If we ban backpacks, life for students will become harder, but is the risk of backpacks worth the convenience? In the U.S., teens often hide things not appropriate for school in their backpacks. This may include drugs, weapons, and illegal images. But if we ban the use of backpacks in all schools, will it actually prevent these prohibited items from entering schools? And if we do go through with the banning of backpacks, what will we replace them with? What are the consequences, if any?

The first question we have is, will the banning of backpacks actually prevent items like drugs and weapons from entering school property? Well after searching for a long time for an article that showed a before and after for banning backpacks, I’ve found nothing. It seems to me that banning backpacks is a recent thing, so they don’t have any well known public information. But with common sense you’d think that banning backpacks would almost completely get rid of the threats of drugs, weapons, and illegal images. But in reality, the ban would only make it harder for kids to sneak stuff into school, which would decrease the percentage of students concealing those items, but it’s still possible. It’s not hard to hide a bag of drugs or illegal images into a binder or notebook. In my opinion, the new struggles that banning backpacks would bring just wouldn’t be worth it. 

Another question I have is, what will replace backpacks if we ban them? Well a news report released on Newsweek, created by Rebecca Flood on 9/29/21 stated, ““My school banned backpacks yesterday so this happened,” she captioned the footage, shared on Friday. The video, captioned “can we have our bags back yet?” shows students carrying their books and belongings in interesting ways.” This statement is backed up by video evidence which shows students carrying their things in stuff like milk crates, clothes hampers, etc… This ban on backpacks does nothing but cause more havoc in the school environment. In my opinion, there has to be a better solution to limit the rise in school shootings and the carrying of items that aren’t appropriate for school.

When you ban something, almost all of the time, there are going to be consequences. And yes, there are consequences for banning backpacks in school. If you ban backpacks in schools, students have to replace them with either their lockers or some other thing to carry your items in. But what is stopping students from concealing weapons or drugs in the items they used to replace their backpacks? Banning backpacks just causes more havoc in the school environment. Lockers also don’t prevent unsafe items from entering school either, you can still hide things in your lockers or hide things in your binder, notebook, lunch bag, etc… 

This ban on backpacks, in my opinion, is not going to reduce the amount of school shootings in the U.S., all the ban’s going to do is make learning more troublesome for students. The ban doesn’t prevent weapons or drugs from entering school property. Lockers don’t prevent anything, they just slow it down, and anything that replaces backpacks will just cause more havoc. Hopefully schools find a better way to prevent school shootings, because banning backpacks won’t do the trick.