At the request of the Boulder County Chapter of the ACLU of Colorado, the ACLU of Colorado inquired into allegations that the Boulder Valley School District was utilizing new technology to gather fingerprint data from kindergarten students. The system, which was instituted without any prior notice being given to parents, used a fingerprint scanner to create unique digital “markers” for each student, which would then be used in the lunch line to determine the cost and type of each student’s lunch when a student’s finger was placed on a scanner.
In a letter to the Boulder Valley School District, ACLU of Colorado Staff Attorney Taylor Pendergrass said, “I would appreciate your elaboration on how the system functions and why such a system was deemed necessary at BVSD, given the serious privacy implications it raises.”
In its response to that letter, the Boulder Valley School District indicated that the use of the system had been discontinued, and the data collected from students was destroyed.