A federal court is expected to rule this week on a mandate by the Northside Independent School District San Antonio, Texas requiring students to wear RFID-equipped name badges that enable school administrators to track a student’s whereabouts while on campus.
But 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez is objecting to the mandate for religious reasons, calling the requirement a “mark of the beast” as mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Revelation The case focuses only on her situation and not on the RFID program itself, attorneys said.
The school district has offered to transfer her to another school that doesn’t require the name badges but she wants to stay at John Jay High School, one of two in the district that’s testing the new name badges.
The main reason the district wants to utilize the tracking system is to maximize state funding, which is partly based on daily attendance, Northside Superintendent Brian Woods testified. It enables a more accurate count of which students are at school and could help locate individuals quickly in case of emergencies, he said.
The judge is expected to issue a ruling this week.
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