Education

Schools Ban Backpacks Over Gun Concerns

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A Michigan district and a Florida school have banned backpacks due to gun concerns, according to local news channels.

The Flint Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to ban backpacks after two incidents the prior month caused the school to be shut down for two days, according to the New York Post. In Marion County, Florida, backpacks have been banned in one school after a student brought an airsoft gun to school, reported Fox 35 Orlando.

“Across the country, we have seen an increase in threatening behavior and contraband, including weapons, being brought into schools at all levels,” said Superintendent Kevelin Jones in a policy update to parents that was provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Backpacks make it easier for students to hide weapons, which can be disassembled and harder to identify or hidden in pockets, inside books or under other items,”Jones said.

Last month, Flint Southwestern Classical Academy went on lockdown and closed the next day after receiving a threat, according to MLive News. “That is just one incident of several that we have had this year around students bringing weapons into our buildings in backpacks,” Director of Student Services Ernest Steward said.

In Florida, an automatic message went out to parents on Monday night informing them that a first grader had brought an airsoft gun to school, and that they were implementing a backpack ban due to safety concerns, Fox 35 reported.

“It’s not the object that was the problem, it’s that it was so easy to get it there,” said Kristin Katich, a parent, to Fox 35. ‘The problem is that it would be equally as easy to get a real weapon there.”

Katish also mentioned she decided to pull her daughter out of school as a result, because the incident frightened the child. This was the third threatening incident this year, according to Fox 35, but details regarding the other two incidents have not have not been made available.

“The procedure to which you are referring is a school-based decision made by one of our principals for her campus only starting today and continuing through the end of this school year (May 26),” Marion County Schools Director of Public Relations Kevin Christian told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is not a district-wide decision, though we have made similar decisions in the past based on student behavior.”