Proposal would track New Canaan students

New Canaan, Conn. (WTNH) - The New Canaan school district is thinking about electronically tracking their students.

Many students are not pleased with the idea that they could end up testing new tracking technology.

"I think students would feel weird about them knowing where we are," said Oscar Borjas, a junior at New Canaan High School.

"I think my parents should know and only sometimes the school should know," said Davis Baer, a freshman.

New Canaan already has GPS and video cameras on all their buses, but is only exploring being part of an experiment testing such tracking. Under the program, students would be carrying an ID card with radio frequency strips. It pinpoints a student's location, be it in the classroom or off grounds in nearby downtown.

Louis Parks of SecureRF points out the system could be useful in an emergency situation.

"In an emergency they would be able to take attendance and know which students were where in a matter of seconds," he explained.

Parents have mixed reviews.

Davis' mom thinks it is an invasion of privacy saying, "I think it's my business to know where he is. The school only needs to know, to some extent, where he is when he is there."

The board of education is waiting to get more information about the technology before making a decision.