MARIETTA, Ga. – On Wednesday, a Georgia couple was informed by a police officer at their children’s elementary school that students who refused to take the state standardized test would be “trespassing” if they stayed on school property during testing days.

The Marietta Daily Journal reports Mary and Tracy Finney are refusing to let their children take the CRCT, Georgia’s Common Core-aligned standardized assessment, due to concerns that students are being “over-tested” and that data generated by the tests could be collected by private companies and government agencies.

“They are collecting data on our children,” Mary Finney told the news site. “Now, with Common Core there is such a large amount of information and data collected on children. People don’t realize it. We don’t want to sound like we’re wearing tin-foil hats, but they want to track our kids from kindergarten through college.”

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

The Finneys have two elementary-age children and one high school-age child in Marietta City Schools, a Georgia charter school system.

When the Finneys shared their concerns with West Side Elementary Principal Karen Smits, they were told that opting-out of the test was not an option.

Tracy Finney responded in an email to Smits that they were not requesting to opt out of the test – they were “REFUSING” the test, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

The Finneys agreed to meet Principal Smits for an early morning meeting on Wednesday, but when the couple arrived at the school, they were met by a police officer instead. (School administrators say they sent an email the night before cancelling the scheduled meeting.)

From The Marietta Daily Journal:

“According to Tracy Finney, the officer was extremely nice and professional, but told them being on school property while actively opposed to the test was ‘kind of a trespassing thing’ and that their kids weren’t allowed on the property either if they weren’t going to take the test. The officer’s report confirms the parents were told they and their students would be trespassing if they stayed on the property.”

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

The Finneys apparently left the meeting with the police officer with the understanding that they could bring their kids to school at 11:30 a.m., after the day’s testing session was over.

But Principal Smits threw cold water on that, writing in an email that students arriving in the afternoon would be placed in a CRTC make-up testing session.

School officials are also threatening that the Finney’s children might not be allowed to participate in a field trip next week, as they might be placed in another testing make-up session.

School officials – including Marietta schools attorney Clem Doyle – are standing by their interpretation of Georgia law that all students must take part in the testing, the Marietta Daily Journal reports. (School board president Randy Weiner muddied the waters by declaring the district will not force kids to take the test.)

The Finneys appear to have the law on their side. According to education professor and “opt-out” advocate Tim Slekar, there’s not a single state in the nation that has rules preventing parental opt-outs of standardized tests.

“It isn’t illegal,” said Slekar in a recent interview with the Heartland Institute.

The Finneys are reportedly the first Marietta parents to openly refuse their kids’ participation in state testing. They should be commended for being bold enough to protect their children (as they see it) from an overbearing, obnoxious and intrusive education system.

If the Finneys have the financial resources, we’d love to seem them hire an attorney to settle this controversy decisively. We suspect they’d win – and that other Marietta families would be joining them when the next round of testing begins.

But it appears the Finneys are more likely to leave the district schools altogether. They told the Marietta Daily Journal that they plan to either homeschool their kids or send them to a private school next year.

UPDATE:

Tracy Finney tells EAGnews that the family has reached an agreement with the Marietta school board. The Finneys’ refusal of the test was upheld, and the children will be allowed to attend school after the daily testing ends without being counted absent.

The Finney’s fifth-grade daughter will also be allowed to participate in the school trip after the testing ends. The family is very pleased with the agreement.

“We firmly believe that a parent’s decision about what their children are exposed to comes first and foremost, and the state legislature should never have overreaching control of the family,” Finney writes. “Our names are on the bottom of these children’s birth certificates, not theirs.”