Texas officials seek to reassure anxious parents over DNA and child ID kits
Gloria Ponce, a middle school science teacher at Westlake High School, walks through the hall with her students and looks at the school’s new DNA and child identification kits.
Gloria Ponce, a middle school science teacher at Westlake High School, walks through the hall with her students and looks at the school’s new DNA and child identification kits.
AUSTIN — An anxiety is rising, almost weekly, at Westlake High School after students are invited to be tested for the DNA of any of the 300,000 people currently living in the country.
For one group, it’s an invasion of privacy.
“I’m sorry, but I think the information we’d get is so much worse. I’d rather not have that information,” said high school student and junior, Jaiya Jones. “I understand it’s for the greater good, but in this day and age, you have to think. You have to think twice.”
The test, which is used to authenticate and establish identity, could eventually become the basis for a national driver’s license, school IDs and credit cards. But the way it’s being promoted is prompting some to have second thoughts.
“We’re kind of excited about the future, but I feel like it’s not right,” freshman and student, Ariana Brown, said. “I have this worry that it’s going to become something more. There’s going to be a lot of people from all over the world, all over the place, and they could just get a DNA and ID from someone, and then we could be put into a database.”
The technology is based on the controversial practice known as “genetic genealogy,” where a user searches through a database containing DNA samples, and matches a specific name or a name