Drama Has Started For Next School Year :Backpack Edition

[mylilnikita]

So the last couple years, my dgd school system has implemented a clear back pack rule due to gun violence in the school system as well as the famous case of a 6 year old shooting his teacher.
The school system has purchased the backpacks for the last couple years.
Well they sent out a message that next school year they will be having the parents buy them.
And wow their FB page has lit up with comments lol.
Dgd has luckily kept hers in good shape but will be getting another one for a spare.

 

[citruscurtis]

Interesting if folks responded negative.. because here in Yuma all outdoor ticketed activities..car show..hot air balloon.. music festivals.require clear tote bags... become the new normal

 

[kdonnel]

Gwinnett County trialed clear back packs. Purchased a million dollars plus in backpacks.

In the end it was decided they added little value to security because sports bags and music cases were excluded.

Weapons could still easily be transported in the bags and cases excluded from the policy.

The bags were also found to be easily broken with kids in the pilot program needing a new one every few weeks.

 

[NotUrsula]

The thing about those clear bags is that unless you live somewhere that doesn't get freezing temps, it's likely the plastic will crack. Most of them are made of PVC, and soft PVC goes brittle in cold temperatures. The more durable option is TPU plastic, but TPU goes cloudy over time. (I have a TPU crossbody that I wear to DD's athletic competitions ... in ice rinks. It never went brittle, but it's cloudy and by the third time I used it you really couldn't see through it anymore. However, it still qualifies as a "clear bag" so they wave me through. Washing it down with baby shampoo supposedly helps clear up the cloudiness.)

The best schoolbag option is a bag that has poly webbing binding on all seams, and has zippers set into a band that is not plastic, so that the stitches don't pull through the plastic under stress. Two layers of PVC sandwiched around a layer of light-colored poly mesh is also a good option.

I think that if the school can no longer afford to give kids the bags, then they should set up an order system that lets parents order the bags via a school account; that way they can limit the number of styles to those that have been tested, and the school's power to buy in bulk will give a price advantage.

 

[tvguy]

Didn't think kids needed backpacks anymore. My kids are adults, and my oldest grandchild graduated from Kindergarten today, but I thought everything was done online. The schools since the pandemic here have given the kids all tablets where they can access all their textbooks and assignments. Or they can choose to use a device at home. Learn something everyday.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Didn't think kids needed backpacks anymore. My kids are adults, and my oldest grandchild graduated from Kindergarten today, but I thought everything was done online. The schools since the pandemic here have given the kids all tablets where they can access all their textbooks and assignments. Or they can choose to use a device at home. Learn something everyday.

I pick up 2 of my grandkids a lot from high school. All have tablets, pretty much no books. But literally, every kid I see in the parking lot has a backpack. Same when they were in middle school, Chromebooks rather than tablets. When I was their ages, we obviously had all books, and nobody had a backpack. Carried everything in our arms, boys on their hips, girls in front of them. Only backpacks were knapsacks if we were playing army.

 

[mylilnikita]

I pick up 2 of my grandkids a lot from high school. All have tablets, pretty much no books. But literally, every kid I see in the parking lot has a backpack. Same when they were in middle school, Chromebooks rather than tablets. When I was their ages, we obviously had all books, and nobody had a backpack. Carried everything in our arms, boys on their hips, girls in front of them. Only backpacks were knapsacks if we were playing army.

We had books that we had to cover with paper bags from like the grocery store and decorate them until we got older and could buy book covers .

But yes, they even high school level students all have back packs.
My dgd went to First Step kind of like Head Start and they had back packs . That was just before the Rona hit and they knew they would be going online only and bright their chrome books at home.
In her Kindergarten, she didn’t go on class until near the end of school still online before.
They bring home paperwork etc. Thr only time she has brought her chrome book home was when it snowed and it’s was big here for 9 inches.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We had books that we had to cover with paper bags from like the grocery store and decorate them until we got older and could buy book covers

Yes, remember those days well. The nuns would have us do book covering the first day back from summer vacation, back then, the Tuesday after Labor Day, not the 2nd week in August.

 

[mylilnikita]

Yes, remember those days well. The nuns would have us do book covering the first day back from summer vacation, back then, the Tuesday after Labor Day, not the 2nd week in August.

Up until a couple of years ago, kids in our city didn’t go back until after Labor Day. Now they go back like a week before .That was also drama lol

 

[longboard55]

Probably lost their source due to the tariff situation. Back to school clothes orders are a mess currently.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Probably lost their source due to the tariff situation. Back to school clothes orders are a mess currently.

Back to school this year should be a real zoo....electronics, clothes, shoes, supplies and accessories, etc., etc.

 

[mylilnikita]

Probably lost their source due to the tariff situation. Back to school clothes orders are a mess currently.

I thought of that as well or that they are expecting it to affect them. Schools also would replace the backpacks if they got damaged ( first year was bad as I think wi the the cheapest vendor so quality wasn’t up to par.

This year has been better but that has been my dgd experience amongst the rest of the students in the system.

 

[China Expat]

Didn't think kids needed backpacks anymore. My kids are adults, and my oldest grandchild graduated from Kindergarten today, but I thought everything was done online. The schools since the pandemic here have given the kids all tablets where they can access all their textbooks and assignments. Or they can choose to use a device at home. Learn something everyday.

Every student at my high school has a backpack

 

[tvguy]

Probably lost their source due to the tariff situation. Back to school clothes orders are a mess currently.

Wow. Merchants normally have seasonal merchandise three to six months in advance. Halloween merchandise should be the first stuff impacted by the tariffs. I was in JCPENNEY last week and they had racks and racks of blouses, pants dresses and skirts on sale for $5 to clear them out to make room for the Back To School merchandise.

 

[barkley]

I pick up 2 of my grandkids a lot from high school. All have tablets, pretty much no books. But literally, every kid I see in the parking lot has a backpack. Same when they were in middle school, Chromebooks rather than tablets. When I was their ages, we obviously had all books, and nobody had a backpack. Carried everything in our arms, boys on their hips, girls in front of them. Only backpacks were knapsacks if we were playing army.

back in the old days when I was going to school backpacks were not a thing either BUT we did'nt have much to carry in elementary which was a self contained all day same classroom deal (we had a desk we could stow stuff in 24/7). once we hit junior high (7-9th grade) and had 7 different classroom a day we had SOOOO much more stuff BUT they gave us each a locker, same thing in high school. do kids even have lockers anymore? I know when I returned to my former high school many years after the fact that all of the locker banks (outdoors/under carport like roofs) had swapped out the solid lockers (think like filing cabinet metal) for kind of a tightly
woven chain link fence locker (you could'nt pull stuff out but everything was visible). all I could think was how soaked everything in it during windy rainy days (it was always a slip and slide in the winter on the concrete).

The nuns would have us do book covering the first day back from summer vacation,

I remember the back to school letters that told our moms who our new teacher would be in the fall always had a reminder to send x number of paper bags on the first day of school. bag book covers and yellow pee chee folders are a strong memory

 

[Dan Murphy]

do kids even have lockers anymore?

My grandkids had lockers in middle school (grades 6-8), but in high school, some kids have lockers but not all. Most do not. And most kids do not wear warm coats in the cold winter, they just mostly all wear sweat shirt hoodies, so not as big a need for lockers. We always had lockers in high school, none in grade school, K-8, like you, one classroom all day.

 

[Turn the Page]

The middle school students in our district are not allowed to carry backpacks during the day. They have them to carry things to and from school but are not permitted to carry them between classes at school. They need to be in their lockers. Like others have mentioned, they all have chromebooks now so I'm not certain how much 'stuff' they really need to carry throughout the day anyway.

The high school students are allowed to carry backpacks through the day......mostly. I was picking DD15 up from the high school the other day and happened to stumble on senior spirit week. That day the theme was 'anything but a backpack.' The kids brought in anything at all they could think of to carry their books. I saw a wagon, a couple of Little Tykes cars, a motorcycle, and a charcoal grill ( I assume it was new and clean but I didn't ask). Apparently a new rule was instituted this year that they had to be inanimate objects, nothing alive, as last year someone brought their little brother in to carry their books all day.

 

[neverlandsky]

Curious does this apply to lunch boxes too? Our kids were no backpacks; they had their laptop school issued cases only allowed.

 

[barkley]

And most kids do not wear warm coats in the cold winter, they just mostly all wear sweat shirt hoodies

it never ceases to amaze me when I see the college students that live a good mile from the campus near our home walking to school in the dead of winter, several feet of snow on the ground with below zero temps-IN SHORTS and a thin sweat shirt hoodie those hardy students have much better bragging rights than 'i walked up hill both ways' you're right-i recall that when my kids were in high school you rarely saw a student in anything that resembled a warm coat unless it was a nice heavy letterman's jacket.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm actually a bit surprised they covered the costs for several years especially replacing them (after the initial year that's the surprising part to me). I totally get the pushback surrounding them and whether they are a good choice both in effectiveness and the materials used but it sounds like they were generous for several years and could no longer feasibly absorb the costs. Eventually they would either have the costs be with the parents or they would stop using them all together, looks like at this point they went with the former for now.

It's also possible the initial costs were covered by a grant or school bond or some other financial aid that either was reduced or ran out--general comment as this wouldn't apply everywhere.