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Berkshire
United Kingdom
6th July 2006
Dear LTKA,
I am writing to you because of a great concern I have which is very closely linked with your articles of vast amounts of schools kids being fingerprinted. It came to light recently at our sixth form, that our head of year is implementing a fingerprint scanning scheme that we must all conform to - or be excluded from school permanently. This is very worrying because myself and a group of fellow students feel that this is a breach of privacy as we believe we have the right to hold onto our own biometrics and only have the right on who we shall disclose them to - this especially since we feel we are being threatened and bullied into it due to the threat of exclusion, which is rich from a school that prides itself on its bullying policy
Our head of sixth form has already had the systems installed in the sixth form block without the consultation of any pupils or parents - which is quiet significant considering it will be a great change to the school environment and also represents a huge amount of money that could have been spent on other, more useful, resources and equipment such as books, ICT facilities and much needed maintenance work to the sixth form block. What is chilling further that is all of the pupils like myself that have no choice on the matter of the system are under 18 - and yet no parental consent, consultation or opinion is being sought. Which makes me wonder if our head of sixth is deliberately attempting to silence us because he is indeed well aware that he cannot force this upon us or exclude us for not participating.
In a time when we are constantly being told to beware of identity theft and the value of our personal data it is quite alarming that our sixth form is telling us that our biometrics are of little worth and that we have no choice and the matter and should therefore hand over our personal biometric data. Unlike PIN numbers that can be changed on a whim we have to give up our personal biometrics that once stolen are gone forever.
We feel that this is a great concern to us and many other students in the country that are increasingly being asked to give up sensitive and personal data on us and have no opinion in the matter whatsoever. I gather you are very informed on the matter and any help that you can provide would be greatly appreciated in this matter that means a lot to me and many other people in the country.
I hope to hear back from you soon, Many Thanks.
Yours Faithfully
Concerned Student
(name and address supplied)
At Edgbarrow school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, six formers criticised plans to pilot a fingerprint registration scheme in September 2006. Sixthformer Shaun Woodage, 17, said "clocking in and out" at each end of the day would make him and his friends feel like criminals. "The lack of trust and respect from the school to the students seems to be apparent. We have the right to hold on to our own biometrics and have the right to say who we shall disclose them to."
The students who had refused to be forcibly fingerprinted were initially told they would be suspended, but after worldwide publicity they were split up and sent, one at a time, to see the Head and Deputy Head to justify their concerns. Eventually they were told they could opt out, but only with written parental consent.