BY NATALIE BROWN
Staff Writer

Students and parents may not like the new backpack policy, but administrators say it increases safety and is here to stay.

Students are permitted to use their backpacks to carry books and materials to and from school, but cannot carry them during the day from period to period.  If they need to carry a backpack, they may use a clear or mesh backpack. Girls are also restricted to purses that cannot fit a textbook or binder.

Last year’s knife attack at Franklin Regional High School prompted these new restrictions, Principal Walter Graves said.

“Yes, the Franklin Regional incident is what spurred this policy to be developed,” Graves said. “In addition to the high school implementing it, the elementary and middle school levels do not permit backpacks to be used during the day.”

Other schools around the area have a variety of rules about backpacks.

Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon have no policies regarding bags. Brentwood students are not permitted backpacks during the day except to take to gym class, but are not offered the option of clear bags. Franklin Regional students are permitted clear and mesh bags, and have no restrictions on purses.

Many Baldwin students are unhappy about the policy.

“When the policy was announced, a ton of students came up to me telling I have to change it, but that’s way out of my power,” senior class President Alexx Suchy said.

There was a negative response at first, with an occasional complaint after the first few weeks, but now more students are just accepting that the policy is here to stay, Suchy said.

Dennis Doyle, an AP student, is affected by this policy.

“My locker is in an inconvenient spot, so I carry all my morning books until the afternoon,” Doyle said.

He said he was upset at first by the policy, but now it’s just a factor to deal with in his every day schedule, Doyle said.

Senior Mark Demore, though, said that this policy doesn’t affect or bother him.

“Throughout high school I haven’t used a backpack, and I’m a frequent locker visitor, so I’m not bothered by the policy,” Demore said.

Others focused on the issue of when students were notified of the change.

“I don’t mind the rule itself. I’m just not a fan on how it was implemented so soon before school,” junior Scott Friedman said.

Some students claim they were told just a few days before school via Skyward, but Graves said an email was sent out two weeks prior to school.

“I support any safety precaution that the school takes. You never know what might happen. This backpack policy might help, and it might not,” Friedman said.

Other complaints have focused on the possibility of thefts, since students’ belongings are visible  in the clear or mesh bags.

“I am not sure what could be viewed as ‘possible theft,’ because anything a student would use or need during the day that would be placed in the bag would be pulled out of the bag at some point while in school, so others are going to see it regardless,” Graves said.

Being able to see into the bags is the whole purpose of the policy, so that teachers can see what is being carried in the bags during the day, Graves said.

Given the level of unhappiness, students may wonder whether this policy will last.

“Our students are great.  They may not necessarily agree with it, but they are following the expectations,” Graves said.