Students Can’t Believe The Ridiculous US School Backpack Ban, Improvise With Random Household Items
Even though the pandemic and remote learning has stalled school shootings across the US, there have still been 16 of them in 2021. However, the country seems to be prepared to do anything but take away guns from its citizens.
Recently, four schools in Rigby, Idaho, banned backpacks from their halls after a 13-year-old student was found with a gun in hers.
Monica Pauley, a spokeswoman for Jefferson School District 251, said this rule applies to Rigby Middle School, Farnsworth Middle School, and both Rigby and Jefferson High Schools.
“Elementary schools will still be able to have backpacks,” Pauley explained. “We are doing this as a precautionary measure.”
Like in some sort of dystopian novel, students who have to adhere to this new policy have been improvising with laundry baskets, shopping carts, and other random items.
Students were reportedly asked to carry their books to the school and place them in their lockers. Teachers and administrators are planning to assist students where needed.
School District Superintendent Chad Martin issued a press release on the matter:
“We ask our parents to partner with us in keeping all of our students safe. Please keep your firearms safe and inaccessible to students. If you notice changes in your student’s behavior, attire, or personality notify us so we can help your student,” he said.
The last school shooting in the area took place in May when two students and one adult suffered non-life-threatening injuries at Rigby Middle School.
Then, a 6th-grade student pulled a handgun out of her backpack and started shooting in a hallway before going outside, said Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson. Luckily, math teacher Krista Gneiting was there to stop her.
Gneiting was preparing her students for their final exams when she said she heard a gunshot. She said she looked outside her classroom and saw the school’s janitor lying on the floor in the hallway. The teacher shut the door as she heard two more shots.
“I just told my students, ‘We are going to leave, we’re going to run to the high school, you’re going to run hard, you’re not going to look back, and now is the time to get up and go,'” Gneiting recalled during an exclusive interview with ABC News.
The girl shot another victim in the hallway before moving outside and shooting the third victim. Gneiting was helping one of the students who had been shot when she saw a girl holding a gun.
“It was a little girl and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that,” she said. “I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get the gun.”
Gneiting looked at the girl and asked, “Are you the shooter?”
“I just walked up to her and I put my hand over her hand, I just slowly pulled the gun out of her hand and she allowed me to,” the teacher said. “She didn’t give it to me but she didn’t fight. And then after I got the gun, I just pulled her into a hug because I thought, this little girl has a mom somewhere that doesn’t realize she’s having a breakdown and she’s hurting people.”
Education officials are forbidding their students from using bags and purses while on school grounds in other parts of the country, too.
KPIX5 reported that high schools in Texas, Illinois, Ohio, and other states have all sent word to parents that their children will have to find other ways to carry their books this fall.
These two TikToks have been viewed nearly 9 million times
@miriam_gilmore_Can we have our bags back yet? #nobackpacks #myschooliscrazy #pleasedont♬ Spongebob – Dante9k
@miriam_gilmore_I have no words on this one….😂#nobackpacks #myschooliscrazy #thisisfunny♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod
And people can’t believe what they’re seeing
so, in case someone brings gun hidden under his/her clothes, will they ban clothes too?
The problem is that the US has embraced an endless supply of guns with minimal regulation, and the very unsurprising result is a huge number of stolen, unregistered or otherwise illegally obtained guns. If they banned guns, you'd get all of your law-abiding citizens turning them in, and then we'd be left with a whole lot of criminals more brazen than ever. Actually getting rid of guns in the US is much much much more than banning them. Unfortunately, too many US citizens think that the only solution to the problem is by adding to the problem. Basically it's a Mexican standoff with 330M participants. Of course EU nations generally don't have many illegal guns because they never went through a phase where they decided to flood the nation with more guns than people without any kind of accountability.
Load More Replies...
So they ban backpacks. Because that's the only things a gun can be in? Because a gun couldn't possibly be in any other container students use? Might as well just ban students from having that specific backpack or that colour of bag, logic will be just as effective as this ... Pointless move just so they can say they have done something, without addressing the actual issue
Just going from memory here, but I believe several of the major school shootings were executed by people who were not going through their normal school day - they showed up after it started and carried their weapons in trenchcoats and duffel bags, not concealed in backpacks. Often the weapons were too large for backpacks anyways. This rule really does nothing...
Load More Replies...
so, in case someone brings gun hidden under his/her clothes, will they ban clothes too?
The problem is that the US has embraced an endless supply of guns with minimal regulation, and the very unsurprising result is a huge number of stolen, unregistered or otherwise illegally obtained guns. If they banned guns, you'd get all of your law-abiding citizens turning them in, and then we'd be left with a whole lot of criminals more brazen than ever. Actually getting rid of guns in the US is much much much more than banning them. Unfortunately, too many US citizens think that the only solution to the problem is by adding to the problem. Basically it's a Mexican standoff with 330M participants. Of course EU nations generally don't have many illegal guns because they never went through a phase where they decided to flood the nation with more guns than people without any kind of accountability.
Load More Replies... So they ban backpacks. Because that's the only things a gun can be in? Because a gun couldn't possibly be in any other container students use? Might as well just ban students from having that specific backpack or that colour of bag, logic will be just as effective as this ... Pointless move just so they can say they have done something, without addressing the actual issue
Just going from memory here, but I believe several of the major school shootings were executed by people who were not going through their normal school day - they showed up after it started and carried their weapons in trenchcoats and duffel bags, not concealed in backpacks. Often the weapons were too large for backpacks anyways. This rule really does nothing...
Load More Replies...
196
242