Biometrics used by parents to check whereabouts of children?

Registration, library books, canteen purchases, paying money into school - now fingerprint technology can be used by parents to track their children on the school bus - but concerns have been raised.

Indian River County students could have been the first on the Treasure Coast to experiment with the technology, but a district plan to try a biometrics program on a few school buses raised concerns over student privacy from the Indian River School Board in September.

District officials were considering a program in which parents could check a Web site to know whether their children had been picked up or dropped off at the bus stop or if a bus was running late. With the program, which would have used biometrics finger imaging as students got on and off the bus, school officials could monitor whether a bus driver was stopped along a road or had deviated from the regular route.

At the September meeting, board member Lenora Quimby said she was "very concerned about the whole 'Big Brother' issue."