December 17 (RIA Novosti) A 15-year-old girl who claims her religious beliefs prevents her from wearing an ID badge allowing a Texas high school to track student movements testified in federal court Monday morning that she should not be transferred to another school for her decision.
Both Andrea Hernandez and her father, Steven, testified in court Monday that wearing the badge would be equal to “accepting the Mark of the Beast,” which the biblical book of Revelations predicted the antichrist would attempt to make people do, the San Antonio Express News reported.
The Northside Independent School District (NISD) in San Antonio, said that Hernandez must transfer to another school if she doesn’t comply with the rules and wear the badge, which the student and her father say is a violation of her religious freedoms.
The elder Hernandez told reporters on Monday that “in this case, Northside is the Antichrist,” the Express News reported.
The hearing concluded on Monday without a decision from US District Judge Orlando Garcia, who said he would decide this week on Hernandez’s request for a temporary injunction to keep her at her current school, John Jay High School, according to the Express News.
NISD began a program this fall at two of its campuses that distributed identification cards that contain microchips to 4,200 high school and middle school students in order to help administrators track attendance which lags at both schools.
The school district will also benefit financially if students keep the badges on, since school funding in Texas is based on daily attendance rates and the chips could add an estimated $2 million to the district’s annual budget by locating students who are on campus but not in class when attendance is taken.
Hernandez has refused to wear the ID even after the school district offered to remove the tracking technology.
The student and her family are fighting to keep her at the same campus, filing a lawsuit against the school district that cites scriptures claiming that “acceptance of a certain code… from a secular ruling authority” is a form of idol worship, according to the Associated Press.
