As Hernandez v. John Jay High School approaches federal courts and news goes national, more students face privacy and identity straits at schools across the US
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| Andrea Hernandez sans RFID c/o CBN News |
Over Thanksgiving week, the story of a 15 year old High School student in San Antonio retained national attention as the new portrait of community resistance to identity tech requirements adopted by school administrators. With good reason, news is continually evolving about the plight of students across America who are coming to grips with standardised location surveillance by scholastic institutions.
In the case of Andrea Hernandez, the student’s decision to opt out of a Smart ID card badge is coming to loggerheads with the school system. The court conflict orbits the minor’s right to basic location privacy and 1st Amendment rights with her belief system and the schools technology of choice to record attendance in the Student Locator Project. Her case was moved from Texas state courts to a federal court by judges just prior to a local hearing taking place today. It is a move which seems to favor John Jay High School and the NISD, the school district administrators who comissioned the controversial program according to lawyers at The Rutherford Institute.
"I think it’s unfortunate that these school officials are determined to continue to violate Andrea Hernandez’ constitutional rights, but their actions clearly show that what is motivating them has little to do with their students’ best interests and everything to do with fattening their coffers,” says John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. If Hernandez does not win her case, it would be both a tragedy and a statistic for privacy and 1st Amendment speech as Smart cards and biometric requirements are impacting more student populations across America than ever before.
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