NO2ID

Hi

I've just joined this site hoping for some information about this issue. My daughter's secondary school is introducing fingerprinting for food on 14 April 2008, I've only received the letter informing me of this today.
I've asked my daughter and she was not aware this was happening and I have no intention of allowing it to happen but I need to know the best way to approach this in the limited time I have.
I'm really concerned by what I'm reading about this and disappointed in the school for not at least opening the issue up to debate, I imagine the required technology has already been bought.
It seems that my consent is not required. Judging by how many parents who wish to opt out or who were not informed at all, or children forced to do it, I wonder if I or my child refuses how this can be enforced.

Thanks in advance
Trixie

Well if the system is for food only then perhaps packed lunches might be a way of avoiding the issue.

However Your child should be aware that they can legally refuse to be fingerprinted by the school.

You should also contact the school governors & the headteacher indicating your position on this, it might be wise for your daughter to state her position by signing the letters too. I say letters as communicating by letters provides your with a written record. If you are invited for a talk by the anyone related to the school take a witness with you (ideally someone not related to the school in anyway including having a child there) and record the meeting as well. If you are refused permission to do either of these then you might want to insist that they communicate by letter or not at all.

If you have a lawyer or know one then it would be wise to have them on standby just incase you need a poison pen letter but this should really be the very, very last resort as it never ends with anyone smelling of roses.

You should try to communicate with other parents and see who supports your position, a petition might be in order. The local press would i'm sure be more than willing to give you a lil exposure and your local MP or Mayor would be a good person to communicate with as well about this.

I must stress that for all communications you should really insist upon having a written record! Schools are notorioius for promising much in the little chats they have with parents face to face and then dont deliver on it saying you have no record of their promises. So please do make sure you have a recood of everything

EDIT: Oh dont forget to get all the school literature and manufacturer literature on the scheme as possible. Remember promises like any data collected wont be handed onto the police are entirely false

Since Mr Clegg has apparently

"urged an end to the "scandalous fingerprinting" of children at schools and the removal of more than a million innocent people from the DNA database."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7230487.stm

why not contact the LibDems and ask him to lend you a hand?

That may sound facetious but quite frankly I'm sick of politicians talking the talk and sitting on their backsides until an election comes round, meanwhile all our rights keep getting swiped away from us in big chunks.

It's time the politicians acted on our behalf, rather than talked on their own behalves.

Suggest you contact Leave Them Kids Alone: http://www.leavethemkidsalone.com/

hey Trixie,

firstly thank god that there are other sane parents out there who see these awful awful systems for what they are!

Definitely get in touch with www.leavethemkidsalone.com and have a good look on the website - it offers loads of practical information and also makes you realise that you are not alone in standing against the implementation of these systems.

I faced the same problems as you (and still do) it is disgraceful that parents are given very little (no) time to voice their objections and are usually ignored if they do try to object.

There are a number of things that you can do immediately -
are they offering swipe cards or pin numbers as an alternative to the fingerprint? My children's school does (although that is still not good enough in my opinion, but it will suffice for now.) If not then start pushing for that or demand that your child is still allowed to use cash. NO CHILD must miss out on the opportunity to have a hot meal at lunchtime because of these systems and the schools know this.

After that it all depends on how obstinate you want to be. Personally I will not stop campaigning against these systems until the biometric option is totally removed from the school. To do that, you really have to be in it for the long haul - but then isn't our children's freedom worth it?

I have had a number of articles in the local press which have helped to illuminate this issue to people who had not really considered the full implications of giving away their children's sensitive biometric data, and have written to every man, his dog and his uncle's best friends!

I would be happy to help you with this or share any information that I have already gathered - you can contact me at s.mckeand@btinternet.com

Also I have been speaking regularly with Pippa King - her blog pippaking.blogspot.com is also a brilliant source of information.

Good luck with your campaign, let us know how you get on, and don't take no for an answer...

Given the shabby lack of notice, you could make a formal written complaint to the governing body - addressed to the clerk to the governors, c/o the school.

As others have said, it's likely many other parents feel the same as you do.

Agree with everything that has been said so far. Record every letter you write. Why not start your own committee against this and get other parents on your side, if there isn't already then be the first. As i have said before in another thread these systems are just back doors to other things. We are led to believe it is in our best interests, but we are basically becoming guilty before proven innocent, and there starting in the schools. (Labrats for a future generation)

I believe the data protection has ordered the new terminal 5 at Heathrow to halt on the finger printing for the moment so i believe your in a good position to get something done at your school.

I don't want to talk about conspiricy theories on this forum, but the once laughed at suggestions of some of these so called conspiricy theories are now happening.

Chipping, ID Cards, Thought Police in the US airports and Computers that can read your thoughts. And this is only the stuff we know about.

Thanks for all your replies

I've contacted a local journalist/politician about the issue and have sent him the information I have gathered so far. I will be writing a letter to the school about this, stating that I do not consent to it. Would it need to be sent by recorded delivery?

If you can do so, I'd suggest that hand-delivered might be better so that you can explain your concerns directly to the headmaster.

Hi Trixie,

I'm sorry, I just got your email now because recently my email has decided to class loads of stuff as 'spam' even when it isn't... god only knows what the bloody criteria for spam is considering the number of supposedly 'legitimate' emails i get from Nigerian businessmen wanting to put £8,000,000 into my account, if only i would send them my details..

anyway the upshot of this is that even though i read your email and marked it as 'not spam' so that i could reply to it later... but when i went back to it later it had just bloody disappeared... oh the joys of modern technology!

so.. after all that can you email me again... so i have your email and i'll be back in touch.. sorry for the delay!

cheers
sophie

um yeah... just in cast that didn't make sense.. my BT email 'spam' section doesn't show in Entourage, which is the package i use for the email on the mac... so i have to go online to double check my emails... then i can see my spam folder... (as if i'm viewing my emails from another pc)
this might be totally off topic but how do i view my spam stuff otherwise?
i'm asking this because so many emails have gone to my spam... including important ones from local press/ politicians and other parents and sometimes i don't notice for days... which is obviously very inconvenient!

cheers