Tarique Naseem

Our local MP, Mr. Mike Wood, has written on my behalf to the Head of Learning at our local (Kirklees) council, seeking further information about the school fingerprinting debacle.

The letter he received in reply was quite interesting! They explain that they “require schools to consult with parents who in turn have to give their agreement for their child to have their fingerprint recorded and used”.

The letter then goes on to explain that they contacted the Head teacher of Birkenshaw First School, who assured them that parental consent was sought. No consent was ever sought, never mind any sort of consultation with parents! The head teacher has blatantly lied to them!

I have already written to the council explaining the situation, so let’s see what happens. Nothing much I suspect, as I feel there’s a lot of arse covering going on.
Oops… I mentioned the name of the school now. Too late… :)

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I have received a letter from the Head Teacher at my school in reply to my original letter (Click on the thumbnail opposite).

What strikes me is that she provides quotes which are taken directly from the user manual of the system, as if they are independent views! I find this quite astonishing.

She then goes on to say that the fingerprinting is “a bit of fun” for the children. She really has no idea of the implications! Sure, it’s great fun. Just hand out your biometric readings to anyone kids. Hey kids, can I take some DNA sample while I’m at it? Just for a bit of fun. Don’t worry this needle won’t hurt…

She also states, “parents and carers were informed of the system we would be using by letter, and no objections have been received, apart from your letter”.

However, that the letter was only sent out after they had installed the system. No consent was sought and only a few days later they fingerprinted the children! So, they gave very little time for anyone to raise any concerns.

The parents letter I have drafted will go out this afternoon, all going well.

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This is a follow up post to the school fingerprinting issue I posted about yesterday.

Just today I managed to speak with the Head Teacher at our school (I had to collar her as she was busy trying to run away from me at the time!). To cut a long story short, she just reiterated what was in her original letter. Although, from her reaction and body language, she did appear to be rather uncomfortable with the whole issue, just stating repeatedly that legally they are doing nothing wrong. She also explained that another letter will be going out tomorrow in reply to my concerns.

I then pressed her on why the school did not first seek consent from the parents before implementing such a system. I was rather surprised at her response… She explained that letters were sent out giving the parents the option of opting out. I say surprised because no such letter was ever sent out! Her statement was completely false!

She then stated that I was the only one who had come forward with a complaint, basically implying that I was just being paranoid about all this!

She did, however, explain that my 5 year old’s fingerprints will not be taken, which is a start I suppose. Although, I have since discovered from another parent that they have just today taken fingerprints of all the children (apart from my son), a day after I sent in my letter. The timing of this seems a little suspect it has to be said. The Head Teacher also made no mention of this when we spoke.

I have now decided to draft a single page letter to hand out to parents outside the school. A couple of parents have volunteered to copy and hand them out tomorrow afternoon.

In this letter I provide some brief information about the fingerprinting, and have asked them to visit LTKA for further information. I’ve also added a form at the bottom for the parents to fill in and hand into the school, asking them to remove all fingerprint data for their child.

I really hope the parents take these concerns seriously and make a stand!

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Although I jest about the mafia running our school in my previous posting, I have now a real concern. I have received a letter from the Head Teacher (sent to all parents) about a new system they are employing for the library. (Please click on the image opposite to view the letter in full.)

To cut a long story short, they want to fingerprint our children to track their use of the library books! The letter seems innocuous enough and goes some way to ease any worries, but it still sounds alarm bells in my head. Even though they state they are complying with all the legal requirements, it’s not compliance that’s the issue - it’s moral. Why do they feel the need to take biometric readings of a 5 year old to track his use of the books? It just sounds absurd and totally unnecessary, not to mention a complete invasion of privacy.

I know most parents at the school will no doubt just accept this out of apathy, which is what worries me. It’s apathy like this that allows governments to introduce monitoring into society one small step at a time. We seem to be sleep-walking into a surveillance society.

Having had a chat to my colleague Imran Ali about this, he made a valid point, “It’s a perfect test case - How to engineer acceptance of controversial social practices by wiring them into a school culture.”

I have also just come across an article here, which states that the system being employed is similar to identification systems used in US prisons and by the German military.

Simon Davies, a director at Privacy International, said “the use of such systems will have the effect of de-sensitising people to more comprehensive privacy invasion - such as ID cards and DNA testing - later in life”, which illustrates my point above. I shudder to think of my 5 year old growing up thinking that it is acceptable to give their fingerprints everywhere.

Doing a search on Google, it sounds like I’m not the only one concerned with such a system, which is reassuring. I was also directed to this site, which has some interesting information on the very subject.

I have just today drafted a letter to the Head Teacher (PDF Document), urging her to reconsider it’s use. I am hoping she will understand the implication of such a system and take a lead.

Update: There have now been some further developments on this issue. Please this post for an update.

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