An Australian high school has received a lot of controversy after installing fingerprint scanners in students’ restrooms.
Moorebank High School (Sydney, Australia) recently installed a fingerprint scanner at the entrance to the toilet to monitor and control the movements of students, thereby easily handling as well as preventing the vandalism of public buildings.
“The fingerprint system will begin to be used next semester. We believe that it will greatly reduce situations of public vandalism. We are also planning to upgrade the infrastructure further.” Vally Grego, Principal of Moorebank School shared at the first parent meeting of the year.
More than 1000 students were fingerprinted to collect data for the system. Therefore, if there are no fingerprints, the only way for students to use the toilet is to go to the school office and ask for a temporary “access pass”.
Samantha Floreani, program manager at Digital Rights Watch, said the move is clearly an invasion of students’ privacy. According to her, there is no lack of other measures to manage students and “prevent vandalism” is a very silly reason.
“Now every time they want to go to the toilet, they have to scan their fingerprints to collect biometric data, which means they are constantly being monitored.” Mrs. Sam added.
At the same time, Ms. Samantha Floreani did not forget to mention that if the data warehouse is leaked, students can completely fake their identities, or worse, scam.
In the face of many objections, the authorities still kept the decision, because the school side was approved many times by community groups and by majority opinion rather than spontaneously. At the same time, students’ personal data and fingerprints are also committed to confidentiality.
This measure was taken by the school leadership in the face of many students’ acts of vandalism, especially the WC.
Brendan Cheeseman, a Moorebank High School alumnus, and many former students acknowledge the need to address these destructive issues. He said:
“When I was going to school there, there were doors smashed, shards of glass falling everywhere, they broke toilets, smashed windows and so on.”
Many parents are also quite concerned when their children’s personal information is collected and used by the school. But contrary to these parents, many praised the school for coming up with a pretty good measure.
Rachel Little, a mother stated:
“We need to bring discipline and respect back.”
The New South Wales Department of Education (DoE) says Moorebank High School is not the first school in the state to use the technology. Some other schools have also applied to take attendance of students every day.
See also: China: The principal announced that 90% of students were expelled due to game addiction