Schools’ plan to require clear backpacks is likely scrapped after a raucous town hall

The sentiment was clear — the backpacks should not be.

Broward schools’ controversial decision to require clear backpacks this fall has likely been quashed after five School Board members said at a town hall at Plantation High that they don’t support making them mandatory.

Board members Lori Alhadeff, Debbi Hixon, Nora Rupert, Brenda Fam and Sarah Leonardi all announced they also don’t support them, giving it five votes needed to reject it. Alhadeff said the topic is still on the agenda for a June 20 workshop and a July 25 board meeting, but she doesn’t see it passing.

The announcement came at the end of a raucous and often hostile town hall Tuesday that attracted about 200 student and parent speakers, all but a few who fiercely opposed the proposed clear backpack requirement, which was made during a secret closed-door session March 28.

“I send my two boys with a bullet-proof backpack. Unfortunately, I wasn’t part of the closed-door meeting, because I am against having clear backpacks for students,” said Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland.

Alhadeff was out of town during the March 28 secret meeting where most board members agreed to require see-through backpacks for the 2023-24 school year. The plan was announced publicly May 5 and led to a widespread backlash and efforts by parents to reject or delay it. Board members agreed to hold the town hall to hear the public’s feedback.

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“You’re not here today to discuss safety. You’re here because you guys reached a decision behind closed doors,” one speaker said. “This is Florida. We need Sunshine.”

Audience members said clear backpacks are bad for the environment, are poorly made, offer a “false sense of security” and increase the risk of theft and bullying.

Some criticized the lack of uniform enforcement that was proposed. Most students would be required to have clear backpacks but employees and visitors wouldn’t. Students with sports and band equipment would also be exempt.

“I would like to say that I find it absurd that volunteers, visitors and staff are exempted. These policies are suggesting students are solely responsible for the shootings that occurred,” Plantation High student Carlos Lopez Jr. said.

During the meeting, district staff gave inconclusive data on security threats. They first said there had been an uptick of weapons over the past five years but then noted weapons offenses were low during the COVID-19 years due to low enrollment. Weapons spiked during 2021-22 but then fell sharply this past school year. There were about 113 weapons serious enough to be reported to the state this year as of late April, about half as many as last year.

District Police Chief Craig Kowalski credited the decrease to a random metal detection wanding program, prompting audience members to ask why that effort wasn’t expanded then.

There have been few studies that have shown clear backpacks decrease weapons and violence on campus and one frequently cited study concluded clear backpacks might increase violence because it signals to students they can’t be trusted.

“I came over to hear evidence for clear backpacks. Where is the compelling evidence? It wasn’t presented, because I don’t believe there is any,” parent Nicole Stanford said.

Audience members were also angry about the town hall rules the district set. Comments were limited to 30 seconds due to a larger number of speakers, and no one was allowed to bring bags into the forum. Some audience members started heckling Board member Nora Rupert when they saw her open a color-tinted bag on stage.

“You should not have a purse on that stage right now! That is wrong! ” shouted Kathleen Socolove, a parent who lives in Oakland Park, prompting boos and shouts from the audience.

It was one of several times moderator Eric Chisem asked the crowd to calm down. “This is an opportunity to voice and it is going very well, and we just want you to be able to do that,” Chisem said after Socolove’s comments.

Rupert addressed the crowd at the end of the meeting holding up her bag and explaining she has a medical condition that requires her to carry supplies and fluids. “I have to drink all the time because I get dehydrated,” she said.

Still facing boos, she spoke over the audience and proclaimed, “I am not for the backpacks because I have received bullying here tonight.”

She received thunderous applause.