Iris scans, part two

As noted not long ago, New Jersey's Freehold Borough School District will institute a new policy of recording iris scans of every visitor to three grade schools. This is a step toward the nightmarish goal of keeping a database on every citizen.

A reader who lives in that area, and who has had certain dealings with the administrator responsible for implementing the iris scan program, offered a chracterization of this individual which -- unfortunately -- I cannot repeat here, for legal reasons. I have no way of knowing if my reader is, as he claims, a clinician, and thus qualified to offer such an assessment. You may, if you feel so inclined, get a gander of superintendent Phil Meara's mug here and come to your own conclusions. (Check out the hair! If I had kids, I'm not sure I'd want my youngsters in this guy's keeping...)

But I can say this: I used to be under the impression that folks in Jersey were feisty. I thought -- pardon my language -- that Jersey guys and Jersey gals didn't take shit. So why the hell are they putting up with this shit?

As many as four adults can be designated to pick up each child in the district, but in order to be authorized to come into school, they will be asked to register with the district's iris recognition security and visitor management system.

As I noted earlier, that database might end up who-knows-where in the future. Meara may swear that he will keep records confidential, and he may even be sincere. But if our increasingly Nazified federal goverment can demand (for no sensible reason) Google's data, they can surely subpoena iris scan records from a New Jersey school district. And that would be doubleplusungood.

When I was young, the schools didn't teach Orwell until Middle School (which we then called Junior High School). Jersey kids are getting an early start.