Pupils at a Birmingham grammar school are protesting over the introduction of electronic fingerprinting.
A page has been created on social networking website Facebook by students at King Edward VI Five Ways School in Bartley Green.
They are objecting to students being asked to have their thumbprints scanned as part of an internal electronic identity system.
The school said the secure measure is aimed at replacing pupil data cards, which occasionally get lost.
Deputy headteacher Gail Long said the thumbprints would initially be used to pay for school lunch as cash was not used, but it would later be introduced for registration as well.
Students have issued an open letter to pupils, teachers and parents of King Edward’s Five Ways on the Facebook page.
In it, they said the new electronic identity system would record a pupil’s name, tutor group, photo, account balance, thumbprint template or PIN number and meal entitlement.
The scheme, which they said was initially suggested as a means for improving attendance, is be used in the canteen, library, registration and access control to school buildings.
Pupils also said that as all of the information would be collected in a central database, the school would be able to build up a profile of students by monitoring their food habits, reading habits and movements around school, a practice they claim has been widely criticised by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and also in the House of Lords as intrusive.
The letter also claims that King Edward’s Five Ways “consulted little” with parents on the issue. And they ask: “Why were parents not asked to give their explicit written opt-in consent before any children could be fingerprinted?”
Pupils said the school began taking thumbprints on Wednesday, less than a week after parents were initially notified, with the system due to go live in September.
But one student said: “About 15 to 20 sixth formers are refusing to have anything to do with it. We don’t want our prints taken and we don’t want a PIN.”
They are now calling for plans to be immediately halted until parents are properly consulted, and have called on pupils and parents to contact their MP.
Mrs Long said they were going over to a biometric system in common with about 90 other Birmingham schools.
“It is all secure and students have been given the option of a PIN number instead of reading their thumbprint.”
She added: “The method is not the same as an actual fingerprint. They put their thumb onto a biometric reader which measures and records it like a barcode onto the school system.
“We are a cashless school, so it enables them to pay for lunch, but it also has other benefits such as flagging up nut allergies if they try to buy something with nuts in it.”
