Students Rise Up Against Forced Chipping

• Critics say mandatory use of trackable microchip IDs makes better ‘prisoners’—not better ‘students’

By Mark Anderson

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—The San Antonio sophomore who opposed microchipping student IDs that would track their every movement has inspired a groundswell of 300 students in her huge district who now refuse to wear the identification chips over religious, personal privacy, safety and civil liberties concerns. In addition, some 700 other people have signed petitions opposing the microchipping program.

VIDEO INTERVIEW: Students Rise Up Against Forced Chipping

AMERICAN FREE PRESS first reported this story in the September 17 & 24 edition. On November 12, Andrea Hernandez, and her determined father, Steven, met with this AFP writer to update their fight against the attempted requirement by the Northside Independent School District (NISD) for all 4,200 students in John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School to wear microchipped student-picture IDs, worn like necklaces.

Most of the students objecting to the chipped IDs are in the high school, yet at Anson Jones, some parents “are taking out their kids, because they said, ‘we don’t want to be part of this,’ and the media covers that up,” Mr. Hernandez told AFP.

NISD started its “Student Locator Project” in August. School documents show the total upfront implementation price for just those two buildings is $552,350. NISD wants to eventually force all 100K students in the sprawling district’s 112 school buildings to wear the chipped badges.

The RFID (remote frequency identification) chips, according to NISD, enable school officials to track students on campus, monitor their whereabouts and confirm their attendance. In addition, the Hernandezes believe that NISD is mainly pushing the issue to achieve the attendance goals needed to qualify for about $2M in state education aid.

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