Some High Schools now requiring clear backpacks?

submitted by magnora7 from (self.privacy)

I was behind a bus today and I noticed every kid that got off the bus had the exact same transparent backpack. I didn't know schools were requiring clear backpacks for security reasons now.

That seems pretty messed up to me. I'd heard about it, but I didn't think any schools would actually do it. How common is this now?

It honestly seems like an infringement on rights, basically forcing unreasonable search against the 4th Amendment, forcing little privacy while also requiring everyone to go to school by law.

This also upsets me because this is a continuation in the prison-ification of schools. Prisons have clear computers, clear telephones, and clear bags, all so nothing can be hidden in them, for security reasons. Now we see the schools doing the same. We're also seeing schools add guards and metal detectors sometimes.

I understand school shootings are a problem, but is punishing everyone by reducing their rights even further a proper solution? It seems like punishing everyone because of the behavior of a bad few. But on a national level. Just like the TSA security theater checkpoints in airports that have prevented exactly zero incidents, yet delay travelers across the US by hours on a daily basis.

People talk about slippery slopes, but why is no one talking about the slippery slope of schools sliding toward indoctrinating people with authoritarian-owned mindsets? This works against the rights of the Constitution and against the interests of the students at school, just so some asshole can get a nice contract to manufacture and sell a million clear backpacks, justified for use by fear-based rhetoric.

Schools aren't prisons. High schoolers aren't children. Clear backpacks don't prevent school shootings.

It's just ridiculous security theater that lets someone sell a lot of backpacks, and trains parents and students to be more and more obedient and afraid year after year, attitudes which they carry in to adulthood. It's not only useless, but even seems counterproductive to the mental well-being of the average student to have these clear backpacks.

Maybe I'm overreacting, and this is just one cut as we're metaphorically dying a death by 1000 cuts. It's the normalization of loss of rights starting from childhood that really bothers me the most. Building in to people the expectation to never have any privacy.

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[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I remember clear backpacks coming up after the florida school shooting. One interesting counter argument that I remember was feminine hygiene products, or let's call it hemorrhoid or asthma medication. With clear backpacks, these kids and teenagers can't keep their business to themselves. It's prisonification like you said.

My protest would be always having completed homework facing outward, so people can copy it from you.

[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Haha. My protest would be putting a brown paper bag inside the clear bag, and putting everything in that. They probably have rules against that though. I bet you could do something like that though

I guess most of them just carry stuff in their pockets or inside their binders in the backpack if they want to hide anything.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Hhahah good one. I guess we should put all of our $$ into clear binders while the getting is good.

[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I mean seriously there probably is a market for high-end clear backpacks now. The cheap end is probably saturated. It'd be cool if you could make a clear backpack that meets all the rules but still has some privacy compartments or something, to kind of get back at the stupidity of it a bit while providing a backpack that technically meets the rules.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm really into transparency, so I would protest this by wearing clear pants, as well.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe the principal should have to wear clear clothes too. It is for safety, after all /s

[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (6 children)

I talked to a student who came to my door selling stuff and they said it was the whole school district that voted for it. So all the middleschools and highschools in the district require it.

And you have to buy the backpack yourself, they don't give you one. And the clear backpacks are terrible in quality to where the binders cut through the plastic, and the cheapest one is $10, that's what the student said. He was sad because he bought a new $40 backpack right before it was voted in this year and now can't use it.

I told him they should stage a sit-in to protest it, but he said their school had already received a call-in threat that year so that's why the school district voted on it.

Interesting stuff. At least to me. I wonder how much this will spread.

[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

so these backpacks are made of plastic, so it is the big oil who profits first. and plastics are endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, so it is big pharma (a direct offshoot of the oil industry) who profits second. and the police/security state of course too, with a bigger more powerful government. and it means this cheap stuff will all end up in the landfill, degrading nature further. maybe a good way to combat this is to demand the use of sustainable materials...
why are western populations declining? its the lack of freedom. being powerless against moves like this limits your desire to live or to give life.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I couldn't agree more, especially with the police/security angle. And prison systems too, they're creating people who feed right in to the "school to prison pipeline", which is one of the bigger atrocities of our era. This upsets me the most of all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline

[–]useless_aether 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

yeah, its criminal. these policies are all rooted in the club of rome, united nations, unesco, depopulation agendas. normal americans would never implement any of these

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Greedy ones who profit from it and are far enough removed from the effects would. And those people definitely exist in droves in the US

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Sacrificing privacy for security. The Sandyhook conspiracy thing seems a bit flimsy, until you hear about things like this. Kids voting to sacrifice their own privacy. Seems insane, but if they can turn immortally fearless teenagers into cowards then they can easily control their minds. We're in trouble.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Kids voting to sacrifice their own privacy.

Well the kids didn't vote for it, the school district's board of directors did. But there are many kids who are being told this is a good idea, some of the buy it, some don't. The kid I talked to seemed on the fence about it. It just started this year, and school just started recently.

[–]useless_aether 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

how to make a transparent knife:

https://hooktube.com/watch?v=Fw175kTjTyQ

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Even beyond that, they can just hide a gun in their waistband. The backpack prevents almost nothing. Security theater.

[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

yeah, hollow out a fat book so it can hold a gun, put the book in the backpack...

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

yeah, there's a million ways if someone really wanted to. But whoever is selling those backpacks is sure making bank, and everyone gets to pretend something was done about the problem, while the issues that caused shooters to become shooters in the first place go unaddressed. That's the real problem, is this kind of lip-service attitude about improving society while addressing none of the real systemic issues that are causing such unhappiness and mental illness in the first place. Instead they just take rights away and punish the people who do follow rules, while nothing is really any safer. Security theater.

[–]i_cansmellthat 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree, this is conditioning an upcoming generation to trade their rights for safety. Combine this with locker searches and the kids think they have no right to privacy, privacy is dangerous and those that desire it must have something to hide.

There seems to be an uptick of this after school shootings, or after threats are made to schools. Sometimes the students vote it in, or the school board will. And it's not just high school students, some elementary schools have made it mandatory as well.

[–]Helpin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Slippery slope has 2 meanings, note this one shills. He's talking about a literal slope, not the fallacy interpretation that it can be reversed. Logical minded people understand both ways of use. Reddit banned me but I still wanted to say this lol.

[–]Goober_notorious2 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

So... instead of helping actual kids with issues or the potential for violence......... Wait, yeah this sounds like America at work, I see