The Dallas School District, like others in Texas, adopted new safety measures Monday following the Uvalde massacre last May: Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, many of its students will be required to use transparent or mesh backpacks at school.
These new rules will apply to students in year 6e at the 12e year — from the last year of elementary school to the last year of high school, therefore. Other types of bags will no longer be allowed.
However, students may have in their backpack a non-transparent pocket with a maximum size of 14 cm by 21 cm (5.5 in. by 8.5 in.) — the equivalent of a sheet of paper folded in half — to carry personal items, such as a mobile phone, money or hygiene products.
To continue making Dallas ISD schools safe spaces for learning, for the upcoming school year all secondary students will be required to use clear or mesh backpacks. We will be distributing free clear bags before classes start.
For more information, visit https://t.co/w9Mi8cfuCN pic.twitter.com/UmMH12sKD7—Dallas ISD (@dallasschools) July 18, 2022
“We recognize that transparent or mesh backpacks alone do not eliminate security concerns. This is just one of many steps in the district’s overall plan to better keep students and staff safe,” the school district wrote in a statement explaining its decision.
The decision was made based on feedback from students and parents, as well as recommendations from a safety task force, says Texas’ second-largest public school district. It follows a new review of security measures after a gunman killed 19 children and 2 teachers inside Robb Primary School, Uvalde, on May 24. It is the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Last week, a school district in Seguin, near San Antonio, also said it would adopt a see-through backpack policy for the next school year.
See-through backpacks are nothing new in the United States, by the way. In 2018, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students had to use see-through backpacks when they returned from spring break.
“A theatrical measure”
On social networks, a host of comments raise the various problems related to this initiative. The main criticism being that the district misses the real issue: gun control.
“The focus should not be on student backpacks. Students do not walk around with military rifles. It is the mentally unstable people who buy guns. We need a reform of the law on firearms, ”wrote a user.
Some see it as “a theatrical measure” which gives the illusion of tackling the problem and which creates a “false sense of security”. “Children can always hide things in their transparent backpacks. By carrying a kangaroo, they can cover anything,” it also read on Facebook.
Others denounce rather a waste of resources.
The Dallas School District says that by being able to easily see items in backpacks when students enter the school, staff will be able to ensure that prohibited items are not part of the student belongings. These backpacks will also speed up students’ entry to school at the start of the day, as it may not be necessary to open and inspect each backpack, it adds.
The district has already purchased transparent backpacks and says it is ready to distribute them free of charge before the start of the school year, scheduled for August.