Teenage Anonymous Member Protests Student Tracking Devices By Hacking School Computers

San Antonio, TX – A 16 year old hacker claiming to be a member of Anonymous hacked the San Antonio Northside Independent School District website to protest the use of student tracking devices in two local schools. The device, which contains an RFID microchip embedded in the student’s identification card, allows school employees to follow every step a student takes while they are on campus.

The unidentified hacker sent an email to defend his actions. He mentioned his age and his affiliation with Anonymous while explaining he hacked the computers because the Northside School District “is stripping away the privacy of students in your school.”

Student tracking devices are currently being tested in the John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy in San Antonio and school officials are considering a proposal to use the device in all San Antonio schools. The district is the fourth largest in Texas with 97,000 students on 112 campuses.

Mandatory tracking of students by electronic devices is considered to be a serious invasion of privacy by many legal scholars and the program has raised a storm of protest. Many parents resent the idea and advocates for personal freedom claim the device opens the door to unlimited surveillance of minors without parental consent or the right to opt out.

Earlier this month, a Latino student, Andrea Hernandez, 15, was expelled from John Jay High for refusing to wear the device on religious grounds. The student told her principal the device was ‘satanic’ and her family hired a lawyer to sue the school. A local judge issued a temporary restraining order against Northside Independent School District, allowing Hernandez to attend her classes at John Jay until the case is decided.

Jay Stanley, Senior policy analyst for the ACLU discussed the problems with student tracking devices on legal and ethical grounds.

“They pose direct privacy problems for students. They also raise the question what are we teaching our children, schools teach not only what they say but by example.”

“Are we creating a generation that is going to be acclimated to that kind of government tracking? Is that really something we want to do in America?”