Judge weighs school's tracking ID program

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- A federal judge is mulling whether a Texas high school that requires students to wear tracking badges can remove students who refuse to comply.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia on Monday didn't immediately decide whether San Antonio's Northside school district has the right to transfer 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez to another campus. The sophomore is refusing to join 4,200 other students wearing mandatory student IDs implanted with tracking chips.

Administrators say the chips make students safer and will help boost attendance records that are used to calculate badly needed state funding.

Hernandez is suing to stop the district from forcing her to change schools. Her family says the badge is a "mark of the beast" that goes against their religion.

A ruling could come later this week.

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