Skip school, be tracked by GPS
5:00AM Monday August 25, 2008
Court authorities in Texas will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new programme requiring them to wear ankle bracelets using satellite technology.
But one group is worried the ankle bracelets, with global positioning system monitoring, will infringe on students' privacy.
Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace, said she expects about 50 students from four San Antonio-area school districts will wear the anklets during the six-month pilot programme.
"We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," Penn said, linking truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity. "We can teach them now or run the risk of possible incarceration later on in life. I don't want to see the latter."
Penn said students in the programme will wear the ankle bracelets full-time and will not be able to remove them.
"Students and parents must understand that attending school is not optional."
- AP
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