Spy School
“ARE schools being used to spy on your children?”
Most parents would hope so. What is a school report but a dossier of evidence? And – cruelty of cruelties – often the student, the spied-on, is forced to deliver this report to their handlers in person.
But, as the Mail reports, there is more information available to teachers than what little Armani got up on the geography field trip and a hundred and more euphemisms for “thick”.
The Mail says schools are “expected” to collect information about a pupil. Information, which is passed on to the authorities, should include: height, weight, family profile, religion, medical information and school travel arrangements.
And today “head teachers’ leader” Malcolm Trobe, president of the Association of School and College Leaders, will use a speech to say how “unreasonable” requests for information should be boycotted.
Says Trobe (13stone 1lb, 5ft 10in, Jedi, picked up from school my mother in dark blue estate car, number of lice on head: 0): “We are being asked for information we don’t see as necessary for them to have.”
He calls the Government Big Brother. “It’s a bit nanny-state-ish”, he offers.
It would seem so as the Mail says up to 3,500 schools are taking fingerprints from pupils.
Although what with teenagers being muggers and drug addicts by another name, why schools don’t just go to the police for such information is a moot point.
Posted: 9th, March 2007 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
