Monday, September 17, 2007

Leeds pupils bullied to give up their prints

A parent from Leeds forwarded both myself and Leave Them Kids Alone details of how their 11 year old son's new school dealt with her concerns over a biometric lunch system, installed over the summer break.

The vendors of the lunch system treated the children without respect, the schools evaded questions, she got told by the bio-company "It is the law, it was passed in parliament in June this year. If you don't believe me, I can prove it" (what?!) and some courageous pupils refused on human rights grounds - good for them!

The email in full is on the LTKA [link temporarily removed] site, but here are some parts of the email that, quite frankly, makes my blood boil in the way the children were treated - but yet an admirable response in their stanse:

(parent) ...I had a telephone conversation with a very bright young girl who also attends this school. She refused to have her fingerprints taken, as did her friend. (Their human rights decision - she said) They have also heard of a few others who have refused too. They didn't agree with the way that the system had been sneaked into school and with no parental consent form. They were very scared, yet refused to cooperate. They were then threatened with the isolation unit, no school trips and wouldn't be allowed to enter into the school without the prints.

But.... my point is, they still refused! The girl said that many of her friends were very scared, they didn't like it and didn't want to have it done, yet they were still bullied into it (........ including her younger brother)

She said that they rounded up the kids like sheep for the slaughter, doing all the youngest first. The teenagers who are in their final year of school are going to be fingerprinted tomorrow. (14/09/2007) She also mentioned that apart from the science teachers, all the other teachers were completely in the dark about what was going on.

Courageous kids eh? bless em :-)

And this cashless system is supposed to 'prevent 'bullying eh?... the schools implementation of this scheme, in itself, raises some very serious questions!

7 comments:

Gary McGath said...

I just found your blog by way of EFF's Deep Links, and added it to my blogroll. Looks good!

Anonymous said...

This is sinister beyond belief! Where on the LTKA website may I view the email in full?

Pippa King said...

HI, for the very short term it has been removed. As soon as it comes back on I'll let you know and post the link on the NO2ID Forum as well.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. This story really deserves a much wider audience, are the local press involved or perhaps a national newspaper?

It is time for parents to reclaim their children from the State but apathy reigns. I have tried to warn friends and relatives with kids but to no avail, it is tragic.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pippa King said...

I inadvertantly deleted a comment by Anon (sorry):-

"OMG !!!

Thanks for writing about this. Cannot wait to read the entire story. Hitler would have been so proud.

Lets just hope that the vast majority of the parents at this school can see
what is really going on

Leeds in England, right?"

And yes it is Leeds England :)

Anonymous said...

Are all kids now eating ?
Are some actually still starving?

WE THE PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW THE WHOLE TRUTH!

WE feel sure that the whole world would like a true update on the implamantion of this "staleg" regime at this particular school.
TRUTH BE OUT NOW!