Tagged students defy big brother, Part 2

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Tagged students defy big brother, Part 2

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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, 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.



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David M. Bresnahan, a contributing editor for WorldNetDaily.com, is the
author of a 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 email and also maintains
an archive of his work.


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