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There's a story going around that an unnamed college in the United States banned backpacks after a shooting.

The lack of details is suspicious and it looks more like a wrongly-captioned prank at a high-school than anything else. It doesn't look like a college.

What really happened?

chicks
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Mast
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1 Answers1

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Not a college.

In response to an incident in a middle school (13 year old kids,) a school district in Idaho banned backpacks in the local schools. It affected middle schools (grade 7 and 8, kids 13 and 14 years old) and highschools (grades 9 through 12, kids 15 to 18 years old.)

From the article in The Independent:

Idaho’s Jefferson School District enacted the ban following the discovery of a gun in a girl’s backpack at Rigby Middle School, four months after a shooting at the same school in May left three injured.

Following that lead, you can find many further articles discussing the event, including this one from the East Idaho News explaining that the ban has been somewhat relaxed - backpacks with a clear panel are allowed.

From the East Idaho News article:

The decision was announced in an email from Rigby Middle School Principal Richard Howard sent to parents Friday morning. A district spokesperson said further information will be released about all secondary schools in the near future.

“We are permitting clear backpacks to be used at Rigby Middle School to transport school materials to and from school,” Howard wrote in the email.

“Backpacks may be inspected at any time by the school and are to be kept in student lockers during the school day.”

JRE
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    "middle school" (US) = "collège" (France). – GEdgar Oct 02 '21 at 14:53
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    Right. And the person asking is from the Netherlands. As far as I know, they speak Dutch there, not French. – JRE Oct 02 '21 at 21:13
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    This isn’t a new thing, either: my middle school didn’t allow backpacks during the school day, way back in the ‘90s. We had to carry our books in our arms, and make frequent use of our lockers to switch books between classes. – Jacob Krall Oct 03 '21 at 02:27
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    My wife has recounted tales of being required to have a clear backpack in the mid-90s due to her being at a school with a higher level of crime (United States, Pennsylvania), allowing for easier inspections. My middle school briefly banned backpacks, but it was due to a teacher tripping and breaking her leg. After the Paducah shootings, pocket knives were banned as "weapons". – Sean Duggan Oct 03 '21 at 02:57
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    @JacobKrall Was that for the same reason though? At my high-school backpacks weren't allowed in the classrooms because they could be a tripping hazard. – Yay295 Oct 03 '21 at 13:18
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    @Yay295 In some high-school labs (biology, chemistry and physics), it's customary to have backpacks collected in the back of the room for that reason. – Mast Oct 03 '21 at 17:49
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    .. because why restrict guns, when you can ban backpacks ... – njzk2 Oct 03 '21 at 20:40
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    @njzk2 I'm pretty sure guns were also not allowed in the schools in question – Carmeister Oct 04 '21 at 00:01
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    @JRE many middle schools/high schools in the Netherlands call themselves "college". While in the Netherlands a "hoge school" (high school) is what in the US would be a college. The very terms are effectively reversed. – jwenting Oct 04 '21 at 08:01
  • @jwenting which In Brazil we often refer to the equivalent of US high school as "Colegial" and schools from preschool up to high school in general are often called "Colégio", so I guess that US has it backwards LOL – Juliana Karasawa Souza Oct 06 '21 at 13:06
  • In the UK, colleges cater to 17-18 year olds. – Jack Aidley Oct 11 '21 at 08:21