Clear Backpacks: Good or Bad?

Imagine going to school every day with a clear backpack. Everyone can see your items and can easily steal them as soon as you look away. This is an idea threatening schools around the nation. It is eliciting many mixed feelings: some students agree with the new rule while others are fighting against it.

The question is, why are some schools and administrations promoting this idea? The main reason is to prevent students from bringing weapons to school. Clear backpacks allow administrators to see the contents of a student’s backpack and possibly stop the student from harming their peers.

Students, however, see the clear backpacks as a violation of privacy. WGN has even ask students at their own schools how they feel about the backpacks and they said, “Using clear backpacks puts them at risk for having money, phones and other personal items stolen because it is easier to see those items in a clear backpack.” This is very true, because if someone sees 25 dollars in a clear backpack, what’s stopping them from stealing it? Clear backpacks are also more expensive then regular backpacks and are harder to find in mainstream stores like Walmart and Target. Clear backpacks shouldn’t be something that students are forced to have. There needs to be another way to limit the threat of weapons.  It might stop the students from bringing weapons in their backpacks, but it is also taking their privacy away.

It is understandable that in order to keep students safe we need to make some sacrifices, perhaps involving our privacy. But to take away our privacy completely will cause a lot of problems. For example, if girls start bring purses, do they need to be checked or do they have to be clear as well? If they make clear backpacks a rule, students will fight against it. It might stop one problem but will also cause another one in the process.