NILES – Parents of Niles McKinley High School students said their privacy concerns were allayed after they heard about a proposed cafeteria biometric identification system based on student fingerprints.

“I’m fine with this,” said Jim Altier, after he, his 15-year old son and twin 4-year-old sons attended the presentation at the high school Thursday given by John Soltesz, chairman and chief executive officer Zerco Systems International.

“My son wouldn’t qualify for free or reduced lunch, but I have no problem with the system. I don’t think it’s an invasion of privacy”, Altier said. “There must be some way to ger rid of the stigma with the free and reduced lunch system.”

Soltesz explained the biometric system works by scanning certain reference points on students’ index fingers. A computer program turns those reference points into binary code numbers, and those unique numbers are used to reference the school’s database.

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