Do You Know The Reasons We Have Clear Book Bags?

Story by Imani Smith. Picture by Sean Beach. Edited by Sean Beach

OCT. 14, 2008: Clear book bags are made of of a plastic see-through material to observe what's inside of the bag. At Friendship Tech Prep Academy, students are required to carry these book bags for safety reasons. This is because of a previous incident that happened at our school. Last year, a student at our school brought a replica of a gun inside the school. A student from Ballou high school came and tried to start a fight. So the Tech Prep student pulled out the replica of the gun in front of everyone. There was no type of violence, but people thought there was going to be. As a result, the policy from last year that allowed students to take their bags around anywhere at any time except for lunch without any type of penalty changed—all due to the incident.  

It is important to have a clear book bag in order to make sure there are no weapons. This book bag is easy to carry around. For some schools like ours, when we carry them around, the staff and security can see what's inside. This way hopefully,  we won't have another one of those violent experiences again.

I disagree with having the clear book bags because at our school we get checked in the morning by security and we are required to go through a metal detector. It doesn't make sense to me. I am not the only one who feels this way. Also, clear book bags rip faster because they are plastic and with all the work and books we have to carry, they may be too heavy to the point that they pop or snap. And this will cause issues for the students.

What do you think about Tech Prep having clear book bags? Write your comment in the comment box below.

Imani Smith and Sean Beach are 8th grade scholars at Friendship Tech Prep Academy.