The Spring Independent School District – located north of Houston, Texas – is requiring all of its 28,000 students to wear radio frequency identification (RFID) badges, to track their movements during school hours and while traveling to and from school.

     The claimed justification is "for their safety," even though "no child has ever been lost or abducted in the Spring district." Since the badges could be traded, lost or stolen, some authorities have recommended that ID chips be implanted in the children's bodies as a "more secure" alternative.

     Katherine Albrecht, Direct of CASPIAN (Citizens Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion) says: "The program if allowed to continue, would mark a disastrous turn for privacy and civil liberties in this country and set a terrible precedent. The tracking of school children is especially loathsome, since not only are kids a captive audience, but they are not old enough to vote out the perpetrators – or even to take their grievances against them to a court of law." (Katherine Albrecht, "Houston Schoolkids Tagged and Tracked Like Inventory," New York Times via CNET, 11-17-04.)

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