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The Purbalite

The student news site of Baldwin High School

The Purbalite

The student news site of Baldwin High School

The Purbalite

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Backpack policy misguided

BY JULIE POWELL
Staff Writer

Earlier this year, students were informed that due to the Franklin Regional stabbing no backpacks or purses large enough to carry a textbook were allowed to be carried to and from classes unless they were mesh or clear.

It is understandable that the school wants to improve student safety especially with the prominence of school violence nationwide, but the addition of this rule does not fix the problem.

Students cannot carry a backpack around during the school day, but they can bring one into school. So this rule does not prevent students from carrying weapons into school and using them before school or retrieving them from their lockers and using them between periods.

Another problem is that the school waited too long to notify students of the change. If this rule was meant to be put in effect for the 2014-2015 school year, notice should have been given at the end of the last school year rather than two weeks before this school year began.

That way students wouldn’t have waited to spend money on backpacks they wanted to use during the school day. Also, it would have given students time to figure out alternatives to the backpacks they were used to carrying around.

Even though the new policy was added as another step to improve student safety, it fails because it does not make it any harder to get a weapon into school.

The only definite effect is to inconvenience students, and so this policy should be dropped.

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