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“Schoolbus Kids” Being Tracked by GPS. Seriously?
To allay nervous (or paranoid) parents, a suburban school district in Chicago has begun using global position system (GPS) to track school children who take the bus to and from school.
The Palos Heights School District had already been using ZPass, a GPS technology, to track the school buses. But now they have outfitted the kids’ backpacks with a small unit that keeps track of when the student gets on and off the bus, according to The Chicago Tribune.
What’s next? Are we going to have digital chips installed in our kids’ brains so we can keep track of them at all times?
Apparently, approximately 5 percent of the 490,000 school buses around the country use the student tracking technology, according to the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
Haven’t kids been riding school buses for generations? Has anything changed during that time other than the need for so-called helicopter parents to keep constant track of their children?
What’s even more disturbing is the potential implications for such a device.
Dallas Rackow, transportation director at a northern Illinois school which also uses the student tracking system, says the district could allow parents to use the system to check on their children.
“That is where this is going. I would guess within the next year, that will be something we can make available to parents,” Rackow said.
The system is intended to alleviate parents’ fears, but parents are always going to be afraid of something. Will this new system really alleviate their fears of letting their kids go on a school bus? While it may help them keep track of their kids, unfortunately, it won’t manage to guarantee that their kids are safe.
The Tribune quotes a child therapist who says that kids are better off if their parents aren’t anxious. But, by that token, maybe we should encourage parents to worry less and stop feeding their fears?
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0 Comments
[...] can’t possibly be a real thing, right?” Like 8-year-olds getting bikini waxes, or schoolbus kids being tracked with GPS tags. Yes, technology is everywhere these days, even in your newborn baby’s onesie. That is if [...]
The Wireless Onesie: Please Don't Put a Biosensor on Your Baby | Strollerderby commented on Sep 01 10 at 1:59 pm[...] “Schoolbus Kids” Tracked by GPS [...]
Video Monitor Baby Safety | Strollerderby commented on Sep 03 10 at 10:38 am[...] I’m not big on Big Brother doing it. The implications of Chicago school children being trackable by embedded digital chips in bookbags for the sake of identifying when/where they got on or off a bus are [...]
Viral Parenting: GPS when Jane or Johnny steps commented on Sep 07 10 at 5:32 am[...] TV watching is addictive, and your kids should probably be partaking less. [...]
PlanetKid » Learn More, TV Less: Friday Finds commented on Sep 17 10 at 12:03 am[...] TV watching is addictive, and your kids should probably be partaking less. [...]
Learn More, TV Less: Friday Finds « Child Care Directory commented on Sep 17 10 at 5:05 pmbob commented on Sep 01 10 at 9:15 amMy grandmother told me that when she was young, kids were able to get around town by riding on the running boards of strangers’ cars. Those days are clearly gone. I guess gone, too, are the days when we could get off the school bus at a friend’s house.
.
At least today’s kids can still get on a Southwest flight to Nashville whenever they want. :P
Becca commented on Sep 01 10 at 11:55 amSince I just learned about parents who let there kids take the bus but than meet them at the school to walk them in I shouldn’t be superised by this. But it is sad
ali commented on Sep 01 10 at 12:41 pmI actually think this is a great idea. Granted, I work for a company who produces software that could integrate with this system, but from a taxpayer standpoint it’s actually a way that the school district can track student ridership rates on buses and plan accordingly. Information gathered from tools like this allow districts to make more efficient routing decisions and possibly combine bus routes to avoid having half-empty buses constantly running. From a safety perspective, it also allows them to identify buses that are overcrowded and alter their service. Not to mention the obvious peace of mind it provides knowing who got on and off the bus where – and who was actually on the bus in the case of an accident.
goddess commented on Sep 01 10 at 12:47 pmI’ll drive my kids if it comes to this in our district. Use your checklist peeps, don’t track my kid like an animal. And yep, if they do it in he schools, I will homeschool. Big Brother is getting too intrusive- and how better to get people to accept a practice than to appeal to the gut-wrenching fears of their children’s safety. Chip the dogs, then the elderly parents, then the kids- and then we will be so accustomed to it we won’t object when employers or government want to track our own whereabouts.
goddess commented on Sep 01 10 at 12:48 pmAnd how long before THAT is eating the tax dollars and they cry about not having enough tax money for books- wahhhh! We spent it on tracking devices!
Shana commented on Sep 01 10 at 1:16 pmComments
Really not necessary with the exception of very busy city systems. Of course I think the buses should have GPS so they know where they are going! The first week of school sometimes the buses are over 40 minutes late because the drivers, many of them not fluent in English, don’t know where they are going.
blue commented on Sep 02 10 at 4:02 pmThis is because schools are afraid of getting sued. (If a kid gets off to go to a friend’s house and gets hit by a car, abducted, etc.)
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