The same goes for other "security" measures, such as metal detectors, wands, and school resource officers. There are good reasons to doubt that these policies actually promote safety. They do, however, make schools more prison-like. In the case of school resource officers, the attempted trade-off between safety and liberty seems especially unwise. This is something students of color tend to understand a bit better than their white peers: At a press conference last week, black Stoneman Douglas students told reporters that more cops would actually make them feel less safe. Police violence often disproportionately affects minority communities, so such concerns seem well-founded.
No one's liberties should be infringed just because agents of the state arbitrarily decide that a new policy might somehow make somebody feel safer.
Security theater continues, as if clear backpacks weren’t more of a trigger for those who are unstable enough to want to attack schools.
- Because aren’t children like employees who work in situations where money is handled, like casinos that require low-wage cashiers to use clear handbags.
- Because education is like a bank and as Willie Sutton sez, “That’s where the McDuck money is”
Darn those hollowed-out analog textbooks. Because no child has ever fantasized about thrashing their teacher with ‘the book’ since that’s where all the answers are, anyway.
- Oh wait, it’s a free-market solution: This will help muggers make better choices in picking targets, since nothing’s worse than getting an empty score and wasting the energy assaulting someone. And there’s no tariff on clear plastic yet, because libertarians are all about the transparency.
- Oh wait, it’s a precaution against those who would make full-size assault rifles with their 3-d printers who’d get past the metal detectors, since that’s the goal, getting past the 500 foot gun-free zone sign. Who carries such a long gun, anyway?
Heightening and conditioning the tacit acceptance of a surveillance state will pay dividends for those who want a compliant populace or those who might promote homeschooling for the wrong reasons.
Because unarmed bears respect the kept 5 gallon bucket of river stones.
Guns you CAN fit into a backpack you can also HIDE in a clear backpack... like rolled up in a sweatshirt, a completely normal thing to have in a backpack.
Seriously, what fucking idiots think up this shit? Oh... that's right... Republicans.
A clear backpack might be some measure of protection if you’re a PoC, since the ex-cop resource officer might have that Blue Lives Matter bug. You’d have that extra second to speed dial your lawyer before you take a round for having a cellphone. When all schools are gun-free zones, only cops will have guns.