School Buses Tracking Kids With Fingerprint and Card Scanners

by Caleb Johnson on October 29, 2010 at 03:15 PM

School buses implement fingerprint scanning system.

To ensure that kids don't get off at the wrong stops, some school districts have started using fingerprint and card scanners to track students who ride school buses. The Desert Sands Unified School District, located just north of San Diego, began testing a Biometric Observation Security System (BOSS) on its buses earlier this month, according to USA Today. Students simply touch their fingers to a tiny screen when they get on and off the bus; if a child tries to get off at the wrong stop, BOSS sounds an alarm to notify the driver. About 30 school districts across the country, including ones in Missouri and Illinois, have begun using a similar system called ZPass. Instead of a fingerprint, the system uses an electronic card that's tethered to a child's backpack.

Of course, "tracking kids" is a phrase parents don't want to hear. But Global Biometrics Security president John DeVries, developer of BOSS, told USA Today that the system doesn't store kids' fingerprints. Instead, the image is converted to a series of numbers that cannot be used to recreate the original print.

Tags: BiometricObservationSecuritySystem, boss, education, fingerprint, FingerprintScanner, kids, privacy, school, security, top, tracking, transportation, zpass

source: USA Today
More coverage: The Desert Sun

Comments

Harry HurtOct 29th 2010 2:34PM

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If a student is old enough to ride the bus, he/she does NOT need gadgetry to make sure they get off at the right place. Looks like nosy watching to me.

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fauxshgizzle77Oct 29th 2010 2:41PM

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dont ever track me. let me off on any stop i want. this is really ridicoulous. and they wonder why kids are so haywire. because of mess like this.

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lynneOct 29th 2010 2:44PM

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This is probably aimed more at middle and high school students who may decide to get off the bus with a friend in another neighborhood without parental permission rather than elementary students who should have someone waiting at home for them when they get there.

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RobertaOct 29th 2010 3:28PM

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My Friend had to litterally run & flag the bus down one time because the driver wouldn't let Her Grandaughter get off the bus. The driver told the Kindergarten student: "This Isn't Your Stop". This is School Busses, not City Busses.

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Dawn WhittingtonOct 29th 2010 11:03PM

Neutral

@(Unverified) Sounds to me like someone should have opened up a can of kick a--- on this bus driver. What type attitude is that when they are handling our most precious cargo in the world. People wonder why children act like they do---look at the example the bus driver is giving these kids? Sounds to me like another way for Big Brother to be all up in our business. I do not want my children finger printed FOR ANY REASON and for those of you who wonder NO I am not a criminal. I am a 57 year old grandmother who has NEVER been fingerprinted and will do all I can to remain that way.

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MelissaOct 29th 2010 3:52PM

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the biggest problem is having substitute bus drivers who are not failiar with the route. They take wrong turns and get off the route... As a kid i was forced to get off the bus several blocks from my regular bus route because the driver would not listen to the kids on the bus about where stops were and where to turn. Money should be spent instead to track the busses... a GPS system to keep the busses on the route and stopping at their designated stops.

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DawnOct 29th 2010 4:16PM

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Bad idea. I know there are many times that kids will ride the bus to a friend's house after school instead of to their own home, WITH parents' permission. What about kids whose parents are divorced, if they need to go to one parent's house one day, and to another parent's house another day? Way too complicated....how about just teaching your kids to pay attention to their surroundings, and having bus drivers do their jobs?

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ryanOct 29th 2010 4:38PM

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This total aclaimation to the cashless control grid being set up by criminal banks. You are crazy if you go along with this tyranny parents. Stop being slaves people and get off your knees, quit submitting to everything government puts in front of your face.. Whats coming next you ask , blood and urine samples to get a license.
If you research you will know this has been in place and planned for decades. Thumbscan to get school lunch , thumbscan at a daycare or tanning booth. America are such cowards that we will just do it and never challenge anything.

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