What’s that you’re carrying?
At a Forsyth County school the answer to that question will be “a whole lot of books”. North Forsyth High School in Georgia is a fairly high performing school. SAT/ACT averages last year were significantly higher than the Georgia average and statistically similar to the national averages. Criminal activity isn’t a notable problem and there is no known gang activity. But that isn’t stopping the implementation of new policies to enforce tighter security.
The new bookbag policy specifies that only see-through mesh or clear bags are allowed. Backpacks and sport bags are right out. Judging from a cursory tour through local stores they will be seeing a large number of mesh laundry bags as these seem to be the only retail items that fit the new policy. They won’t be seen during the schoolday though as even these privacy free bags are strictly forbidden in halls and classrooms.
- Book bags must be see-through mesh or clear.
- Book bags must be stored in a locker at all times.
- No book bags may be carried in the halls or to classes or to lunch.
- Upon arrival to school, the student should get the books needed for class and store the book bag in his/her locker.
- Other books may be retrieved at break, at lunch, or between classes.
This makes locker purchase ($10.00, plus $1.00 fee for lost combinations) mandatory. Lockers won’t alleviate the need for carrying multiple classes worth of books by hand, of course. A student typically has alternate classes at different areas of the school and unless a student is particularly lucky they will not have time to stop at their locker between most of them.
This distance between classes and limited time to get there was a problem even before I was a high school student. Then again, they let us carry that multiple class load of books in a bag so it wasn’t that much of a problem.
North Forsyth student Jared Hudgins has started an online petition to repeal the bookbag rules. Feel free to sign and opine.
I remember having to carry around books by hand in middle school. It was really embarassing, because a favorite tactic of bullies was to hit the stack of books in your hand (often 3 or 4 books plus a binder) causing them to spill all over the ground.
What is so evil about having a book bag in class? It isn’t distracting, and they can’t even use “They could be carrying deadly weapons” because 1) it is see through and 2) weapons can be carried in clothing.
I just don’t understand this policy.
We already have this policy in my district, and have for years. The backpacks are readily available at local stores.
The absurd policy comes at my school — students are not issued textbooks. Every class has a classroom set of texts for every class taught in the room, and the students use them during class. Parents may voluntarily check out a book for their child if they so choose, but the book is to remain at home — because there are no student lockers at all on campus (except for athletic lockers). The result is the near impossibility of assigning meanigful homework.
Who the hell first came up with rules like this, and why? I’ve never understood why they want to keep students from having hats, jackets and now backpacks at schools. Would a teacher or principal like to fill me in on why they have such stupid rules in high schools?
When I was in high school, I NEVER used a locker. I always used my backpack. If they told me I could’t, I’d use it anyway. If they touched me, I’d sue their sorry ass.
Depending on the year in school, I sometimes never used my locker. It was sometimes on one side of the school and all my classes were on the other. In high school it was often easier to just put my books in my car and swap the load in my backpack for the second half of the day.
We had seven minutes between classes and teachers got upset when students were tardy. With good reason, too. When the rules state that students MUST visit their locker between every class, it puts teachers in a harder position. When you have 53 minutes to try to teach something meaningful in a class you need everyone in on time and ready to start. It really doesn’t help when the school starts making rules that lead to tardiness.
Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Here’s the simple fix - If a student stabs someone with a knife or shoots someone with a gun, try them in a court of law and throw the book at them… hard. Make a real example out of them and let it be known that this land simply will not tolerate such behavior.
I’d like to run for Dictator of America. Vote for me.
Do school officials ever give a good reason for these rules? If they had a good reason, perhaps the rules would be easier to enforce. Perhaps they don’t want book bags cluttering the aisles.
Why is it that school officials look at even good students as potential criminals? If they are so terrified of their students, perhaps they should go into another line of work. If students would prefer not going to schools that treat them like potential criminals, perhaps they should look to get an education elsewhere.
See, I solved that problem. Wasn’t that easy?
A lot of good this will do them, unless they’re also banning purses.
Were I a student at the school, I would immediately purchase one of those clear bookbags, and then fill it with underwear, tampons, and other embarassing feminine items. There is a REASON bags are opaque sometimes.
In both of the high schools I attended, we were not allowed to carry knapsacks in between classes (I never had more than three classes in a row). But teachers would warn you the day before if you needed your textbook or just your notebook etc. This was a really sensible policy, because most of the time, we didn’t need to cart those textbooks to and from school every day — you could leave any given textbook at home 4 days out of 5. (We also didn’t have a “locker fee”. What’s that?)
As far as I remember, the no-knapsack rule was officially because the halls got too crowded between classes. We were allowed any opacity we wanted, though. What happens when it rains? Where do you carry your dirty gym clothes?
My high school tried to implement this same rule one year… It failed miserably. No one wanted those cheap plastic or mesh backpacks that would always fall apart, so no one used them. So everyone just brought regular backpacks to school, and the school just gave up trying to enforce the rule.
If enough people at the school brought regular backpacks and attracted enough attention to those getting punished for it, the school might give up trying to enforce the rule. The bigger the stink people put up the better.
My school also had a no backpack in the classroom rule. However, it was a private school. Total enrollment of under 1200.
It was a pain in the arse my freshman year as my locker was on the opposite end of the school from where my classes were. I requested a locker transfer, and got one in the middle of the school. So much easier.
Having said that, I can’t imagine NOT having a backpack or book bag of somekind in the super high-schools we have in this area (Chicago). I’m talking 2,800 students. These schools rival small colleges in size.
If students can’t have backpacks, then make the break between periods a little bit longer. Yes, it would lengthen the day, but at least students wouldn’t be counted as tardy. These schools need to track how long it takes for them to get from one end of the school to the other, where their locker may be, and then back again to the other end of the school where their locker is. This should be done during a normal school day, with different students walking at a normal pace (not running pell-mell down the hall, rushing to get to and from). The break between classes would be based on that time.
Of course, this is probably too logical for most school administrators.
My high school implemented a “no backpacks” rule when they started doing renovations. Senior year was a lot of fun, because they gave me a locker in an area of the building where I had no classes whatsoever. And we only had 5 minutes between periods, even after they added an entirely new wing to the school. Good times.
You are all lucky! We have no backpacks and only 3 min. in between classes! Then the teachers have a cow about you being tardy! They can be so blind sometimes!
Forsyth County is the most uptight school district in the State of Georgia. This policy fits right in with their controlling and insecure attitude about themselves.
i believe that lockers are sooo much more helpful then you think. They are causing students to have less back pain, which leads to healtheir and happier students. Test scores go up and students can even get a chance to met more people within the area of their locker. Lockers are a great discovery in history and you’ll never know how much something soo little can help you out.