Great idea! I bet everyone will eventually have this one day to aid in getting to us fast in car crashes, medical emergencies and so on. Also, it’s a wonderful tool for the government to record our every movement without our knowledge and without a warrant to use against us in new and creative ways. And some of you complain about things like them scanning all emails, phone taps and being issued a universal ID number. We welcome our new GPS masters!
New Jersey School Forces Students to Carry GPS-Enabled Cell Phones
While slightly less creepy than the idea of GPS-equipped school uniforms, the latest mandate by Montclair State University in New Jersey is bound to ruffle the feathers of some students. The new rule stipulates that students must own and carry school-distributed cell phones with GPS.
The idea behind the mandate is that the phones are designed with student safety in mind. If, for example, someone is following a student, or threatening them, then a beacon on the cell phone can be set to go off for a predetermined period of time.
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The phones are all automatically registered with the campus alert system as well, notifying students via text message of any situations that may arise, be they canceled classes due to weather, power outages, or, God forbid, a shooting like the one at Virginia Tech.
I think I would be super pissed off to know that part of my $3200/semester tuition was going towards something this stupid. Schools already throw so much money away at stupid things. I bet most students who already have cell phones will just leave this school phone turned off in their dorm rooms.
How many cell phones would stop a bullet?
What is the response time if the student is off campus?
Is there any penalty for false alarms?
What is the penalty for not carrying a phone?
I didn’t see anything in the story that said the students had to have their phones actually switched on.
So who pays for the cell service?
-A
Ovenmaster, you are correct. If it was me, I’d be leaving the thing off. If not in my dorm room.
IMHO, the real downside here is that the Police response time isn’t going to change.
It just means that it’ll be easier to find the bodies….
Blissninny solution – create a free-fire zone for criminals and improve the potential victims ability to BEG for help….
But it feels so good….
Regards,
Stu.
Better than leaving it off, leave it with a friend, on a bus, in a women’s restroom (if you are male, or vice versa).
Or, carry it covered in a nice layer of aluminum foil!
This is really dumb. First of all this is easily defeated by leaving your school phone in your room and having another one. Second, it’s really strange how all the kids that are friends are going to follow each other, the alarm will be sounding!!
Am I missing something here? If the phones are always in their pockets or bags how will it work? GPS needs to see the satelite.
#9: You really don’t understand how radio waves work, huh?
Uncle Dave, I hate to reveal myself as the dimwit I may well be, but how DOES it work? I have a handheld GPS gizmo, and it doesn’t work inside, it doesn’t work in the car (unless the windows are open and I’m oriented the right way or have an external antenna), it doesn’t work under the interstate overpass where I live, and according to the users’ manual, it doesn’t work if the line-of-sight to the minimum number of satellites is blocked by trees, an umbrella, or virtually anything else.
Whatever kind of signals are utilized in GPS tracking, they’re obviously not radio frequency.
From the Garmin website: “GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.”
So, a pocket or a purse will not affect it, but passing under a bridge will. Same as for a radio. It does mean there are limitations on this concept for the students. Anyone wanting to harm them should do it under something solid. However, if the GPS locations are being recorded (not mentioned in the article if that’s done) the police could find the last location and go from there.
This is part of the continuing effort to get the young used to being surveilled all the time. Our leaders cannot create their preferred 1984/Brave New World/Handmaiden’s Tale future if the young rebel against it.
“it doesn’t work under the interstate overpass where I live”
Mister Mustard lives under a bridge? I knew it!
The end result of this will be that someone figures out how to hack the GPS and uses it to stalk and kill a student. Then the school will apologize and say how no one could have predicted that would happen. So, how difficult is it really to send out a fake GPS signal so they can’t tell which kid is the real one?