LOS LUNAS, N.M. – Parents in the Los Lunas school district balked when officials proposed the idea to use palm scanners to track students’ school lunch accounts in 2013, and they eventually scrapped the plan.

But many parents and taxpayers didn’t realize district officials had already purchased six of the devices for $260 each, but have left them to gather dust for over a year, KOAT.com reports.

“It bothers me,” an unidentified parent told the news station.

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“It’s frustrating,” Sean Brown, another parent, added. “We’ve got these things, it’s a bigger waste to not use them than it is to use them and not necessarily be thrilled with them.”

The palm scanners were introduced in April 2013 as a means of cracking down on school lunch fraud, officials said at the time, but parents complained about privacy and other concerns and ultimately convinced officials to ditch the idea. The scanners, which read students’ unique vein patterns and link it to their lunch account, are more secure than school lunch cards or other tracking methods, KOAT reports.

Los Lunas’ chief financial officer confirmed to KOAT that the district still owns the devices, but haven’t used them, and are now looking into getting its money back.

But that decision didn’t happen without a lot of prodding by KOAT and parents.

“In early 2014, Action 7 News followed up, asking to meet with the district about the scanners. After several phone calls, Los Lunas Schools responded confirming they had decided not to install the scanners after all, but said they had bought the devices. They turned down an interview saying they were busy because it was the end of the school year,” according to the news station.

“Almost a year later, Action 7 News followed up again. It wasn’t until we went to Los Lunas and told parents the scanners were sitting in storage that the district finally responded.”

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The decision to get rid of the technology is undoubtedly good news to many parents who spoke out against the idea in 2013.

“Worst idea EVER!!! My children go to Los Lunas schools and I will NOT allow my children to have their palms scanned,” Maria Baca posted at the time.

“It’s also only for kids who get free lunches,” Amanda Ostler pointed out, “which will cause embarrassment to some students.

“Just let the kids eat,” she wrote.

Other believed the justification for the scanners – school lunch fraud – was a joke.

“Hmmm, what’s more important, scanning palms to reduce the huge underground trade of lunch stealing, or coming up with an idea to protect our kids from guns, drugs and violence?” Loretta Portillo questioned. “Guess what Los Lunas schools decided to focus on?”

“Because criminals are determined to steal those delicious school lunches …” Chuck McCoy joked.