Schools

Parkway Puts Aside Fitness Monitors for Now

Responding to privacy concerns from some parents locally and worldwide, the school district put on hold widespread distribution of the devices, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Plans to distribute 450 Polar Active fitness monitors to elementary students in more than 18 schools have been put on hold by the , according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The newspaper reports that the district wants time to "better education parents about the devices and get signed permission slips" after concerns were raised locally and around the world over privacy issues related to the devices.

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About 75 of the $90 monitors have been distributed to elementary students at , Ross and elementary schools. They are designed to monitor fitness activity, record that information and compare it to measurements recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General's office.

Concerns have been raised about the amount of information the monitors record and convey. Two parents in Parkway complained about how the data would be used, the Post-Dispatch reported.

The Missouri Education Watchdog blog suggested that the monitors circumvent federal student privacy laws and "allow this information to be disseminated on your student to various federal agencies and private companies."

Parkway spokesman Cathy Kelly told the Post-Dispatch the district would be "taking an extremely cautious approach" to better educate parents about the monitors and get their permission to participate.


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