New Castle High School’s students are now no longer able to carry a backpack on their person during school hours. Instead, students have been instructed to use small bags or trapper-keepers as a permanent substitution to the much more spacious backpacks. This change is seemingly random and without proper build-up, and yet when looking at the situation with context, this decision was not one made with haste. The decision to remove backpacks had existed in the background ever since COVID dissipated in 2022. Many students, however, welcomed the change that allowed them to carry all their necessary materials without having to visit their locker during passing period. So then, why would the school implement a rule that students believe is an inconvenience and develops timely issues? Well, unlike most politically sponsored garbage in the modern media, the NCHS Phoenix will refrain from beating around the bush; school shootings are on a dangerously frightening rise.
Tragically, it is an undeniable truth that intense violent incidents are occurring more frequently at schools across the US. For instance, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the number of school shootings from 1997 to 2022 have risen to a tragic caliber. The databases the AAP used in their study shows the amount of school shootings which occurred in between 1997 through 1998 was a disheartening 32 school shootings. Sadly, to a much more devastating degree, the amount of school shootings that occurred between 2021 through 2022 increased over 1000% from the last statistic: 328 school shootings occurred. So, knowing such tragic occurrences are on a frightening rise, how are schools combatting the threat of a potential school shooting?
Amidst the exponentially growing concerns for children’s safety during class, many schools are implementing methods to circumvent potential risks. An exorbitant amount of methods are being tested at thousands of different schools in order to minimize the threats that society sees on the news so frequently. Some schools are even using precautionary measures similar to how airport security works. For example, according to Chalkbeat.org, the Lawrence Township district is implementing full-blown metal detectors in order to stop students from bringing in dangerous contraband. Not every school, however, has the budget to implement intense security systems like metal detectors. Some school districts have to use simpler steps to achieve a safer environment for students. For example, New Castle implementing trapper-keepers.
Despite the school’s efforts in attempting to make a safer environment, many returning students find the rule to be incredibly inconvenient.
Sophomore Jaycee Reel dislikes the new rule and states she feels as such “because there is simply not enough space in trapper keepers. For students that do care about school, it is very hard to carry around all of the materials needed for classes without struggling.” Reel’s main gripe with the rule is that the students who are in more challenging curriculum have a difficult time being prepared for all their classes because they lack all the materials that they used to have on hand in their backpack. Not to mention, many students who take challenging curriculum are oftentimes still lugging around large textbooks that have yet to be purchased digitally by the school.
Senior Elizabeth Ntiamoah has similar grievances to Reel. She states, “[People’s] lockers are on the bottom floor so a lot of people are going to constantly be late for classes which is also bad for the administration … this rule punishes kids with hard classes.” Ntiamaoh takes a multitude of college-level classes and consequently has first-hand knowledge of the many difficulties that come with limited portable storage.
Sophmore Chanden Nelson possesses a separate grievance. Some students’ families may not be able to acquire a trapper keeper. Nelson states, “I can’t get a trapper keeper or anything like that so I have to carry a computer and papers and they fall out all the time.” This student is being forced through an arbitrary inconvenience because they can not acquire a trapper-keeper.
Unlike these previously mentioned students, some individuals have less malice toward the functional aspects and rules, but more so toward the overtly complex red tape that does not solve the root of the problem.
Sophomore Richard Sparks points out that restricting what we carry does not tackle any root of the problem. Sparks notes, “I think if the school wants to take more safety measures…then [the school] should crackdown on those issues themselves and why kids are [breaking the rules], not what they’re carrying [contraband] in.” He makes an excellent argument that the restriction does not solve any issue and only acts as a band-aid toward a greater issue.
Similarly, Senior Mason Brockman highlights how a smaller bag does not expel a student’s ability to sneak in items of malicious intent. He states, “I feel as though the rule is a bit redundant. I was told it was because of a contraband issue, but [students] can feasibly sneak contraband in by most means (clothing, trapper keepers, etc.), so the ban feels pretty useless.” Subsequently, to Brockman’s point, the Springfield News-Leader makes examples of many instances where students sneak in dangerous items through items like purses, food, books, and even pens. If a student wants to get a dangerous item into the school, regardless of what method of storage they are restricted to, they will get it through.
Luckily for the students of New Castle, their grievances are not going unheard. NCHS principal Kirk Amman recently participated in an exclusive interview with the NCHS Phoenix. In the interview, Amman gives proper reasoning as to who instigated the change and why the school felt the need to implement it. In relation to why the school felt it was important, Amman states “Many other schools in the district have already banned backpacks and we just felt that we needed to do the same.” He also claims, “Since COVID, we have been very lax with students having backpacks but we have been meaning to crack down on that more recently.” Amman notes how other schools have banned backpacks for security purposes and states that NCHS was behind compared to other schools. Amman also states that the School Resource Officers (SROs) were a main driving factor behind the decision. SROs’ job is to protect students, consequently, it makes sense that they felt the need to instigate a rule that keeps students in an environment that poses less of a risk to their safety.
So, was banning backpacks a good decision? Well, the answer is very nuanced. If an individual believes that a school environment has the risk of being unsafe, then yes, the decision was one made with good heart and intention. From many student’s perspective, however, the rule is inconvenient and somewhat of a useless attempt to solve a larger issue. Regardless of how people feel about the rule, the fact that it exists implies that school administrations came to a frightening consensus: schools may no longer be safe.
