Some see scans for lunch as taste of Big Brother
Taunton schools to use fingerprints
Taunton schools this spring could become the first in Massachusetts to have students pay for lunch by scanning their fingerprints, a plan that is triggering an uproar among parents and ACLU officials worried about privacy and possible identity theft.
Under the plan, which is voluntary, schools will scan two fingerprints from each student, which will be converted into an individual number linked to a meal account. When they buy lunch, students will tap their finger on a reader that brings up the account. The cashier will enter the items and deduct the cost.
School officials say the new system will speed the cafeteria line, possibly let parents monitor what children eat, and lift the stigma from poor students who receive free or reduced-price lunches. They say the system is secure because the fingerprint image is never stored, only a numeric representation of it.
The school superintendent initially said the plan was mandatory, but faced with opposition, decided to make it voluntary. The school committee agreed that parents could sign up for the program.
Still, some parents are concerned that the fingerprints their children register with the school district could be stolen, misplaced, or used for a form of fraud that hasn't even been invented.
They note that supermarkets and retail stores have had customer information compromised, and argue that there are no state guidelines for schools using the technology. The parents also say they are skeptical that the 8,100-student Taunton school system can keep their children's information secure.
"I'm worried about identity theft," said Teresa Heim , who has three children in Taunton schools. "I don't feel that my kids should be fingerprinted to get lunch."
Biometrics, the science of using physical and behavioral traits to verify someone's identity, is gaining momentum nationwide among school systems, airports, grocery stores, and megachurches to track attendance, make purchases, and boost security.
Malvern, Pa.-based identiMetrics, a leading vendor, said hundreds of schools nationwide use its system, including nearly a third of the school districts in West Virginia and a private enrichment center for children in Wellesley.
As the technology spreads, however, it is igniting a backlash.
Taunton, about 40 miles south of Boston, planned to start scanning children's fingerprints last month, but school officials pulled back after angry parents showed up at school committee meetings wearing "Ban the Scan" pins.
School officials say they now plan to proceed with the voluntary plan, possibly starting next month, after addressing complaints that they failed to adequately inform parents of their options. The program will start in four elementary and two middle schools in the 16-school district.
Several Taunton parents are advocating a law to regulate the use of fingerprint scanners in Massachusetts. State Senator Marc R. Pacheco , a Taunton Democrat, said yesterday that he is considering legislation.
Sarah Wunsch , a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in a letter to Taunton Superintendent Arthur W. Stellar that teaching students to be casually fingerprinted is "the wrong lesson."
She said she was concerned that a child's fingerprint could be re-created from the mathematical formula used for the unique identification number, and used for identity theft.
"It is Orwellian," Wunsch said in a telephone interview. "We're not against technology, but people do need to stop and think about what kind of a society are we heading toward and is this a good use of the money that taxpayers have forked over."
Other states are facing similar battles. Iowa passed a law in 2005 effectively banning finger-scanning technology in schools. Illinois is considering regulations, and a school system in California has nixed fingerprinting.
In Massachusetts, Taunton appears to be the first public school system to try it. The state Department of Education does not track the technology, but a spokeswoman said she did not know of any other school systems that use it.
Stellar said the school committee approved the approximately $40,000 contract last year with Rochester, N.Y.-based LunchByte Systems Inc. , to upgrade the schools' aging cafeteria payment system. Now, he said, cashiers collect cash from students, or require students getting subsidized lunches to type a code into a keypad, which could embarrass them.
Plus, he said, touching a screen is faster than fumbling for a lunch ticket or cash. Students often lose the money or forget their code.
"There's not a lot of time to eat and so if you're able to decrease the amount of time students have to stand in line you're going to increase the amount of time they have to actually sit and eat," said Stellar, a former interim superintendent in Boston Public Schools. "The biometric system speeds that up."
He said the system's possibilities impressed him. Taunton schools will probably use it to alert cafeteria workers of a student's food allergies, and may allow parents to keep track of how much their students eat.
Liz Kramer , whose 5-year-old son was recently diagnosed with a nut allergy, said she would enroll him and her 8-year-old daughter in the program at East Taunton Elementary School. She was thrilled that the computer would alert lunch cashiers to his allergy, and that she could pay in advance. Sometimes, she confessed, she forgets to give her children lunch money.
"I thought that was the best thing I had ever heard of in my whole life," Kramer said. "It would make me feel so much better."
But other parents' misgivings have some school committee members second-guessing their approval of the contract. Chairwoman Christine A. Fagan said she regretted her vote after she heard parents' concerns.
"You might as well stand naked in the Common with all the stuff that's out there," Fagan said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It just starts to get real close to Big Brother is watching."
Stellar and LunchByte president Colin Sheridan said the fingerprints are not stored in the system and cannot be stolen. Stellar added that schools have safeguarded sensitive student information in computers for years, such as names, addresses, and other information.
In Essex, Vt., food services director Robert Clifford said that after some initial skepticism, Chittenden Central Supervisory Union schools started the program in 2005 and never looked back. Now most of the 3,500 students are enrolled.
"Vermont in general is pretty careful with their privacy," he said. "Most people were just so happy to have a system that would not cause them issues."
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. 