Parkland Students Question New Mandatory See-Through Backpacks


As students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned from spring break on Monday (April 2nd), they came back to new security policies in the wake of the shooting at the Parkland, Florida, school in February in which 17 people were killed, and some of them turned to social media to particularly complain about one of them, the requirement that they have to use plastic, see-through backpacks. Students contended it was an invasion of their privacy, with senior Delaney Tarr, for one, tweeting a picture of her newly-assigned backpack with feminine products in it and the message: "Starting off the last quarter of senior year right, with a good ol' violation of privacy!" Others were putting handwritten messages in their packages facing outward, such as one that said, "This backpack is probably worth more than my life." And some suggested it's not going to make students any safer. Other new policies included giving students ID tags they're required to wear, and setting up security barriers that funneled students into bag check lines, which had students comparing it to being at the airport or a prison. Principal Ty Thompson wrote in a memo to parents over the weekend that the policies may be adjusted in the coming weeks, saying, "It is very difficult to balance both convenience/privacy with safety/security; if there is more of one, the other often suffers, but I will do my best to balance the two."


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