The story says it all:
A background check system used by many Texas schools to spot visitors who are sex offenders is being challenged by two parents who say the process violates their privacy and other rights. Yvonne and Larry Meadows are suing the Lake Travis school district over a computer system that checks visitors against a sex offender database by scanning their driver’s license. Visitors who don’t consent can be turned away.
The federal lawsuit filed in November is believed to be among the first legal challenges to the policy in Texas. Houston-based Raptor Systems, which performs background checks for Lake Travis and 5,000 other schools nationwide, said it was unaware of similar lawsuits.
The Meadowses say the computerized checks violate their constitutional rights, including freedom to associate with their children at school and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Neither are listed in the national sex offender database.
Yvonne Meadows said she objected to Bee Cave Elementary School scanning her license because she was concerned about identify theft and a private company collecting her personal information. (…read more, chron.com)
@bd agreed. I just can’t help that these companies are a kind of data phishing scam, playing on the politics of fear surrounding sex offenders. who are these companies? who’s motoring *them*?
@Erin – Good point. I hadn’t considered that as my head’s too much into what large businesses do with such things, particularly my employer.
Violet brings up another good point about data sharing amongst large companies. Part of their business model is typically, to sell their data to other buyers. Bad data in the system can bring a great burden on the individual(s) involved. Look at how states purged people from voter polls using bad data. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when you’re talking about sex offender data, which, like terrorist flags, has got to be awful to try and clear up.
I think identity theft and violation of personal information sharing via these private, unregulated companies is more serious than anyone understands.
What happens if a child’s parent is a registered sex offender?
When I began the process of becoming a teacher in a small city school district in Texas, we were informed of this system. To take part in my observations as a visitor in the various classes, I had to have my license scanned. They don’t just use the license to scan for a record of sex offenses, but also will make a log and temporary ID for any visitor.
My instructor explained that in the few years they have used the system, only one license had a red flag. And if I remember correctly, it was some kind of technical glitch that eventually cleared the parent.
This waste of taxpayer money wouldn’t be necessary if schools just stuck with their basic rules of not letting any kid go with someone not on their contact/pick-up list or not letting anyone on a closed campus without a legitimate reason.
To give an answer to bd’s question, it’s a big, expensive, whiz-bang system that the school board can point to and say “See? We’re doing something about this horrible scourge that threatens to consume our children whole!”
Just a guess, mind you. But I used to cover small school board’s for a newspaper and that’s the way they thought.
Welcome to the New Searchable Age (sm). Marginalization begins 3… 2… 1… now!
They spent $182,000 on this system?!!? I bet that you could have spent that money on books or classes for the kids and had some to spare.
Classic case of doing something out of fear without doing a cost/benefit analysis. How often does the school system suspect that sex offenders are visiting schools? How did they come by such a figure, if it exists? How does this method protect any better than other methods?