3/6/06
Senator Joe Simitian
State Capitol, Room 4062
Sacramento, Ca 95814
Fax: 916/323-4529
Dear Senator Simitian:
The Liberty Coalition, a transpartisan public policy group dedicated to preserving the Bill of Rights, personal autonomy and individual privacy strongly supports SB 29.
SB 29 safeguards the privacy, safety, and the psychological well-being of students in government schools by prohibiting the use of RFID technology to track, monitor and record the presence and movement of students. RFID tags are contactless integrated circuits – tiny devices – with miniature antennae that respond when a reader emits a radio signal by transmitting their stored information to a reader.
The use of RFID tracking technology for students in government schools sets a dangerous precedent in a free society. It trains free people to accept the tracking, monitoring and recording of their physical movements by government officials. This will have a dangerous psychological and socio-cultural effect over time as the young students become adults and are accepting of such monitoring and control of them by the state. Schools should be as free as possible of such types of monitoring and control systems in order for students to be in an environment conducive to learning to be self-reliant, intelligent and educated citizens in a free society.
In Liberty,
Michael D. Ostrolenk
National Director, Liberty Coalition
www.libertycoalition.net
