To 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez, the tracking microchip embedded in her student ID card is a “mark of the beast,” sacrilege to her Christian faith—not to mention how it pinpoints her location, even in the school bathroom, the Associated Press reports, but to her budget-reeling San Antonio school district, those chips carry a potential $1.7 million in classroom funds. The AP continues:
“Starting this fall, the fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with “locator” chips in student ID badges on two of its campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision. Hernandez’s refusal to participate isn’t a twist on teenage rebellion, but has launched a debate over privacy and religion that has forged rare like-mindedness between typically opposing groups.
“When Hernandez and her parents balked at the so-called SmartID, the school agreed to remove the chip but still required her to wear the badge. The family refused on religious grounds, stating in a lawsuit that even wearing the badge was tantamount to ‘submission of a false god’ because the card still indicated her participation.
“On Wednesday, a state district judge is expected to decide whether Northside Independent School District can transfer Hernandez to a different campus.”
There’s been a lot of talk over the years about the mark of the beast and how it would manifest. Are moves like putting chips in student ID cards one step closer to a so-called mark of the beast? Or is the Christian girl overreacting? Discuss.
