I Am Not a Student, I Am a Number

PapaZit writes "Students in Ruston, Louisiana are being forced to wear ID badges that include their Social Security Numbers in barcode form. The encoding format is simple enough that students have been reading the SSNs of other students, teachers, and administrators, and they're threatening to publish this information if they're not granted a more private ID system. " Granted, students all across the US are being forced to wear ID tags - but this is one of the most egregious ones I've heard about yet.

We can make a difference.

After reading this, I've come to an opinion. I KNOW that this is not the ONLY location that uses an SSN like this, but, we have to start somewhere.

Right now, these guys are being treated 'like they're just some dumb kids', and no matter what they do, they will most likely not make a difference.. They may, simply becouse they have a 'weapon' of sorts, but they shouldn't have to revert to this to be listened to..

I say we get as much data regarding this school, preferably email addresses due to the electronic nature of slashdot, and put the /. effect to good use..

They may not listen to the kids, but they will HAVE to listen to an overwhelming outcry by the public..

School Contact Information/Policies

The article has a link to the school's policy/web page [latech.edu].

The office's phone number is:
[phone]

Administration:
Randy Moore - Principal
David Crowe - Assistant Principal
Thomas Hay - Assistant Principal
Glenda Smith - Assistant Principal

I was unable to find any e-mail addresses. But as one that lives in LA, it dosen't suprise me. Most school administration is behind the times. :) I'm continuing the search for e-mails. :)

Searching people.yahoo.com came up with a few interesting records. And if you have some money to spend you could really find out a lot about this adminstration (IE anything in public records). I will not post the info here, because e-mailing is one thing, calling a person at home is different.

"ID Card Policy:
STUDENT I.D. CARDS

All Ruston High School students must have an I.D. card. The cost of the card is included in the school fee. The card will be
coded for such things as:(1) class/grade (2) voting purposes (3) period(s) dismissed from school for work or part-time status
(4) monthly lunch purchases.

RULES CONCERNING I.D. CARD

1. This I.D. card is to identify Ruston High School students, to insure the identification process in student management, and for
control of visitors and unauthorized intruders on campus.

2. The I.D. card must be in the possession of the student at all times while at school, and penalties for non-possession will range
from a detention assignment for a first violation, to suspension from school for later or major violations. Refusal to submit I.D.
card is an automatic suspension, effective immediately.

3. Requirements for I.D. before participation:

a. check out library books
b. purchase student tickets to athletic events
c. check in and out of school
d. submit with hall pass (telephone, restroom, locker, etc.)
e. voting in school elections
f. admission to dances and student sections for athletic events
4. The I.D. card is non-transferable. Illegal use of I.D. card not belonging to the student is a suspension offense and can be
considered fraud or theft resulting in disciplinary action to the user and owner.

5. If this card is lost, damaged, or stolen, it is the student's responsibility to replace it immediately at a cost of $2.00.

6. Students scheduled to leave campus must have I.D. punched in the appropriate places."

Re:Is this a school?

Did the students mind? NO. It actaully helped them to feel SAFE.

What no one seems to understand is that feeling safe and being safe are two entirely different things.

Police states make you feel safe. So long, of course as the Village Commitee doesn't brand you Unmutual.

What actually makes you safe is ordinary people with the means to protect themselves and the willingness to assist and protect each other, even at risk to themselves.

I despise the US public education system

Just like it says.

I spent twelve years dealing with the exact same crap these kids are going through now. It takes very little to realise that the system doesn't work.

1. Kids enjoy learning. It's a simple fact that children are curious about the world they live in, and fully willing to go out to experience it. What public education does is take these eager young children; prop them up in a desk; and force them to sit down, shut the hell up, and "learn" exactly what teachers decide they should learn. This stifles the creative process in many obvious ways, in addition to crushing the students' free-will. Students may memorize what they are told, and no more for the duration of the day, and speak only when told.

2. Students are treated like robots. This is easily exemplified in the recent high-school Orwellian incident of bar-coding students with their SSNs. Humans cannot live under such a strictly regimented schedule in which they as individuals are given second priority to the class as a whole. Speak when you're told. Do what you're told. This is when you do this. Don't question your teacher. The 8 good hours of the day wasted, and more at home with homework and studying for 12 years. Who here believes that conditioning a child to meekly accept what he/she is taught without questioning is a good thing? Hell, I'm not even talking about high school. By that time we're completely crushed.

3. Advancement is based on age. This defies common sense. Quick children are forced to idle while slow children hold them back.

4. Class requirements are communist. After an extent, forcing all children to learn the same things (true with very minor exeception through high school) is ridiculous. Some people aren't tooled for math, and some people aren't tooled for english. And there it is. After the basics. It's plain to see that an English major is not going to need trigonometry; regardless, we're all forced to learn it.

5. The perception that college (and even the latter years of high school) is mandatory. Not everyone should be going to college. In the past, higher learning has been a noble thing, but for scholars. I look around myself at university today and see drugged-out, ignorant jocks attending higher learning only because it's socially required to do so. They don't want to learn. They won't use what little knowledge they accidentally glean from this place. They will pollute the work force. Only bad things can come from socially forcing everyone to attend college.

6. Smart people are discriminated against. Everyone knows this from the Hellmouth incident discussions (not to advocate the Hellmouth incident). Homework is communistically enforced regardless of necessity ("responsibility is part of learning" -- bullshit. "Do what you're damn told so we don't have to evaluate you individually" is more accurate). Students must attend class whether or not they understand the topics. The effect is that an incredible amount of stress is placed on everyone. Nobody accepts orders to this extent without some side-effects. These are, but not limited to: bullying others (the strong-willed), becoming a robot (the weak-willed), and assassinating fellow students (the creatively stifled).

What it all basically boils down to is that it's human to resist orders. A child's parents should provide discipline; it is natural for kids to accept instruction from the ones they love; faceless authority should not. Kids are deprived of freedom, learning ability (and incentive), and crushed spiritually into the droning workforce.

I haven't experienced alternate countries' versions of public education, but I can't imagine they could be much better. I propose a complete overhaul: kids are evaluated based on individual learning progress. Throw them in a room with a teacher, give access to internet boxes, other references and the experimental possibilities and let them go at it. This is intermingled with instruction as to basics, but children should be allowed to pursue more or less of a topic as inclined. Teachers are there to answer questions, help with resources, and provide inspiration. After introductory basics have been provided (with minimal attendance policy, no required homework, and no compulsion to sit down and shut up like a robot -- grading is based on tests), the system becomes entirely a "show that you have learned anything" one instead of a "show that you have memorized and can parrot this" one. Those not inclined to learn further go wherever they want to go.

My changes are radical, but the fact is that children are broken in the US' public education system. This directly leads to the pitiful, uncaring workforce we have today. In drastic cases, it leads to Hellmouth. Humans can't accept two sets of parents.

Thanks for being an outlet.

---

SSN and Schools

IANAL, but this school's action may be in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. The following was snipped from Fact Sheet # 10: Your Social Security Number: How Secure Is It? at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse [privacyrights.org]:

Schools that receive federal funding must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in order to retain their funding (FERPA, also known as the "Buckley Amendment," enacted in 1974, 20 USC 1232g). One of FERPA's provisions requires written consent for the release of educational records or personally identifiable information, with some exceptions. The courts have stated that Social Security numbers fall within this provision.

FERPA applies to state colleges, universities and technical schools that receive federal funding. An argument can be made that if such a school displays students' SSNs on identification cards or distributes class rosters or grades listings containing SSNs, it would be a release of personally identifiable information, violating FERPA. However, many schools and universities have not interpreted the law this way and continue to use SSNs as a student identifier. To succeed in obtaining an alternate number to the SSN, you will probably need to be persistent and cite the law. Social Security numbers may be obtained by
colleges and universities for students who have university jobs and/or receive federal financial aid. (The FERPA text can be found at the web,
www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ferpa.buckley.html .)

Public schools, colleges and universities that ask for your SSN fall within the provisions of another federal law, the Privacy Act of 1974. This act requires such schools to provide a disclosure statement telling students how the Social Security number is used. If you are required to provide your SSN, be sure to look for the school's disclosure statement. If one is not offered, you may want to file a complaint with the school, citing the Privacy Act.

When the school is a private institution, your only recourse is to work with the administration to change the policy or at least to let you use an alternate identification number as your student ID.

Why give them the real mccoy?

Just FYI - you don't need to give them your real SSN. I never give my SSN out to anybody besides my bank,my employer(s), and the IRS. Anybody else who wants it can take an H2SO4 enema you-know-where.

It may not be legal, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sacrifice my privacy because a bunch of neanderthals can't figure out a better way to track me. I like to be able to choose anonymity. I avoid and detest any organization that attempts to impede my right to anonymity.

--

SSN as ID?

This is interesting, because when I was in public school, our school ID number was in the form of "xxx-xx-xxxx", the same as an SSN. The number itself wasn't an SSN, however. You could get people's SSN (and much more) just by sneaking into the guidance counselor's office while he was out to lunch, logging on to his terminal with the username and password he had written down and hidden under his monitor, and pulling records from the school system's database using the school-issued ID number.

My friend once swiped what had to be at least 100 printed pages of student information, which included their phone numbers, addresses, and lots of other personal information. Just remember that the next time you register at a public school.

I used to carry a fake school ID that I made with the help of my trusty dot matrix printer, a picture of some teenage white kid i cut out of a magazine in art class, and the new lamination machine in the school's printing shop. Well, one day I got busted for cutting class. They set up a "sting operation" of sorts and caught about 10 people leaving out of a back door. They confiscated everyone's ID and made everyone stay in a staff conference room while they used the ID cards to notify our parents. I sat there for about 3 minutes until I realized that they had my fake ID, at which point I made a quick exit from the conference room, and then, the building. I really hope they didn't call the parents of the person with the ID number on my fake card, because the ID number was that of my friend's biology teacher, whose ID he managed to photocopy for me a few days prior to the making of the fake ID.

Oh yeah, that Bio teacher used to keep a stash of hard core pornography above one of the cabinets in his classroom. Using a master key that he took from one of the shop teachers, my friend managed to make off with like 3 magazines and a videotape full of porn one day before school started. Let's hear it for public schools!

I don't think I learned anything in that school. Fortunately.

Re:This is new?

You think this is bad? Nearly one year ago I moved to Sweden. Every swede has a so called personnumber which is formatted like yymmdd-xxxx (your birtday + four digits). Without it you are lost. You can't do anything in sweden without a person number. Swedes are really clueless about it I always have lots of fun when I have to show my dutch passport. First they spent a few minutes looking at the passport. When they start looking really confused I explain them that it is not a swedish passport (duh) and therefore my personnumber cannot be found in it.

Basically you can't open a bankaccount, can't get phone in your house, can't rent a fucking video tape without a personnumber in this country. Luckily I got one since I have a job in this country and have to pay (a lot) taxes.

A dutch friend of me who also lives here teaches database courses. One of the standard things he has to teach his students is not to use the perssonnumber as a primary key. Unfortunately they don't listen and most databases in this country use perssonnumber as a primary key so you have a lot of trouble fitting in to the system if you don't have one.

If you want to read more about the personnumber I have a nice link
here [tfh-berlin.de].

Re:I despise the US public education system

Very, very well-put, Mr. Mollusk. I couldn't agree more with your views.

As a high school student (senior), I have always been apalled at the pure outright uselessness and harmfulness of our educational system. I want to learn about things that interest me and about things related to my interests. If I'm not interested in chemistry (I'm not), I don't want to be force-fed chemistry lessons. I'd be perfectly happy to be taught the basics and perhaps spend a week taking a quick overview course, simply to broaden my knowledge, but taking an entire year or more in high school and more in college is a waste of my time.

My school is actually much better about many things than normal public schools. I attend Merlo Station High School in Beaverton, Oregon (near Portland). The school itself houses multiple programs, and I'm a student in the science program (Natural Resource Sciences and Technology, known as NRST). There are approximately 200 students in the entire program, and six teachers, so after four years you develop a very close relationship with all of your teachers. The courses are geared towards science and technology, but also include a wide range of humanities and other things. The program also offers internships, mentorships, and allows students with free time in their schedule to take on what's called an independent study, in which the student actually teaches him/herself about any topic under the sun and gives regular progress reports and a final exihibtion of knowledge to a teacher.

While the basic structure of the school is still fundamentally like any other American high school, and there's still lots of pointless required courses and unnecessary homework, the internships and independent study courses, as well as the small school environment and friendly atmosphere (students even call teachers by their first names), give many students something that they couldn't get anywhere else. Personally, if I hadn't enrolled at NRST after my freshman year of high school, I think I would've either become a failure in high school, dropped out, or just slacked off and floated through it with disinterest.

NRST certainly isn't perfect, and the program isn't right for everyone, but it's an option that a lot more cities/school districts should have. I also find it amusing that NRST alumni simply cannot stay away...they're always coming back to the school to visit their teachers, who've become their close friends, or to meet the newest batch of students, or just to sit through a few classes and relive the old days. I've never heard of another high school where alumni actually went out of their way to return to the school outside of a class reunion.

That's kinda funny

When I tried to read the linked article, I got this error:

403 Forbidden

This webserver does not answer requests from browsers that do not set the HTTP_USER_AGENT variable (the browser ID string). Please try your request again using a properly configured browser.

I guess I better go disable my Junkbuster privacy-enhacing proxy so that I'll be allowed to read this article about privacy violations.

Is this a school?

To this day the part that most galls me about elementary, junior, and high-schools in this country is that the institutions where we try to teach kids about freedom and responsibility is run like a miniature fascist state or prison. On the cusp of adulthood we treat teenager like third class citizens. Let's think of all the rights kids *Do Not* have in school which adults in this country take for granted.

1. Free Speech: Beyond limiting simple vulgar language in school, most schools limit political and religious expression. Not to mention criticism of the school administration and it's policy's. While this usually takes the form of censorship of the school newspaper, schools have tried to punish kids for self-published web sites that are independent of the school.

2. Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Schools reserve the right to search not only a student's locker, but also their bags, and even their person. Full body cavity searches are even administered with some frequency.

3. Freedom of association. In the wake of Columbine many kids have been harassed for being part of their local school's equivalent of the Trench Coat Mafia. But even before this latest frenzy it has been common place for school administrations to directly harass kids who do not "fit in" or hang out with the wrong crowd.

Beyond these basic issues I think it is worth noting that school administrations routinely tolerate peer abuse that would be legally actionable in any other context, except prisons. Beyond, simple issues like verbal and sexual harassment, school routinely tolerate physical intimidation and assault.

In the current frenzy schools are simply becoming the full fascist entities they have always wanted to be. I can't wait till we have the announcement that some school will have all students wearing orange jumpsuits (to make it more difficult to conceal weapons, and discourage gangs), ID tags (to keep out non-students, and make tracking students easier), card lock doors, metal detectors, transparent book bags, random mandatory drug testing, and armed guards cruising the hallways. (Did I miss anything?)

Does this sound like a school to anyone?

Shocked

This is the most shockingly heineously stupid thing I've read in a long time. In fact, I almost can't believe this isn't a hoax - that real-life American school administrators would be so utterly stupid and evil. You can tell them I said so.

In fact, I wasn't really shocked by Columbine; I knew from the time I spent in "the joint" (High School), that such an event was merely a matter of time - but that it would lead to THIS is truly shocking. I would definately pull my kids from such a school. This should not be allowed, it does nothing to prevent "school violence", it's in direct violation of the Department of Education and Department of Justice's guidelines on prevention of school violence ( http://www.air-dc.org/cecp/guide/guidetext.htm ) and it's just plain evil - not just the social security number thing, and not just the fact that they're required to wear the badge on a lanyard (ha, my company "required" all of it's employees to do the same thing, nobody does it. It's retarded!), but the fact that the kids are REQUIRED to wear a Pepsi logo, and advertise for a corporation - now that just plain has nothing to do with education, and should not be tolerated period.

Take the principal out and whoop his 455!

"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."

Re:Is this a school?

I believe that you have the right to believe whatever you happen to feel like believing.

As to your right to impose your beliefs on others, your children, I'm realy not sure.

My parents didn't impose their religious beliefs on me, and I'm very happy of that.
I believe in the rights of others to decide their own beliefs, and if they're brainwashed into a set of beliefs at a young age then they never get that chance.

-------------------------------------

protect my children from the Religion of Atheism

I can't think of that many people who have been tortured and brutally murdered in the name of Athiesm, as for the well know organised religions...

At this point Chandon Seldon considers changing his .sig to "Don't ban guns, ban religion - It'd solve significantly more problems", but decides against it because he doesn't want *all* his posts marked as '-1 troll/flamebait'

What idiots...

They think wearing an ID badge will prevent school violence? Hardly. No more than banning lockers and backpacks.

There is a problem. Of that there can be no doubt. But what is the problem? Are backpacks the problem? No. Is the lack of an easy way to identify students the problem? No. Are trenchcoats the problem? No. In fact, I'm going to take a gutsy leap here and say that even guns are not the problem, as evidenced by the fact that for every psycho who shoots someone with a gun there are thousands of gun owners who never hurt anyone with a gun in their entire lives. I'm not in either camp (seeing as I don't own a gun, nor do I plan to in the immediate future), but it's simply an observation.

And that's why ID badges, banning backpacks or tranchcoats, and metal detectors will not solve anything, nor will they save any lives at all. Violence in our schools is like a virus. You can suppress the symptoms with relative ease, but you have not cured the disease until you get to the root of the problem and eradicate that. So, we come to the question: what is the root of the problem?

I believe that the problem is a simple lack of basic respect for one's fellow human beings. As someone who lives near Washington, DC (when not at college) I see this every single day, in adults as well as children. Politeness is a thing to be exploited. People are chess pawns to be manipulated in a game where the prize is power and/or prestige, or perhaps it is just a whim. Kids in school whose only fault is to prize knowledge over physical ability are tortured by their peers, day in and day out, from kindergarten all the way through high school. And I don't speak of the relatively good-natured ribbing our parents and even grandparents experienced; what I see going on in today's public schools would make Amnesty International cringe if only they knew. But they don't know, because administrations cover it up with shit like this. Why? Because really solving the problem is hard, very hard. So instead they quietly hide it away, putting the victim through punishments which were meant for the agreesors, all the while winking at the troublemakers, giving them the silent go-ahead to continue the brutality.

And yes, solving this problem will be difficult. The first thing is the hardest: admitting that we were wrong. Our culture has made many great strides, and most of the time the changes have been for the better, but somewhere along the line we screwed up, and now we have to go back. To what? I don't claim to know; it can be blamed on any of a million different things.

One popular theory among conservatives is that it's the breakdown of the family unit, and there's some credence to that; where will a child learn to respect all people if not from a set of loving parents to use as examples? This is the one I tend to believe. But at the same time, dysfunctional families have always existed (if you're religious they existed all the way back to Adam and Eve and their kids), and this kind of violence was so seldom seen even ten years ago that to say it never happened wouldn't be far from the truth. Then again, there weren't nearly so many dysfunctional families, and most people who came out of those still managed to become well-adjusted, evan after abuse. Conversely, some families, while hardly dysfunctional by any means, actively twist their children into the brutes we see today (particularly in terms of racism; I've had the misfortune to witness this as well).

Some, mainly the religious right, would say it was the separation of church and state. That theory's not one I tend to believe, but I see their viewpoint; if the schools don't teach that there are any moral laws that transcend human beings then what reason is there to respect anyone? At the same time, there's the concept of gestalt, that humanity is greater than the sum of the human beings within it. It's a completely nonreligious idea which happens to have the interesting property of allowing the idea of respect for all people to be taught along with a reason for doing sowithout infringing upon anyone's religion or lack thereof. Why respect all people? Because they, like you, are humans, a part of something greater than either of you. An interesting idea, and perhaps something that ought to be looked into; I don't know of many people who would argue that humanity is as a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Others claim it's media violence. The theory goes that media violence first desensitizes people, then causes people to actually crave it. There's a very large hole in this theory, though. The only reason moviemakers create films as they do is because it's profitable; just ask any movie maker. The only thing that hasn't become cheaper (when inflation is accounted for) over the past fifty years is movie-theater tickets, yet people flock to see the movies in ever-increasing numbers, particularly violent ones. Moviemakers know this; they realize that the desire for violence is already present in the audience, long before any exposure takes place. It is the same for television and video games. I tend to believe this craving comes, once again, from a basic lack of respect for all people; if you respect people then by definition you desire violence towards them. But I digress; the gestalt idea is for another debate some other time.

So how do you solve this problem? Much as I hate to say it, it's probably too late for the current generation of high- and even middle-schoolers. But you can still reach current and forthcoming elementary-schoolers. Get it into children's TV programs (it's been in Sesame Street and even Barney for decades, but the oldest target age for these is still too young to have much of an effect), and get it into the schools. The rule is a simple one: respect all people. Zero tolerance for infractions (though, obviously, what constitutes disrespect is going to have to happen on a case-by-case basis for all but the most blatant violations). Break it too many times, and it's out of the public school system and into a system specifically trained to handle bullies, such as military school (mention military school to any bully, by the way, and 99 times out of 100 you'll get a noticeable fear reaction; the threat is quite effective if it can be backed up).

Yeah, it's a simple thing. It sounds too simple, in fact. So did the "Just Say No" campaign, but it was working while it was in force (studies showed a decline in drug abuse during those years). It was criticized by all sorts of people for being too simplistic, but it worked. The other campaigns since then, while they've been much more sophisticated, haven't had much (or at least as much) of an effect; drug abuse is on the rise again (perhaps more slowly than it would be if no campaign existed, but any rise is a sign of failure). Sometimes simpler really is better.

The rule is simple. Respect all people. Why can't the schools get that into their heads? It would save them, students, parents, and possibly the world at large a great deal of trouble in the end.

Pepsi?

Its bad enough that these kids are forced wear IDs and its even worse that they are using the supposedly provate SSN but whats the deal with the Pepsi logo also mentioned in the article?

Not only are they subjected to this pointless knee-jerk facist "security", measure they're forced to be walking coporate billboards.

Im glad some of them are standing up aginst this foolishness, and I think they should also boycott Pepsi products.

this is part of the IMO rather disturbing "prove you're not a criminal" mentality thats increasingly prevelant in the US today (show your DL for transactions, drug tests etc etc)

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY?!!

CHRIST!

* The NSA monitors our phone calls, faxes, and e-mails ("Eschelon").
* Secure encryption cannot be exported.
* The FBI wants the right to monitor our computers without us knowing.
* Wiretapping capability is built into the phone system
* I just saw on TV that politicians in California are trying to build some kind of remote shutdown into the engines of our cars to stop car chases.
* The White House is investigating what kind of new Internet laws to pass to prevent "abuse"
* They're meeting in Germany to come up with a universal censoring ("labeling") PROTOCOL.
* They're giving our kids NUMBERS TO WEAR, using their SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER?!!! (Get them to accept this when they're young so they don't think anything of it...)

Maybe they should just tatoo the numbers on the kid's forearms. I heard that's been done before somewhere...

Every day I hear more and more examples of freedoms being eliminated. It's going slow, step-by-step, but it's happening. If nothing is done, in 20 years it will be so common and I'll seem like some kind of radical fringe terrorist... They'll probably come after me. Or maybe you.

Geez, What's next?

I mean, c'mon. Why don't they just tatoo it on the kids faces at birth?

Then they don't have to worry about making the kids wear some silly ID badge.

I wonder if these kids have the right to refuse to use their SSN? According to the gubament, they're supposed to be able to refuse to have their SSN used as a form of identification. For that matter, they're supposed to be able to refuse to ever include their SSN on their records to begin with.

I have a friend that I work with who is adament about his SSN showing up in places it doesn't belong. Apparently he's had problems in the past when he was in the USAF about people getting ahold of his SSN and doing things they shouldn't. He would get the blame or worse, the bills.

I always teased him about it, but now I wonder if he wasn't right. This is absolutely ridiculuous.

Perhaps next the state will require that these kids have ID badges that include information on their GPA and class ranking, permanent record and will require the students to answer to numbers instead of their names.

This is a classic issue of public safety vs. personal freedom/privacy. In the wake of the Columbine massacre and the plotted shootings at schools around the nation, the faculty and parents are now willing to sacrifice their kids' personal freedoms and privacies for a little bit more security. But its not like these badges are going to help any.

Suppose the two assailants at Columbine had been wearing ID badges. Would that have helped any of the victims? Could they've said, "Gee, that's Harris, and now that I know his SSN, he can't kill me?" C'mon people, GET A GRIP!

This form of security is useful for faculty members at elementary schools because those kids can see that if someone doesn't have a badge, perhaps they shouldn't speak to them. But so far I am unaware of any school shootings taking place where student identification would've helped the victims in any way, shape or form.

Alas... At least the kids in Louisiana get to learn about evolution. Stupid Kansas.

--
"A mind is a horrible thing to waste. But a mime...
It feels wonderful wasting those fsckers."

this is everywhere, eh?

I've had my SSN as my ID all through public school and college (Purdue University) and of course on my Indiana driver's license.

But luckily I was out of my high school (Marion High School) before they started having kids wear id tags. My younger brothers thought that was bad. They had no idea. Now they are wearing transparent backpacks.

If you don't wear a transparent backpack, they will confiscate your backpack and all contents.

Strange stuff.

I guess they've always had armed guards there, not sure if they have metal detectors or not.

No opinion on the matter, but what I guess I would say is, wow, this is pretty sad.

Decoding the barcodes

I can't believe that no other geek has talked about the binary encoding scheme that the barcodes use for numbers...

There was a link in the article to a page describing how to read the barcodes [geocities.com], but it just gives a table showing the binary codes and their decimal value without explaining it. I couldn't resist trying to understand it, and I have composed the following rules:

• From left to right the first 4 bits have values of:
  • 1247
• Each code most have 2 and only 2 of the bits set. The fifth bit is used to ensure that this is always true.
• The value 11(decimal) represents the digit 0(decimal).

So:
110-001
201-001
311-000
400-101
510-100
601-100
700-011
810-010
901-010
000-110

Once I started I couldn't stop, so check out this page [adams1.com] for a good reference on barcodes.

Odd thing is that when you get a look at all the different barcode formats, they chose about the easiest one to be read by humans because:

• When dealing with only the digits 0-9, spaces don't mean anything, you only have to focus on the bars. However the spaces are useful to help you spot character boundaries. This means you don't have to keep as good a track of where you are when reading across.
• There are only 2 line widths rather than the 4 used in some other systems.
• The encoding for one digit always looks the same, no matter where it appears in a number and what digits surround it.

Don't just complain - do something

Send a polite letter explaining why you think having the SSN as part of a student ID is wrong to: Dr. Charles Scriber Principal, Ruston High School 900 Bearcat Dr Ruston, LA 71270 Or Phone: [phone] or Fax: [phone]

Re:SSN Should not be used for ID

Almost anyone can require your SSN. Your employer, is an obvious example of someone other than the IRS who can do so. See What to do when they ask for your Social Security Number [cpsr.org] for a wealth of info.

Before you make incorrect claims about SSNs...

...why don't you read the CSPR Social Security Number FAQ [cpsr.org]? Also, check out the longer Privacy Rights SSN FAQ [privacyrights.org], which has a section entitled "How can a school use my Social Security number?" In fact, what the hell, I'm going to include it here:

How can a school use my Social Security number?

Schools that receive federal funding must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in order to retain their funding (FERPA, also known as the "Buckley Amendment," enacted in 1974, 20 USC 1232g). One of FERPA's provisions requires written consent for the release of educational records or personally identifiable information, with some exceptions. The courts have stated that Social Security numbers fall within this provision.

FERPA applies to state colleges, universities and technical schools that receive federal funding. An argument can be made that if such a school displays students' SSNs on identification cards or distributes class rosters or grades listings containing SSNs, it would be a release of personally identifiable information, violating FERPA. However, many schools and universities have not interpreted the law this way and continue to use SSNs as a student identifier. To succeed in obtaining an alternate number to the SSN, you will probably need to be persistent and cite the law. Social Security numbers may be obtained by colleges and universities for students who have university jobs and/or receive federal financial aid. (The FERPA text can be found at the web, www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ferpa.buckley.html .)

Public schools, colleges and universities that ask for your SSN fall within the provisions of another federal law, the Privacy Act of 1974. This act requires such schools to provide a disclosure statement telling students how the Social Security number is used. If you are required to provide your SSN, be sure to look for the school's disclosure statement. If one is not offered, you may want to file a complaint with the school, citing the Privacy Act.

When the school is a private institution, your only recourse is to work with the administration to change the policy or at least to let you use an alternate identification number as your student ID.

P.S. Since I'm clinging to my privacy rights and posting as an AC, I'd appreciate it if a kindly moderator would bump the rating on this up to at least "1" so that most folks see it. Thanks!

The Principal Fool Involved

...in this case is the principal. According to the news article, he has sought the advice of legal counsel, and apparently this just applied more fools to the situation.

The principal claims that this use of the SSN is not in violation of federal law because it is encrypted.

1. A bar code is an encoding mechanism, not an encryption mechanism. There is a huge difference.

2. The federal law in question that created the SSNs in the first place does not have *any* tenet in it that I could see that says it's okay to use the number for things outside of the Social Security system provided that it's encrypted properly. It says rather flatly that it's not supposed to be used for this purpose.

Frankly, I'd be lying to you all if I said that I didn't think that both the principal of this school AND his supposed legal counsel (I think he's just lying) are complete and utter fools.

Logic in America

The new policy was instituted in response to the numerous shootings at schools around the country. Many schools now require ID cards to be worn as a security measure.

Good idea, when kids are screaming out how bad they feel, how they feel repressed, uncared for, how they hate. Nothing better I can think of than to clamp down a little tighter, they have to give in eventually.
Quick! lock 'em in a box before they hurt anyone/are hurt by anyone. And make sure they only have access to good clean American information (subsidized by advertisers...)

What scares me most about this is that it is happening.

Brilliant!

I am glad to see our country working so hard to produce young people with a deep understanding of the stupidity and corruption everywhere in our society. Nothing will be more effective in promoting revolution or civil disobedience than small-minded persecutions and treating students as criminals. That's education with relevance.

The diabolical cleverness of this plan is stunning. Now when someone walks onto campus with an M16, they'll quickly be able to tell if they are a student by examining their badge to see if it is forged -- once they find a bar code reader anyway! Oh -- students have been responsible for shootings too? Well, at least this will force non-students to shoot from outside campus grounds! Or pretend to be telephone technicians, plumbers, or pizza delivery persons anyway.

Welcome to Amerika, please take an SS-Number, and be sure it is visible at all times!

maintaining some privacy

I've tried very hard over the past few years to keep my SSN to myself, after a bad experience with a previous employer. My SSN showed up on my employee ID badge, my medical insurance card, my dental insurance card, my vision card, internal mailing labels, and my parking pass. The last item, of course, is what sent me over the edge. Not only is this grossly negligent, but there are numerous indirect ramifications. For example, my bank's account agreement specifically states that if I carry identifying numbers such as my SSN in my wallet with my ATM card, that (a) they consider it tantamount to writing the PIN on the card and (b) the bank is no longer liable/puts no limit on the loss you can incur if your card is stolen.

Unfortunately, US citizens are compelled to give their SSN (aka "TIN" -- taxpayer identification number, in IRS parlance) to financial institutions in the US. There is no way to avoid them using the number. However, other governmental agencies are prohibited from using the SSN as an identification number. Not so with private institutions.

I spent some time on the issue, found the federally-recognized generic SSNs (078-05-1120, and the series 987-65-4320 to -4329, typically used in instructions, advertisements, tv shows, etc) and made liberal use of them. When a unique number is critical, I ask the requester to assign a number that is unique _to_them_. For example, I have a number for all medical-related organizations and another for educational institutions at which I've taken classes recently, both distinct from my SSN. In this manner, I've compartmentalized the bases of information about myself so that it's much more difficult to develop an overall profile of me for invasive or marketing purposes.

I steadfastly refuse to give out my SSN for anything where it's not federally mandated. Yes, you can do it -- just be pleasant about it, and make sure the number you're using is unique to the organization so that you don't cause unnecessary confusion later on. If uniqueness isn't important, use one of the numbers above. On a related note, the home phone number printed on my checks is the bank branch's direct line, showing the same point: redirecting people usually works much better than stonewalling them.

One nice byproduct of this is that my junkmail levels have dropped to a very low level. Privacy is a relative concept, but it's not dead, and it's not irrelevant.