TRI In The News
TX Teen Ostracized for Protesting School GPS Chip
From Raw Story
Original article available here
A Texas teenager’s attorney told RT on Friday that her refusal to wear an ID badges with a GPS tag has led to her being ostracized from all school activities.
“She’s not being treated equally,” said John Whitehead, who is representing Andrea Hernandez in an upcoming trial next week. “If she doesn’t have the chip, she can’t access the library, cafeteria, she was told she couldn’t vote for the homecoming king and queen.”
Hernandez, a sophomore at John Jay High School Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio, objected to wearing the badges, which are equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips, on religious grounds, saying they bore “the mark of the beast,” a reference to a Christian prophecy in the Book of Revelations. Whitehead said she was also barred from distributing a pamphlet explaining her rationale.
RT and The Next Web reported that Hernandez was granted a restraining order allowing her to return to school pending the results of her trial, which begins Nov. 28. The badges are part of a $500,000 program whereby John Jay hopes to raise funds by demonstrating consistently high attendance via tracking student movement.
“The bigger picture is, this is the test project that’s gonna spread throughout the country,” Whitehead said. “The question’s gonna be if those who do not opt into this program, will they be punished?”
