Clear backpacks might be coming to a school near you soon

First published Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

At a community conversation about safety in Baltimore County schools on Thursday evening, Superintendent Myriam Rogers said she was open to exploring clear backpacks.

“We are in full support of any school that wants to pilot clear backpacks,” she said at Catonsville High School, responding to a community member. “As a school system, we are not averse to piloting that.”

“I’m happy to make sure that someone has a conversation with you to see if we can open up that conversation in your school and see what other secondary schools want to start it,” she added.

That was Rogers’ clearest signal yet about clear backpacks. At a press conference Wednesday, she said only that the backpacks hadn’t been discussed yet.

“We have not had that conversation,” she said in response to a WBAL reporter’s question. “We have not found the instance — and I hesitate to say this because the minute you say something, something’s going to happen — we have not yet had that conversation about the clear backpacks.”

At least one school, Holabird Middle School, already has a policy on clear backpacks. In a list of supplies students need posted on its website, the school wrote that students may only carry clear backpacks around with them. All other backpacks must be put in a student’s locker, according to the document.

It’s unclear whether any other schools have the same policy. A Baltimore County Public Schools spokesperson clarified that the school system does not require students to bring clear backpacks to school after this article was published..

“I don’t know enough about that to speak to their specific pilot, it sounds like students can still bring regular backpacks, they would just need to remain in the lockers,” Gboyinde Onijala, the executive director of the Department of Communications and Community Outreach, wrote in an email. “While it is not current a system requirement, schools would have the autonomy to implement something like this.”

Onijala said Rogers’ comments didn’t signify a policy shift.

“She responded to a question from a staff member to essentially say, while it is not something the district has in place now or is having conversations about, she would not be opposed to having conversations about it in the near future and what that may look like piloted at a school.”