Proposal was supposed to speed food lines and deter theft at University High, but school district officials scrap the idea after privacy issues are raised.

A plan to scan the fingerprints of 2,200 Irvine high school students to ease lunch lines was scrapped this week after angry parents argued it would violate teens’ privacy rights.

A spokesman for the Irvine Unified School District said district administrators had been unaware of University High School’s proposal and had halted its implementation.

“This is not something we will be using at our schools,” said Ian Hanigan, district spokesman. “It’s safe to say that this pilot [program] was marched out probably a little too quickly, without the study and evaluation needed to do something like this.”

Students currently use a numeric code linked to a prepaid account to buy their lunch or snacks. But theft of the codes, coupled with a desire to reduce students’ time spent in line, prompted Principal John Pehrson to consider fingerprint scanning.

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Source: LA Times / Seema Mehta