At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, Freedom Middle school decided to enforce a rule that makes book bags not allowed in the classroom. Many other schools and teachers have several different reasons to incorporate this rule into their school. Some schools have made the rule so students can not sneak any “contraband” into the school, while other schools have made the rule strictly to save room in the classroom. 

Fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Boyd, said that she and the other fifth grade teachers at Freedom Area Middle School decided there should be no book bags in the classroom to save space. The reason this would save space is that there are so many people in the classroom and if everyone brought their backpacks to class then there would be no room to move around in the class. 

Another reason schools have banned bookbags is because of the back issues they have been linked to. Veritas Health states, “Habitually carrying backpacks over one shoulder will make muscles strain to compensate for the uneven weight. The spine leans to the opposite side, stressing the middle back, ribs, and lower back more on one side than the other.”  This can lead to catastrophic back problems in the future. 

Many students in Freedom Middle School do not like this rule because of the extra time it takes to travel from their class to their locker, to their next class. Teachers, on the other hand, say if a student would just carry all their books for multiple classes to all classes, that eliminates the problem. One repercussion of not allowing backpacks in the classroom is sometimes students will forget things in their locker. On the contrary, it saves huge amounts of room in the classroom, according to Mrs. Boyd.   Teachers and students may have different outlooks on this rule.