removed at birth....

cynic

I think there are more Nazis in schools than there ever were in Germany!!!  Delusions of grandeur from those who graduated at the bottom of their class.  Screw that!  My kid would NEVER be allowed to participate in that crap.  I wouldn't allow her to be a huckster for all their stupid "fundraising" and would not stand still for her to be fingerprinted!!

What a waste of money, especially since it's for the free/reduced lunch program - how many lunches do you think they could have paid for with $700,000?  I can't wait till a kid cuts his finger and then his or her finger becomes unreadable by the scanner - NO LUNCH FOR YOU!

The ACLU is against it??? That's easy, I'm for it. plus, it'll get the kiddies in the Akron public schools all practiced up for when they get printed at the PD in a few years....

I just heard on the news that a school in MN started using a fingerprinting system. BUT FOR ONLY $7000.  And it's already in use.  They showed some film footage from the school.  Now don't get me wrong,  I am not endorsing this.  But it is just another example of how taxpayers are getting screwed.  AGAIN!

Typical bullshit of school systems. They cannot afford to pay teachers to come in and teach, buy books, or fund all their programs.

Yet, they will spend $700,000 to finger print kids for lunch. Someone in Ohio should get an injunction to stop this bullshit. What is wrong with having an ATM type card with your picture on it that you can scan when the kids got to buy lunch.

It is no wonder this country has the problems it has.

Sean

No drivers license fingerprinting in Geotgia [:D] YET. You do have a pic on the license tho.

It's all about the  money! The schools Food Service budgets are determined by the number of students using the services. The school is very careful about tracking who is eating, to make sure nobody got missed!