CLASS IS IN, BAGS ARE OUT
Some Peel schools have banned backpacks in classrooms in a bid to ‘reduce clutter.’ Students call it heavy-handed
“So many kids were bringing in these massive backpacks. They were on the floor, hanging off desks, just taking up space . . .” BRUCE CAMPBELL SCHOOL BOARD SPOKESPERSON
Students at Cardinal Leger Secondary School have launched a petition against their school’s ban on backpacks in classrooms — which forces students to carry their books, binders, medication and pencil cases between classes.
Cardinal Leger is one of a handful of high schools in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board that has imposed the ban to avoid clutter in classrooms. Students are saying the ban is already making their school year very difficult.
Students are expected to keep their backpacks in the locker and pick up the items they need between classes and carry them. Megan Beere, a Grade10 student at Cardinal Leger, had small cuts on her arm, she said, caused by the heavy items she had to carry — which kept slipping from her hands.
“Because I had to carry around my laptop for class I was more concerned about protecting it than anything else because I obviously didn’t want to drop it,” she said Monday. “It’s really heavy to carry.”
Things are extra difficult for her, she said, because of the EpiPen, inhaler and medication that she needs to take around with her. The school, she added, also bans purses and fanny packs. Beere is one of the over 500 signatories on the petition so far, which launched Friday.
“The reason to do it was to reduce the clutter in the classrooms. So many kids were bringing in these massive backpacks. They were on the floor, hanging off desks, just taking up space and these aren’t big classes in the first place,” said Bruce Campbell, spokesperson for the DufferinPeel Catholic District School Board.
“It was creating an issue in terms of the clutter in the classrooms.”
But some students disagree. Grade 10 student Victoria Ricciardi said the once-navigable hallways at Cardinal Leger are now busy and chaotic — packed with students trying to get their items from their lockers between classes.
“It’s a lot of stuff to carry and I often have to go up flights of stairs and down and I have tried but I can’t hold on to the railing and opening doors is a struggle, so I have to wait for someone to open it for me,” she said outside her school Monday.
“I dropped all my stuff two times. I’m scared of the day I drop my binder and everything falls out.”
Campbell said it wasn’t a ban across the Dufferin Catholic board, and that it’s up to the individual school. Campbell said he was unsure how many had chosen to enforce the ban but heard of it in a few schools, including Loyola Catholic Secondary School.
The website for Philip Pocock Secondary School lists the rationale behind its backpack policy.
The reasons include: Backpacks are a tripping hazard; they cause back, neck and shoulder injuries for students carrying them; they are a target for thieves, they are increasingly becoming bigger in size and that they are used as makeshift closets housing clothes for students who avoid wearing their uniforms.
Campbell said students who feel they need their backpack in the classroom for a valid reason should speak to their teacher.
Chloe Cabral, a Grade 12 student at Cardinal Leger, started the online petition, which will be delivered to the school board once it meets its target of 1,000 signatures.
On the petition, she stated that because of the ban, students are dropping their items and colliding with other students in the hallways; students are getting to class late because their lockers are too far away, and students have to carry their feminine hygiene products without a backpack.
In protest, Beere and a few other students are planning on carrying boxes to classes instead.