A NEW high school says students will be charged for their lunches
using a retina scanning device to prevent poor children who eat for free
being ridiculed in the cafeteria.
Dr Ed Yates, headmaster of the Venerable Bede school, said the advanced
eye-recognition software would be in place when the institution opens
its doors to 900 students in September in Sunderland, England.
He said the school was concerned that if students were forced to pay
for their lunches in cash the poor ones who received food for free could
be exposed and stigmatised. Officials have therefore decided to make the
entire school "cashless".
The retina scanning device would also be used in the library when
students took out and returned books, Yates said.
He reassured parents that the low-intensity light of the retina
scanning devices would be efficient and safe for all students.
"We think we are the first (school) in the country to use this," he
said of the device. "But this is not a James Bond school for spies.
"This is not science fiction. This is technology that exists."
The Associated Press