School becomes more like prison: Ankle bracelets to keep track of kids who ditch class?

Posted August 24th, 2008. Categorized under High School, News. 21 Comments

In San Antonio, Texas, a school is trying out new ankle bracelets for students who have been caught ditching class or who have had discipline problems, it seems. The bracelet will monitor them using the GPS system, so authorities will be able to track where the kids are round-the-clock.

Students will not be able to remove the bracelet for up to six months.

This is terrible. What right does the school have to know where a kid is all hours of the day? Everybody needs privacy, and being forced to be monitored around the clock for something as tame as skipping a day of class is just pathetic. Privacy is valuable to everyone, and to know that someone could be watching you all the time just shows the sad direction we’ve been heading in discipline for some time now.

Not only is it a civil liberty question, this policy also won’t really benefit the student. What happens when these kids go to college or get a job? They aren’t going to have an ankle bracelet there, and they’ll be free to skip class or bail on work whenever they want to. The best way to help to start good habits about attending class is to create relevant punishments — perhaps they can’t turn in their work from that day they missed, perhaps they can’t take the test when they come back, etc. The punishment needs to relate to the class itself, and it should definitely not infringe on a student’s privacy.

The only time I can see this measure being logical is when the student’s whereabouts are a matter of safety to other students. As a punishment, it’s not at all effective. Along with making kids wear prison jumpsuits for violating the dress code, this seems to be yet another way to associate students with prisoners. Students go to school to learn how to be adults, not to be watched over like criminals.

What do you think? Is this going too far or is there a good reason to resort to GPS ankle bracelets?

If you liked this post, please share it!

Want more? Subscribe today!

Readers of this post also liked...

21 Replies to “School becomes more like prison: Ankle bracelets to keep track of kids who ditch class?”

Comments:

1. Dwayne from Probably Sucks Blog

September 30th, 2008 6:17 am

Well it was only a matter of time when this would happen, the day has come and we approach one step closer to all being monitored by our government.

2. PTM

January 14th, 2009 1:26 am

Privacy? A 15 year old has no privacy. A teenager has no rights until they are 18 years of age (17 in some states like Texas). Until you are at least 17 or 18, your parents dictate what you can and cannot do. You have no freedoms until you are of legal age. Why do you think you can’t smoke or vote until 18?
If a parent will not step in and take control of their child’s actions, then yes, the school should be involved. Especially if the school has had problems in the past with kids skipping school.
Also, the difference between high school and college is the fact that the student is paying for a college degree. High schools are funded by public tax dollars.
And, a job can easily fire you for skipping work too many times, hows that for a life lesson? No job means no income to survive.

3. Paul

January 14th, 2009 6:19 pm

@PTM: Regardless of rights in a legal sense, common decency should prevent a person’s location from being monitored 24/7 unless they are proven guilty of some terrible crime. Ditching class is not a terrible crime.

The point of high school is to teach you to be a functioning adult and deal with real-life consequences, not to babysit you and force you to come to class. No job is going to put a GPS ankle bracelet on an employee who doesn’t show up — they’ll simply fire you. So a more reasonable (and educational) punishment for ditching class should be to simply fail the class.

4. jen brister

March 24th, 2009 6:00 am

This is so sad. And to PTM, all children, as humans, have basic rights. Saying that a child has no rights until they are 18 as absurd.

5. erma rivers

April 14th, 2009 2:27 pm

that ankle braclet is no good you can be home and that thing will go off for no reason then some times it will tell you ankle bracelet off or it may tell you are some were else and you know you not

6. bob

May 27th, 2009 10:06 am

Why make school even worse by making kids wear ankle bracelets

7. matthew from kids franchises

June 27th, 2009 4:03 pm

sounds a bit much to me, hows about parents ensuring their kids get there in the morning and for those with a habit of ditching they are not to be allowed out of the school at lunchtime etc?

8. ryan from bracelets and Bangles

July 1st, 2009 9:54 pm

Wow, treating students like prisoner. Is that what we are trying to teach our kids to become?

9. Barry from Criminal Solicitors London

July 21st, 2009 9:03 am

You’ve got to be joking. This makes me very angry. This will be just the start. Eventually they’ll want to put ankle brancelets on all kids.

10. gadgets

July 27th, 2009 8:52 am

I would never thought about anything like this. I’m still going to school and it’s not a prison. I do not like go there but it’s not the same as the prison..
gadgets´s last blog ..Altec Lansing Expressionist Plus, design and good sound for the PC

11. Martin Kovacz

August 12th, 2009 1:30 pm

It is really to much pressure onto kids.

12. ear thermometer

September 3rd, 2009 12:13 am

schools are suppose to teach to children, not to tame them and watch them 24/7 like a mad man on the loose…

13. Cute Videos

September 4th, 2009 10:28 pm

This is horrible! this country is going down the tubes fast. I can’t believe the things enforced on us by the government!

14. chicco baby products

September 28th, 2009 2:41 am

School is not a prison its just children have all their time in school. Children may not understand it but education is important for them.

15. Cory from GPS Running Watches

October 4th, 2009 10:26 pm

I’m totally against using any sort of device to track students who miss school. I think we can devise other ways to help students come to school and not ditch. I think if we teach our kids the fine points of getting an education and their future they will change their habits for good. Both parents and teachers need to work together to increase school attendance.

16. Barry from Criminal Solicitors London

October 27th, 2009 8:03 am

Reading this and everyone comments says it all. Hardy anyone will half a brain cell would be for this. It needs to stop now. I would never send my kids to a school that did this.

17. Sam from Chicago Probate Attorney

December 2nd, 2009 11:53 am

What a nightmare. Is our world really coming to this?

18. Jenny from Canberrababysitting

December 3rd, 2009 9:49 pm

I feel a little sorry for the youth of today. Gone are the role models that they used to be able to look up to as more and more kids come from single parent families. Parents are trying to make a living to support the child and working longer not knowing where their kids are let alone know if they attend school.

I am also against any tracking device for the kids, good old communication is what they need a regular dose of. Connecting with the kids to find out what they are doing who are their friends and to stress the importance of a good education.

19. Brian from swat kats episodes

March 10th, 2010 5:42 pm

big brother is watching. what better way to tame sheep than handling the young lambs.
seriously… rights are being taken away
funniy this is from 2008, now in2010 they’ve got a school in the news for watching kids through their wecbcams.
and a girl got sent to jail for doodling.

20. Donald

April 18th, 2010 7:17 am

WAKE UP!! parents need all the help they can get. STFU about big brother watching and child rights. Parents should feel the confidence that when their kid goes to school that THEIR KID IS IN SCHOOL. Girls are losing their virginity at 13!! My niece skipped school and had sex. NO MESSAGE WAS SENT ON HER NOT BEING AT SCHOOL. She was honor roll and got mixed up with a bad boy she “loves”. This 15yr boy was about to get her into threesomes (at 13). they were plannin on skipping again to get full experience (no rubber) so he can hav a baby (at 13!!!!).
so STFU about government and start looking at our society. When a child has so much pressure in school to lose their virginity before high school. how will they keep their minds in the book. what kind of life for a child being a single mom at 14.

Yes i believe a parent needs every weapon possible to keep their child safe. So the parent has time to teach and slowly release their child into the wilds of society. student alcohol and drug test?? well allot of businesses require it now. so if school is to prepare them for the real world. Then I see why not.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks:

1. View this trackback

September 9th, 2008 10:17 am

Students to be breathalyzed at school functions? | Xatal

[...] far as I’m concerned, this is just another sad way to automatically assume that students are up to no good. What grade levels are going to be [...]