TRI In The News
Tracking Students 'a Money-Making Venture'
From One News Now
Original article available here
Anticipating an unfavorable decision, attorneys for a Texas school district have filed a motion to move the case involving mandated "smart ID" badges for students to federal court.
For religious reasons, a 13-year-old student refuses to be tracked with a radio frequency identification device (RFID) the Northside Independent School District is mandating. John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute says the judge who issued the preliminary restraining order to keep Andrea Hernandez from being expelled seems to agree she is a victim of discrimination
"It's an attempt to get a better ruling," the attorney explains. "But in my opinion, it puts it in the federal courts, probably where it should be, and is probably a case that may wiggle its way up to the Supreme Court now."
Whitehead says these tracking devices are big business for the company that makes and sells them, but for also for John Jay High School Science and Engineering Academy itself, which "was going to make about $2 million, supposedly."
"They were upfront about it -- it's a money-making venture, if they could track students in the school and prove they were there or increase attendance," he reports. "So it's very much a money issue; it's not about constitutional rights, protecting students from the school. They want to make money."
The Rutherford Institute president tells OneNewsNow the core constitutional issues in this case include freedom of religion, the right to privacy and the right to be treated fairly.
