Source: Daily Mail
A primary school headmaster has outraged parents after he tricked his pupils into recording their fingerprints by telling them they were playing spies.

Children were persuaded to give their prints after being told by Mark Woodburn that it was ‘just a game…so there’s no need to tell your parents’. Privacy campaigners said the case, involving children as young as three, highlights the extent to which Britain is becoming a surveillance society. It follows the leak of Home Office documents last week which revealed that from 2010, children aged 11 to 16 are to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a secret database when they apply for a passport. Mr Woodburn, head teacher at Ghyllside Primary School in Kendal, Cumbria, devised the spies game when he introduced a new print-recognition library system at the school. After being told it was not necessary to tell their parents, pupils were split up into groups of five or six before being photographed and fingerprinted. The ruse was revealed when one young boy did tell his parents, who then complained. Mr Woodburn says he was unprepared for the strength of feeling among parents about the ‘Big Brother’ system - but admits ‘in hindsight’ at he should have consulted them first.

Comment: We applaud the kid that DID TELL about it. When teachers are being this shady and sneaky, and above all, untrustworthy, they should be told on and it SHOULD be known. The whole “no need to tell your parents” crap is identical to what sicko’s that sexually abuse kids say to them. How utterly disgusting! They should fire that Mr. Woodburn.