On Wednesday, Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford announced the city would be the first in the United States to provide OLPC computers to students in the public schools. 15,000 laptops will be purchased and distributed on April 15, 2008 to all city students in grades 1-8.
Here's a quote from the Birmingham News:
If one should become lost, stolen, etc the school system will have the ability to remotely disable the machine.