goldengod

gressenhall 1 by Tim Caynes.

Holland Park School of London, England is set to embark on a trial of fingerprinting their students for attendance purposes.

UK Public services information network Kable is reporting that the school issued a statement today about the mildly controversial program. The system, costing £4,500, will be tested this coming week on all pupils who are late to school before having it rolled out to all 1,500 students.

It plans to build a database so that children can be identified and their time of arrival recorded in a ‘Live Register’ by pressing a finger on an electronic pad. If late arrivals fail to press a pad at the gates or in a classroom they will be recorded as absent.

The local school board has denied that this has anything to do with the UK government’s proposal to build a national registry of children under the age of 12. Whoever the British version of John Stewart is: I’ve already called dibs on the ‘convenient timing’ joke for this one. You can just sit back down and think up some other smug repartee.

Nothing to do with any childrens registry, no doubt just a lucky case of ‘convenient timing’.

No word on what will be done with students who actually value their personal privacy and refuse the process. They will presumably be considered ‘absent’.