Jana Persky and Dan Popper
Editorial Directors
“We’re calling all the students in the auditorium and the lights will go off. The students will fall asleep and wake up 15-20 minutes later with a pain in the back of their head. They will now be tracked wherever they go.”
This is how Principal Tony Pavia described a proposal to track students’ activity based on the media perspective. Recent nationwide news reports have been presenting the sensational story that the New Canaan school district will be planting tracking chips on students’ identification cards. However, the NCPS administration says that the reality is much different.
According to Superintendent Dr. David Abbey, NCPS has simply started a discussion with a local security company called SecureRF. Dr. Abbey said the CEO of the Westport-based company approached a school administrator with a proposal to use New Canaan as a research test site. After discussions among administrators, the idea was brought before the Board of Education on August 16, 2010. The Board of Education gave administrators permission to enter into a dialogue with SecureRF and begin what Dr. Abbey deemed, “an exploration phase, nothing more.”
“It is just a dialogue at this point,” Dr. Abbey said. “ We are going about this in a very systematic and deliberate manner. The most we would do is enter a pilot program in the spring with voluntary participation. “ The entire situation is dependent upon SecureRF gaining approval on an application for a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Abbey said that SecureRF has estimated their chances of approval at 90%.
If SecureRF does secure the grant, they will present a specific proposition for New Canaan schools. At that point, Dr. Abbey said the Board of Education and administration will evaluate it based on applicability to the school district and the potential benefits. If they receive the grant, Dr. Abbey envisioned that SecureRF will present their plan within the next few months, and implementation of the program would occur in the spring.
The proposal can include tracking of bus ridership, cafeteria usage, or expensive equipment. In addition, Dr. Abbey said that one thing the district is interested in is a secure entry system where students would swipe in with their student identification card. “This way, students wouldn’t have to walk half a mile to get into school nor prop open doors, which is unsafe,” Dr. Abbey said. “It is possible that they will propose a tracking chip on student identifications, but this is not necessarily the case. We are very aware of privacy concerns and we would never track students outside of school hours.”
Mr. Pavia also talked about the possible benefits of a swipe system. “It’s very hard to keep the building locked when kids are going in and out all day. If we have several points of entry that would work with a swipe card, this would allow us to maintain open campus while still preserving a secure building.”
Another thing Mr. Pavia mentioned was the possibility of standardizing school systems. “Everything would be on one card- lunch, library usage and school entry,” Mr. Pavia said.
Attendance is another system that can be made more efficient. “Down the road, attendance could become more technically sophisticated,” Mr. Pavia said “It’s still done manually with the teacher taking attendance in class.” Mr. Pavia said he could envision a system in which students swipe in and swipe out of their classes with their identification cards to automatically record attendance.
Dr. Abbey said that the district is always looking to improve security and efficiency. “We have already used technology before, especially on buses with the camera system and the GPS system we have implemented over the past couple of years,” Dr. Abbey said.
“The danger is that if people get scared off and do not explore or remain open to looking at possibilities, it’s a way of limiting progress. [The proposal] may come to nothing, but if it will benefit instruction, maintenance or administration, then we should at least consider it.”
Mr. Pavia also recognized the advantage of testing out new equipment without a fee. “The company came forward offering us an expensive service essentially for free. It would be foolish for us not to be prudent in looking at it,” he said.
According to Mr. Pavia, the issue really comes down to the tradeoff between security and environment. “Parents always come forward and ask for me to guarantee their children’s safety,” Mr. Pavia said. “I can’t make that guarantee unless we put in metal detectors and locked down the entire school, and that would take away from the school culture.”
“In the end we need to see if the benefits outweigh the cultural issues,” he said. “We need to be more concerned with the school environment, because the greatest defense against catastrophe and the single greatest resource that adults have in keeping a school safe is the culture and environment.”
