<p>I was reading some reviews at Amazon and came across one for a zip binder from a woman who says her son is required to carry a binder but they aren’t allowed backpacks. What kind of crazy school doesn’t allow backpacks?</p>
<p>Some schools have found that kids over pack their backpacks and are in danger of back injuries, etc. Or it could be for safety reasons–keeping out weapons. I’ve heard some schools will allow backpacks, but they must be see-through.</p>
<p>The middle school in my kids’ school district doesn’t allow backpacks to be carried from room to room. They have to be stowed in lockers all day. Many kids prefer to avoid going to their lockers (the passing times are short) and would rather carry all of their books around in their backpacks, but they aren’t allowed. I have heard it’s because of safety concerns.</p>
<p>My school didn’t allow backpacks the last week of classes because the older kids smuggled in shaving cream and bleach filled squirt guns to torment the elementary schoolers when they were released on the last day of school.</p>
<p>The police are around so heavily now that that hasn’t actually happened in the last 10 years, but the rules were still in place. I could see schools with weapon issues banning backpacks for the same reason. It’d be hard to search everyone at the door (like they did the last week of class in middle school), and not all schools can afford metal detectors.</p>
<p>At my kids’ middle school, the students were allowed to use backpacks or other bags to carry their possessions to school but were not allowed to carry them around all day, probably because the administrators were afraid that they would carry forbidden objects (such as cell phones) or hit each other with the backpacks.</p>
<p>This had the unfortunate side effect of discouraging girls from carrying menstrual products with them because they had no way to conceal them. It is not healthy to wear the same pad or tampon all day, but the girls did it because they would have been embarrassed to carry those things in their binders, where other students would be able to see them.</p>
<p>Around here the more common thing is backpacks but no lockers. Safety and time constarints are the stated reasons.</p>
<p>The no backpacks rule was a thing here in middle school. I think they could wear backpacks to school but then had to stash them in a locker all day…no wearing them from class to class because the hallways were so crowded. They just took up too much room.</p>
<p>At the high school where I teach students are not allowed to carry backpacks or bookbags during the day. Some female students attempted carrying books in those oversized “purses.” Our approach is if there is a book in it it’s a bookbag.</p>
<p>In addition to all the previously stated reasons about safety and security it also seems (I have no research to prove this) to cut down on horseplay in the hallways since the students’ hands are full of books.</p>
<p>As for femine products, girls are permitted to carry purses so that hasn’t really been a problem to our knowledge.</p>
<p>Our middle schools had the no backpack thing. And girls were limited to size of purses. Apparently it was about contraband. No lockers either. The school had a “classroom” set of books, so no books were to come to and from class. You had a book at school for every class you took, and were to keep a set at home. So al you needed was your notebook. It was often a zip notebook with a pencil pouch so you could carry everything you needed easily. </p>
<p>Problem was, if you had after school activities at another location, you could not bring your books to school to have available that day for another location other than home. And divorced families had to deal with whose got what books. </p>
<p>Funny, the high school gave them lockers and let them carry backpacks.</p>
<p>No backpacks at our local schools either. Can bring books into the school in a backpack but can’t have those backpacks in the classroom. Probably a contraband issue as well.</p>
<p>Another reason for no backpacks in middle school:</p>
<p>Sixth graders start school very nervous about getting to class on time and having the right materials. So, what happens: they try to bring their lockers with them (everything in the backpacks). </p>
<p>So, picture little sixth graders, huge overstuffed backpacks, running to class, dodging big kids in the hall…</p>
<p>If they can’t wear backpacks, they have to plan ahead and get the right books for the right class. It’s kind of a training issue (plus, the back-health concerns).</p>
<p>When they get to high school, they can do what they want with their backpacks. By the time my son was in his senior year, he didn’t even where his locker was!</p>
<p>… Seriously? This is getting ridiculous.</p>
<p>Schools I went to very seldom let us carry our bookbags with us. The only time was when they were doing standarized testing in the freshmen part of the building, those kids in that hallway could carry their backpacks that morning. Otherwise, it wasn’t allowed. Part of it was the weapons logic, part of it was the fact that our school of 900+ had hallways that were only 7 feet wide with lockers on either side.</p>
<p>They just moved into a brand new high school that is twice the size, but I don’t expect the backpacks to be allowed anytime soon with few exceptions.</p>
<p>As for purses, I think the girls pretty well carried/carry what they want, but I know a lot of teachers got to the point that the girls had to leave their purses by the door when they walked in so they couldn’t be texting during class and such.</p>
<p>Yep, seriously. I used to teach in middle school. I was there when they started the backpack rule. It actually does help with the hall/classroom congestion and the sixth grade planning (you would not believe how nervous those kids are at the start of the year).</p>
<p>my daughter attended high school in the inner city. She was able to bring a backpack and she had a locker.
( I also think they allow kids to have cell phones in class, but they are supposed to be turned off)</p>
<p>D’s suburban Jr. High did not allow backpacks in the hallways for the same reason - congestion in the narrow hallways and traffic control. Instead of mingling in the hallways in between their classes, kids had to dash to their lockers to get the stuff for the next class.</p>
<p>I’ll be attending a new high school in my district this year. The one I was at last year allowed backpacks, but this one won’t. They claim that we don’t need them because lockers are easy to access and the hallways would get too congested without them. I’ll probably carry around some sort of bag instead. If I carry pencils/pens loose, they get stolen right out of my hands. Plus, bringing a lot to each class gives me more time to mingle with friends.</p>
<p>Bunsen that doesn’t make sense to me. If kids are in the hallway cause they have to go to their locker between every class, wouldn’t that make it congested? ( and when are they supposed to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water?)</p>
<p>D’s school allowed backpacks but still if you had one period on the first floor, the next class on the third floor but then the next class was the building next door, you * still had to *work to get to class on time</p>
<p>Ek, D’s Jr. High was a relatively small, one-story school building, and the logic is that fast-moving kids with just a few items in their hands do not block hallways as much as kids with large bags who gather in large groups and gossip (and maybe even smooch - it was a Jr. High after all).</p>
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