Tuesday, March 8, 2011

GPS Targets Kids Now

I have been saying this for years - that GPS Tracking Devices will become common place once that the public thinks it is o.k. to lock these barbaric shackles onto RSO's. Now that the so-called justice system has opened the door to these horrid devices and Joe Public has given his stamp of approval more and more citizens in the U.S. are going to to tracked by GPS. Even children now are being forced to wear these all intrusive devices that track their every move. Of course, It's all for our own good. did not the Nazis and former Soviet Union use this same logic? We're from the government and only here to help you. Yeah right.

Should schools use GPS to track chronic truants?

Anaheim Union High School District is taking a new approach to solving the age-old truancy problem: using GPS to track wayward students.

Times staff writer Nicole Santa Cruz reports that under a six-week pilot program –- the first of its kind in California –- 32 students have voluntarily promised to carry around a cellphone-sized GPS device and check in five times a day: when they wake up, when they get to school, at lunch time, after school and at 8 p.m.

Backers of the program hope that by giving parents and school officials a better idea of where students are — and by giving students a visible incentive to resist peer pressure to skip classes — the GPS can succeed where curfews, strict punishments and even fines for parents have failed.

Some critics, including the ACLU of Southern California, have said it's criminalization of kids. Tethering them to a GPS is Big Brotherish and seems more like a punishment for a sex offender or drunk driver.

But the program has been tested with great success elsewhere. In San Antonio, the district has increased the number of GPS units and mentors to work with students at 22 schools. Grades improved and the attendance rate hit 97% for students in the program.

What do you think? Is this a good way to keep kids from ditching class or is it an invasion of privacy? Tell us your thoughts below.