From a discussion of The Dailys editorial staff, it turns out we have racked up a fair amount of detentions from our pre-college days. One for being too loud in the bathroom and one for balancing a trash can on a ceiling beam that fell on a teacher, just to name a couple.

Those indiscretions, luckily, had no effect on our entry into college and hopefully wont affect our future employment.

If we were just a few years younger, however, our detentions might have far more serious effects.

A new bill is requesting a federal database that would list all students information throughout their school life.

The problem of silly behavior being listed on records is more embarrassing than anything else. But the problem of privacy invasion and identity theft is a very real concern.

Isnt a bit big brother-esque to have a record of everything from a students grades to his or her financial aid?

And with identity theft being so prevalent, is it even safe to have social security numbers listed on academic histories?

Sponsor of the database bill, Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., needs to take into account the fact that it would only take one bad apple teacher to hold this database over the heads of the students as an on-going threat. Children are naive and have to trust what teachers tell them. Do we want the next generation threatened into submission?

And who exactly can see these records? Will college admissions write you off for failing 8th grade Spanish?

Will possible employers throw out your resume for being frequently tardy for chemistry lab?

The money that will be put into a database like this, not to mention the added bureaucracy, wont help impove American education. Putting the money into classrooms, not into a database, however, could really make a difference.

This proposal needs to be considered very seriously before it is put into use.

After all, we shouldnt have to worry for years that a minor indiscretion in our youth is going to come back and haunt us.




hello there & you too