Dallas ISD requires students to wear clear backpacks in fall

DALLAS — For the second year in a row, the Dallas Independent School District will require students to wear clear backpacks during the 2023-2024 school year. Created in response to the continued attacks on schools, specifically the Uvalde massacre, the clear backpack policy aims to protect faculty, staff and students.

"A clear backpack policy alone does not ensure complete security," Dallas ISD said in a statement. "This proactive measure is just one of several updates to enhance student and campus safety."

The decision to create a clear backpack policy came from input from students, staff, parents and the community, along with the Safety Task Force and Internal Task Force's safety recommendations. Besides clear backpacks, the district will also allow students to wear mesh ones.

The district said that students could also carry a small, non-clear pouch in their backpacks that will hold personal items, including money, hygiene products and cell phones. According to school officials, every student will be given a clear backpack free of charge. However, families can purchase any clear or mesh backpack of their choice.

In our ongoing safety efforts, Dallas ISD will require clear backpacks for all students starting this fall. While clear backpacks are preferred and will be provided for free, mesh ones will be acceptable.For more information, please visit https://t.co/SIgBFEfeRu. pic.twitter.com/7GpkcpYtTy

On the first anniversary of the shooting in Uvalde that left 21 dead, including 19 children and two educators, plus 17 who were injured, President Joe Biden reiterated his stance on banning AR-15 firearms and assault weapons.

"How many more parents will live their worst nightmare before we stand up to the gun lobby to establish universal background checks, establish national red-flag laws, require safe storage of firearms, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers?" Biden said. "The only major corporate entities that (aren't) immune to liability. Even a majority of responsible gun owners support these commonsense actions to save lives and keep our communities safe."

A clear backpack policy in schools isn't uncommon. Following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. that took the lives of 14 students and three adults, officials made it a requirement to carry clear backpacks for students. And with 93 reported school shootings, based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2021 marked a 20-year high of mass shootings in the United States. Following mass shootings in schools, many districts across the country incorporate active shooter training into their curriculum, on top of installing metal detectors for students to pass through every morning on their way to class.

After the Uvalde mass shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott announced $105.5 million to support additional school safety and mental health initiatives through Aug. 31. According to his office, the funds would go toward bullet-resistant shields and for school districts to buy silent panic alert technology along with other security measures.

Since Uvalde, at least 650 mass shootings have occurred in the U.S., with over 40,000 deaths attributed to gun violence, per The White House.

"We can't end this epidemic until Congress passes some common sense gun safety laws that keep weapons of war off our streets and out of the hands of dangerous people, until states do the same thing," said Biden in his address marking the one-year-anniversary of the Uvalde shooting.