-Caveat Lector-
Tagged Students Defy Big Brother, Part 2
By David M. Bresnahan © 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Students at Louisiana's Ruston High School continue to protest the use of ID badges displaying their Social Security numbers, one parent is threatening a federal criminal complaint, and the man who programmed the computers involved has given advice to the students -- become an administrative headache. (See part one, {HYPERLINK "http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_bresnahan/19990923_xex_tagged_stude.shtml"}Tagged students defy Big Brother in yesterday's WND.)
Each student in Louisiana, whether they know it or not, has a state student ID number. That number by default is also their Social Security number. Parents can object and require the school to use a different number.
"Students' parents can request a new state identification number if they object to use of the Social Security number," advised Eric L. Green, who was formerly contracted to install and administer the computers at Ruston High School
"The school is required to issue such a number if requested. This is by both state law and school district policy," he explained to WorldNetDaily. "This is the best form of civil disobedience. It causes a serious administrative headache and gives them great incentive to change the policy. It also directly involves district personnel, who, when inconvenienced, are likely to go to the superintendent's office and say 'This policy must be changed.'"
Students who have been protesting the new requirement to wear an ID badge displaying their Social Security number have refused to wear the controversial badges. Jonathan Washington was made to wear a temporary red badge on Thursday.
"I wore it for five minutes, then took it off," said Washington, 15. He said he did not wear a badge for the rest of the day. Others have begun to follow Washington's lead. Indeed, he has obtained hundreds of signatures of students supporting a petition to remove the Social Security numbers from the badges.
The school computers contain each student's Social Security number as well as a specially created student identification number. That number was created to avoid problems with the use of Social Security numbers.
"I am mystified why they put the Social Security numbers on the card, rather than the district-assigned seven-digit student identification number," Green told WorldNetDaily. "The district- assigned number was specifically created over seven years ago due to concerns about widespread use of the Social Security numbers, concerns expressed both by Lincoln Parish School Board district officials and by other school officials state-wide.
"The student identification number can be queried out of the Student Information Systems database just as easily as the Social Security number. The only thing that I can think of is that the placard-generating software they used had a nine-digit space for student ID number, and they were too stupid to figure out how to put a seven-digit number into that space," he explained from Arizona where he now lives.
Green was paid as a consultant to install the current computer system at Ruston High School, and spent two years supervising the transfer of data from those computers to the school district and to the state computers in Baton Rouge. Green also transferred data from the school lunch program computers to the federal government.
"The only system I know of that must use the federal Social Security number is the lunch system, where various anti-fraud laws require them to submit the data to the feds and the feds then match it against the food stamp rosters," Green explained.
The computers do not print out Social Security numbers on any reports, except for reports required by state and federal agencies. Reports used by the school system default to the student identification number, which is seven digits instead of the nine used by the Social Security number.
"I have no idea why other software vendors did not adopt such a solution to privacy concerns with the Social Security number, just as I have no idea why the administration at Ruston High School chose to use a number that their administrative software vendor had been specifically told (by the school district) not to use as a publicly reported piece of data, due to privacy concerns," Green stated.
"At this point, I have discussed the legal ramifications of this with the principal and an assistant superintendent who has gotten a legal opinion, albeit I think flawed, from a lawyer that represents them," said Paul Washington, father of Jonathan, in a phone interview with WorldNetDaily. "My feeling is that my next move is to either contact the federal authorities, or institute a lawsuit on my own. Either way, I am getting very close to instituting legal action one way or the other."
Washington said he hopes the school officials will change the ID cards before he is forced to take legal action to intervene. He has asked the principal to have the barcodes cut off the cards, but principal Dr. Charles Scriber has refused to make any changes.
"If they do not back down before I file, it is going to raise the stakes," explained Washington of his expectation that he will seek monetary damages.
"If they were to back down tomorrow, which is really what I have been after all along, I would say 'great' and let it go," he offered.
Washington's son and hundreds of other students are objecting to the fact that their new ID badges display their Social Security numbers, and they are required to wear the badges at all times. Anyone could copy down the numbers and use them improperly.
Washington described how easy it is to look at the barcode and translate it into the actual numeric Social Security number. He even published a web site that teaches others to do it. He and Rachel Winchel have led a student protest and petition drive in an effort to end the practice.
"We have been very supportive of what his position is, and are encouraging him to proceed in a legal and very appropriate way. When suggestions have been made which we consider to be inappropriate, we explain why," said Washington of his son's protest.
Scriber claims the barcode is a form of encryption and therefore the Social Security number is not actually displayed for all to see.
"The barcode, in my opinion, is just an alternate means for writing the number. They claim encryption — well, encryption can only be considered as long as nobody can read it," said Washington. His son and other students can demonstrate their ability to read any barcode in a matter of seconds on sight.
"Philosophically, I am opposed to the wearing of name tags, but I would not fight that legally if it were not for the presence of the Social Security number on there. There is a level of effort that is required to fight this, and if it's just over the wearing of a name tag, then I'm not going to go to that level of effort," explained Washington.
Student ID badges have been moved from wallets to being worn visibly by many schools across the nation in an effort to increase security after a rash of school shootings. Washington and the students do not believe the badges at Ruston High School contribute to their safety.
"This makes absolutely no educational sense. The level of security they are providing with the name tags is zero. The thing that really bothers me is when they gave out the name tags, they gave them out with this whistle cord strap to hang them on. So what you've done is hang a rope around the neck of all the highschoolers, and told them to walk through the halls with a rope around your neck," said Washington.
"They have been pulling on them and one of these days someone's going to get seriously hurt. I would hate to be the attorney trying to defend the action of the school in encouraging, if not requiring them, to wear this rope around their neck when somebody gets hurt by it. It's just stupid. It's obvious that there is going to be a problem sooner or later."
Green, a professor at a local college, believes all schools are filled with inept bureaucrats who make unwise decisions, and he blamed the cards on an unwise choice.
David M. Bresnahan, a contributing editor for WorldNetDaily.com, is the author of a {HYPERLINK "http://talkusa.com/y2krpt.html"}new report on Y2K, the book "Cover Up: The Art and Science of Political Deception," and offers a monthly newsletter "Talk USA Investigative Reports." He may be reached through {HYPERLINK "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"}email and also maintains an {HYPERLINK "http://talkusa.com"}archive of his work.
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