Statement on New High-Tech School Security Projects
Approved Through Smart Schools Bond Act
For Immediate Release: February 26, 2020
Media contact: Ben Schaefer, bschaefer@nyclu.org, 212-607-3372
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Today Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the approval of $111 million for 133 new Smart Schools Bond Act, including $51.5 million for high-tech security projects like the facial recognition system currently running in the Lockport City School District.
In response, the New York Civil Liberties Union released the following statement from Director of the Education Policy Center, Johanna Miller:
“The amount of funding for high-tech security projects approved today is greater than the amount for classroom tech, pre-k classrooms, and school connectivity projects combined. State funding could be used to transform the education and experiences of students, but instead we’re seeing this money diverted toward invasive surveillance systems that don’t work and make students feel like criminals in school. In the Lockport City School District alone $3 million was used to buy a facial recognition program – at the cost of $550 a student.
The Smart Schools Bond Act lacks the oversight and transparency it needs to improve schools. The state shouldn’t approve any additional applications for high tech security projects until it creates appropriate protections for student privacy.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Big Brother at work building the foundation for the GOP and Trump’s want-to-be Police State. Governor Cuomo is another traitor and crime lord.
Like Bloomberg, Cuomo is another Republican in Democratic attire.
They seem to be a dime a dozen these days.
Undoubtedly cuz changing party affiliation is easier than getting French fries at McDonalds.
There was stop and frisk; this is frisk without the stop. Which is worse? I do not know. These fake Democrats should go frisk themselves.
It used to be the Russkies that interfered in our elections and society.
Now our home grown equivalent — the Friskies (Bloomberg and Cuomo) — do.
Maybe they should start a new political party
Would you like fries with your frisk?
Go frisk yourself. Good Lord. I’m going to be using this!
Frisk you!
Frisk off!
You mother-frisker!
While “a dime a dozen” is an accurate metaphor, the Alt-Right billionaires that Diane identifies in “Slaying Giolaith” are spending fortunes to get their faux democrats elected.
They already bought the Republican Party with their Puppet Moscow Mitch in charge and managed to pack the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit Court with their loyalists, but they haven’t quite taken over the Democratic Party yet, but that isn’t for lack of trying as they keep breaking records in campaign spending to elect their corrupt and bought candidates to even city and county offices.
Apparently, Bloomberg policy and potty mouth are nearly one and the same.
“…’The state shouldn’t approve any additional applications for high tech security projects until it creates appropriate protections for student privacy.’ ”
Schools need so much more instead of the latest invasive, unproven spyware.
massive money to the tech companies, less and less to the school
So important to get the next generation of human capital service bots used to continual surveillance. Pretty soon, they won’t even notice it.
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/05/11/he-sees-you-when-youre-sleeping-2/
Good morning, scholars, and welcome to the Panopticon. Please plug into the machine. And have a NICE day.
Follow the money. Who got this contract? Who signed off on it. What is the uselife? What evidence of reliability supported that flow of money?
This is a reliable source of information on how deeply flawed and ubiquitous these systems are becoming. This edition happens to feature a discussion of such monitoring in schools.
news@biometricupdate.com
I wonder if John Arnold’s fingerprints are on this somewhere. Killing public education and surveillance of citizens seems to me to be his kind of twofer.
I think that this is the link you meant, Laura:
https://www.biometricupdate.com/
Some many lovely new toys for command, coercion, and control! It’s almost like being an auto-autocrat!
Does the facial recognition system ID criminals?
If so, Andrew Cuomo would be wise to keep out of it’s sight. Either that or wear a mask every time he visits a school that has it. Otherwise, it will be alarming like crazy.
Betsy DeVos need not worry because she never visits public schools
I want facial recognition software in the boys’ bathroom at my school so we can catch the kids who vandalize it everyday. The poor custodian who has to clean up their devastation could use a break.
I want it in my own bathroom at home so I can recognize myself when I get up in the morning.
😀
This just in: In case you were worrying about the Coronavirus, have no fear. IQ 45 has chosen Mike Pence as virus Czar. So, he and Mommie can simply call up Franklin Graham, and they can all say a prayer, and we’ll be good.
My friend Harold Brown put it best about Trump’s performance tonight. He sounded like a sixth grader trying to fake an oral book report. But then he always sounds like a sixth grader trying to fake an oral book report.
IQ 45: “I’m choosing Mike (Pence, to be Czar) because he’s very good at doing, at doing what he does.”
So glad that all that doing is being done.
They should have to ask for parent permission before they implement this. Who knows where the pictures will end up? They will likely be sold.
NYS ed dept halted Brockport’s implementation of the system until they agreed it shall in no case contain students in the data base.
Pence is the Corona Czar?
Ha ha ha.
Well, what a relief to know that hapless, clueless Pence is the coronavirus czar.
I wonder whyTrump didn’t choose H
Jared or Ivanka?
Probably because he can trash Pence if his “leadership” is not effective. Again someone else will take the blame. Can’t you just hear Trump claiming he hardly knows the guy?
Trump appointed Pence to be the fall-guy “when” (not “if”) the pandemic breaks out and spreads like wildfire.
That way Trump will blame Pence for a lousy job, no one in Trump’s family will get burned, and then Trump will have Pence shoved in front of a fast-moving bus before the November election. That will clear the path for Trump to put Ivanka on the ticket as his VP running mate … or … Betsy DeVos, if she’s willing to donate a couple of billion to Trump’s opaque, super-secret slushy campaign fund where a lot of cash will vanish making it difficult to follow the money to offshore accounts where Trump will be hiding it all. Trump Jr. will be using the family’s private jet to fly suitcases full of cash to island banks in the Caribbean.
I just read that China is having the banks run all paper money through ultraviolet lights to kill any viruses on the cash. This virus must be super tough to get rid of if it clings to money, too.
There is nothing to worry about because Trump says that the virus will be gone in April when the weather gets warmer. Also, with Pence in charge, nothing could go wrong. Pence can always consult with Mother [his wife] because she is an art teacher. [Nothing against art teachers.] I hear that the CDC and the World Health Organization are sending representatives to learn more from Trump on how to contain the disease. /s
………………………….
First Patient to Get Coronavirus in U.S. Wasn’t Tested for Days, Says Report
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated Feb. 27, 2020 7:14AM ET /
Published Feb. 27, 2020 6:44AM ET
REUTERS
A coronavirus patient in Northern California—who may have the first U.S. case not related to foreign travel or exposure to another known patient—reportedly wasn’t tested for days after they were admitted to a medical center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it doesn’t know how the person was exposed to the virus. There are fears it could mean the disease is now being transmitted in the U.S. by “community spread,” which would make it more difficult for authorities to evaluate sick patients. CNN reports the patient was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on Feb. 19 with a suspected viral infection, but wasn’t tested until Sunday because they “did not fit the existing CDC criteria” for suspected coronavirus—namely foreign travel or exposure to another known patient. Currently, the CDC says on its website that the virus is not spreading in the community in the U.S., but health officials have said they expect it will at some point in the near future.
Read it at CNN
What does Mikey do?
That Mikey’s good at doing?
Does Mikey do on cue?
Is Mikey good at gluing?
Mike Pence
Mike is not pencive
But really a “doer”
He isn’t defensive
Cuz offense can skewer
This is horrendous, having schools purchase facial recognition technology. It is being abused by the Chinese and it will be abused wherever it is used…too much power in the wrong hands. This is especially bad for schools because kids aren’t getting the education that they need due to severe underfunding and oversized classes.
I didn’t know that India is using facial recognition during protests. Apparently there were protests a few miles from where Trump and Modi were meeting.
Will Trump use facial recognition technology against protestors if he doesn’t quietly leave office? That’s an awful thought. [Modi’s government says they aren’t abusing this technology. Modi is admired by Trump.]
…………………………………..
India’s Use of Facial Recognition Tech During Protests Causes Stir
Feb. 17, 2020
BY ALEXANDRA ULMER AND Zeba Siddiqui
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) – When artist Rachita Taneja heads out to protest in New Delhi, she covers her face with a pollution mask, a hoodie or a scarf to reduce the risk of being identified by police facial recognition software.
Police in the Indian capital and the northern state of Uttar Pradesh – both hotbeds of dissent – have used the technology during protests that have raged since mid-December against a new citizenship law that critics say marginalises Muslims…
Critics also accuse authorities of secrecy – highlighting, for instance, that the software’s use during Delhi protests was first revealed by the Indian Express newspaper.
India’s home ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on facial recognition technology.
Modi’s government has rejected accusations of abuse during demonstrations, and accused some protesters of stoking violence.
A spokesman for his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had no immediate comment on concerns over the use of the technology and referred questions to the government.
But police said worries about facial recognition were unwarranted.
“I’m only catching targeted people,” said Rajan Bhagat, a deputy commissioner of police at Delhi’s Crime Records Office. “We don’t have any protesters’ data, nor do we plan to store it.”
From U.S.News & World Report: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-02-17/indias-use-of-facial-recognition-tech-during-protests-causes-stirparently
Not that I approve in any way– but to its credit, NYS Ed Dept stepped in on Brockport School Board last summer & halted implementation until it could review privacy concerns. Per local press, Brockport BofEd accordingly made several amendments to its policy before activating the system in January. No students are to be entered into the database. The system is to be used for alerts when “flagged individuals” or 10 specific types of guns are detected on school property.
I wish I were smart enough to add something intelligent enough to post better than the above but I ain’t.
All I can add is Big Brother is here with us now in spades.
One would think that maintaining the health of the American people would necessitate the appointment of a highly qualified epidemiologist to take charge of an emerging public health crisis. Oh I forgot! These are the same people who advocate denying health insurance to millions of Americans. They favor eliminating environmental protections. They have no concern for the devastating effects of climate change. What are Pence’s qualifications for this position? He does not believe in science.
He could have picked Ivanka.
If Faux News reported that the most at-risk Americans for contracting this virus were poor and that most fast-food workers were poor, too (the working poor), like almost everyone that works for Trump’s favorite restaurant, McDonalds, then Trumpty Dumpty might be shocked into doing something rational that would protect the health of everyone instead of just the wealthy.
The wealthy do not seem to be smart enough to think that because they are so wealthy they depend on bodyguards, drivers, servants, cooks, nannies, and tutors for their kids, housecleaners, et al, to do everything for them so they can feel and act like little greedy gods, and most of those workers earn poverty wages and do not have medical care.
The rich are probably around more poor people than most of the U.S. middle class is.