Clear book bags, metal detectors debated

Officials weigh security measures to implement for next school year.

Clayton County Public Schools officials debated details of new security measures for the upcoming school year Tuesday evening, including whether parents or the school system would pay for clear backpacks which may be required for middle school and high school students, but took no action.

Amid efforts to address a spike in weapons being brought on campus, Clayton middle school and high school students were prohibited from bringing book bags on campus or using lockers in May. Last week, an Atlanta Journal-constitution investigation revealed the district has confiscated nearly 100 weapons on school campuses or buses ever since the school year began.

No one was killed or seriously injured during any of the weapons incidents at Clayton schools this academic year. However, tensions are high nationwide after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in their classroom by a high school student in Texas last week.

Ralph Simpson, the school district’s deputy of school leadership and improvement, said Tuesday the district would like to require students to use clear book bags at school starting in the fall.

Clayton County Schools Superintendent Morcease Beasley said parents should be required to buy the bags, but Jessie Goree, Clayton’s school board chair, said the district should buy those items. School board member Mary Baker agreed with Goree, and Baker added that she spent $50 on a mesh backpack that only lasted for a week after her child used it.

“If this board wants us to purchase all the book bags, then that’s what we’ll do,” Beasley said.

In addition to having clear book bags, Reynard Walker, the school district’s interim director of the division of safety and security, said the district wants to purchase metal detectors and a concealed weapons detection device. They also want to hire more school officers.

Walker said the district used a weapons detection device during graduation events at the Georgia International Convention Center in late May on the 33,110 attendees, and received 4,620 alerts, 5% of which were for real weapons.