Parkland Students Unhappy With Clear Backpack Rule

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, returned to school Monday after their spring break. As the students returned to school, a few security measures were also put in to place including a rule about students mandatorily carrying clear backpacks.

According to a report in News.au, the backpacks were distributed to all 3,200 students of the school, free of cost to ensure and strengthen security and make it difficult for anyone to smuggle weapons on campus, following the Feb. 14 shooting which killed 17 students and teachers and left 14 injured.

However, some students were not impressed with the new security measure and many of them took to Twitter in order to protest.

A student named Lauren Hogg tweeted, “Today when I walk into school I will be greeted with armed police, and detectors, and clear backpacks. Is this what my high school experience is going to be like? 3 more years of this... Someday when my kids ask me about my high school experience what am I going to tell them?”

Another named Sarah Chadwick tweeted, "Tomorrow we will have to go through security checkpoints and be given clear backpacks, my school is starting to feel like a prison.”

A few students put their backpacks to good use by writing slogans on them like “March for our lives."

Jaclyn Corin tweeted, “Thousands of clear backpacks were donated to MSD...it’s a shame b/c they should’ve been given to a school that actually needs the supplies. But since we’re stuck with them, I decided to make the most out of the situation & decorate!! #MarchForOurLives”

While the "$US 1.5" tag on a few backpacks was intended to protest against politicians including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who accept money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) by putting a price on each student.

The new rule came into place after gunman Nikolas Cruz told investigators that he “brought additional loaded magazines to the school campus and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault,” the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said. Officials said Cruz was able to hide his AR-15 in his bag.

Reports state that the 19-year-old former student was arrested an hour after he left the school premises by Broward County Sheriff’s Office at 4 p.m. EDT from a home located close to the school. Even before he carried out the school shooting, Cruz was perceived as a threat to the students.

A math teacher named Jim Gard had said, “We were told last year that he [Cruz] wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him. … There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

“We received no warnings. Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made,” he added.