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This school year, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) established a new safety policy requiring clear backpacks for high school students. Students attending Eleanor Roosevelt High School have mixed opinions on the policy. Some consider it an invasion of privacy while others consider it a simple inconvenience.
Grace Zannou, a sophomore at Eleanor Roosevelt, says “I don’t really mind the clear backpacks except for the lack of privacy, which I get is for safety concerns, but I do feel that our privacy is not being respected.” Many students are unhappy with the new mandate, and are still adjusting with the new rule.
The new bookbags come in after last school year when there were 15 guns and 201 knives seized in PGCPS schools. In one violent incident in May, three teenage boys attempted to shoot a 14-year old student on the bus, according to NBC4. Superintendent of PGCPS, Millard House II says “There is no tolerance for weapons inside of our schools or on grounds and our school buses.” He hopes the clear backpacks will help prevent weapons on school grounds.
Blessing Bate, a senior, gave her opinions on the new clear backpack policy. She stated ”I don’t like this new enforced rule but it is for the better of schools in PGCPS.”
Not all students share her views. Junior Andrew Beckmann says “Wearing a clear backpack is pointless, you can always hide something in your pockets.”
Still, most students do carry a clear backpack, though not all of them. A junior without a clear book bag was asked why he chose to not wear one and he stated ”I don’t like the look of it and if there are metal detectors on the way, why even wear one at that point?” Gerardo H. also feels uncomfortable wearing one and adds “It was also hard trying to find a clear backpack, especially the week before school started, most were out of stock everywhere.”
Students are not the only people who are skeptical about the policy. Mentioned in a Diamondback article, Cladudia Barragan, a Prince George’s County resident who monitors students in high school says “I don’t think that having the metal detectors and clear backpacks is going to resolve” issues with weapons. She explains that this is not the solution to the problem, while adding “the money is going to run out. At the end of the year it’s going to be a fail.”
Though the new backpack policy at Eleanor Roosevelt High School has faced criticism, it is is a new beginning and a look at a new normal in our community. The main office has a limited supply of bookbags for students who have been unable to purchase one.
