I don’t know if this got very wide play on the internet, but it should have. At any rate, in Idaho, some girl brought a gun to school, was caught with it before anyone was shot or hurt, and the school, shocked by the development, made the prudent decision to do something about *checks notes* fucking bookbags:
Effective immediately, backpacks will no longer be allowed at secondary schools in Rigby.
Monica Pauley, a spokeswoman for Jefferson School District 251, tells EastIdahoNews.com this rule applies to Rigby Middle School, Farnsworth Middle School, and both Rigby and Jefferson High Schools.
“Elementary schools will still be able to have backpacks,” Pauley said. “We are doing this as a precautionary measure.”
This comes in response to an incident at Rigby Middle School Thursday morning, where an emotionally struggling 13-year-old girl was taken into custody after a gun was found in her backpack.
Students are being asked to carry their books to the school and place them in their lockers. Teachers and administrators are planning to assist students where needed.
The kids, not having any of this bullshit, responded in a way that you all here will appreciate:
@sav.bag innovation at its finest #iwantmybackpack #rigbyhighschool
Excellent. This went viral, as it should have, and the suits have adjusted the policy:
Students at Jefferson School District 251 secondary schools can now have clear backpacks after the district initially banned all bookbags last month.
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.”
I assume it will be approximately ten minutes before someone puts all their shit in a gym bag and then puts the gym bag in.. a clear bookbag. Because that is what I would do.
At any rate, anything for our society to do anything about gun control. I do have faith, though, that the kids are going to deal with gun issues in the not so distant future (I have zero faith in my generation or those older than me), but I think the combination of a bunch of them being shot up in schools and another overstep by the radical right on the Supreme Court (who are about to fuck up once again on gun rights), will push things.
Mike in NC
Maybe Idaho is the only state weirder than Florida.
West of the Rockies
I wonder how many clear backpacks are readily available on store shelves in this fairly rural community. It doesn’t seem like a quickly workable solution.
Tom Levenson
Protect guns before kids–that’s the Republican way
HumboldtBlue
Why the fuck is Idaho even a state? Same goes for the Dakotas. Fucking GOP knew what they were doing back in the day, ensuring they’d get two senators in states with three fucking people.
Brachiator
Shouldn’t the students have kiddie gun holsters for their weapons?
Yes, I am joking.
It is beyond idiotic that these fools would ban backpacks and do everything to ignore the main goddam problem of too many fucking guns.
I love the students’ response. Yeah, the kids are alright.
Steve M.
Rigby, Idaho, birthplace of television.
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2958
Ohio Mom
Maybe the PTO can have a bake sale to raise money for one of those metal detectors you wall through.
Only half-kidding, it might be less dehumanizing than having to lose the privacy of your backpack. Horrible idea to be forced to put all your personal belongings out on public display.
Tenar Arha
@Ohio Mom: If I was a girl at this school I’d get my girlfriends to join me in lining our backpacks with bras &/ tampons &/ maxi pads, & I’d suggest the boys use their jockstraps & cups or something…just to drive the point home about this distinct lack of privacy.
ETA probably has to be 2nd semester seniors doing it though, otherwise too much leverage on the side of the school.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
This is so fucking dumb, I don’t even know where to begin. It’s like these people have taken an oath to miss the point about everything.
Ken
I am confident that the kids who came up with the alternative backpacks will also find a way to make the administration uncomfortable about the clear backpacks. Hygiene products alone should do the trick.
EDIT: Tenar Arha got there first.
Urza
@Ken: I’d suggest some sex toys, but I don’t know if they’d be able to discreetly borrow them from parents.
Quencher
I suspect it was already against school rules to bring firearms in school.
Gvg
Exactly what is a school district supposed to do about too many guns everywhere? I think your sarcasm is misplaced. They can’t make any laws about guns. That has to be elected officials. I am sure that bringing guns to school was already against the school rules. Didn’t work because there are already too many guns. So they have to try some other stop gaps. Clear back packs are probably about all they can do. Maybe a speech quietly to the kids, grow up and vote together and keep your eyes on a sane Supreme Court as a goal plus legislators. The law makers are the ones who aren’t caring for kids.
School authorities only have limited ability to fix things especially when the problem is the whole society they are in the middle of.
Clear backpacks are cheap and common at places like Walmart. I have one. Lots of place require them since 911. Disney World, football stadiums, water parks, etc. it isn’t nice, but this is just another day and not that new. Gun worshiping fools who vote and intimidate are to blame.
Urza
They just need mandatory prayer in school. That’ll fix everything obviously.
Another Scott
From your first link:
Sounds like it’s more than a bookbag problem. It sounds like a possible toxic environment for girls problem (with a too-easy-availability-of-guns problem).
Yes, the school can’t change state law. But clear bookbags aren’t going to solve the problems.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@Quencher: It’s a Federal felony.
Ken
Sure they can. There are plenty of court cases that greatly restrict students’ rights, including ones protected under the Bill of Rights. Districts in my area have a blanket no firearms policy which applies to everyone on school grounds — even (or especially) adults not affiliated with the school.
Kay
The screamers don’t even have kids at the school- they were brought to that school by a Right wing organizer.
The sheriff won’t do anything about it- just lets it continue.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator:
Your sarcasm is actually making an important point. Firearms just bouncing around loose in bags, whether backpacks or purses, are especially dangerous. There are numerous negligent discharges every year because someone just put their gun in their backpack or purse or bag and something in the backpack, purse, or bag got inside the trigger guard so that when the owner shifted the bag the trigger was depressed and the gun fired. And then there’s the ones where mom has an unholstered gun in her purse and one of the kids goes rummaging around while in the shopping cart or the backseat or wherever and winds up firing off a round. Often hurting their mother or themselves.
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Next you’ll be saying that most firearms deaths in the US are suicides, just because it’s also true.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Sending my thoughts and prayers to the bookbag industry
Mary G
We have actual rain now. And a shitload.of lightning north of me. Happy dance in progress.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
If bookbags are banned, then only bookworms will have bookbags
Dan B
@Mike in NC: My best friend has loads of relatives in Idaho, and LDS relatives. Their politics are as expected but the “reasoning” is mind boggly.
MomSense
I don’t know what to say anymore. Some of the kids are alright – they’re coming through all this idiocy and cruelty with humor and strength. And some kids just get crushed by it.
Adam L Silverman
@Ken: It is, but not my point. This could have been a lot worse without this girl, who is in obvious need of help, as well as better parents, actually ever doing something intentional with the gun. She could have dropped her bag or snagged the strap of her bag on something and if a pen or something similarly shaped had gotten wedged into the trigger she could have shot herself and someone else without ever intending to do so.
My point is that guns are dangerous enough when handled by people who know what they’re doing and are taking proper care. They are especially dangerous when they are in inexperienced hands and those hands belong to individuals in emotional distress. Knives and swords can cut bread. Axes wood. Hammers can pound nails. Guns are specifically designed to kill.
HeleninEire
Wow. I haven’t watched cable news for at least 2 years. Watching MSNBC. That Rucker guy..Phil?? from the NYT has no clue. “The latest consensus that the target is gonna go down to 1.4t. on the package” Also too “Democrats in disarray.”
I turned it off.
Kay
@Gvg:
They can refer her parents to child welfare for allowing a 13 year old access to a gun. They put her at risk along with every other student and teacher in that school.
They have tools. They just have to stop being so scared of far Right lunatics and use them. They need to lock up their guns.
We had one where an uncle tossed a loaded gun on a clothes dryer in a garage and walked away. Two teenagers waiting for the school bus wander into the garage to get out of the weather, one shoots the other. They toss these guns around everywhere. They can’t even be bothered to put them out of sight, let alone secure them. Prosecute a couple thousand of the adults and it’ll stop.
piratedan
@Steve M.: the museum there is quaint. my brother used to live there and my nephews went to the school where it happened and have ties there. The kids are very much aware that they are pawns.
Dan B
@Ken: There’s a run on extra jumbo maxi-pads in Rigsby, and an underground importing cabal for wildly colored and ribbed condoms!
mvr
@HumboldtBlue:
SD is a state so that our country can get its share of the international money laundering grift and so that its governor can do her bit to spread covid throughout the land in an attempt to be president.
(Oh damn, killed another thread.)
Another Scott
@mvr: Not your fault. West-coasters and those farther west need to up their game!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Poe Larity
But what does Megan McArdle have to say?
What if we just trained the kids to mob other kids with backpacks? Or maybe mob all the kids in Idaho?
IdahoGoatGirl
That was the second gun (that they know of) brought to that same school in 5 months. In May a female sixth-grader shot two students and one staff member.
RepubAnon
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Reminds me of the old joke:
I drank whisky and water, and got drunk
I drank bourbon and water, and got drunk
I drank vodka and water, and got drunk.
Obviously, the problem is the water!
NotMax
Next: when one is smuggled in inside a hollowed out text, they’ll ban books.
Dan B
@NotMax: You, sir, are a visionary!
HumboldtBlue
@IdahoGoatGirl:
So what you’re saying is context matters?
Richard
@HumboldtBlue:
It is a playground for baby republican politicians and an example of corruption.
I heard they actually have a college town called Moscow, pronounced Mos koh. Whatever. They have affiliation with Walla Walla and Pendleton and Spokane and parts of eastern Oregon.
I had a crush on a boy from there years ago. It was doomed.
He was nice, but no way.
I already met some other people from that country.
Kattails
@Adam L Silverman: One of these days I’m going to get my gun-apologist friend to read about 2 weeks’ worth of Well_regulated. Just as a dope slap.
Kattails
@Kay: but it’s always “oh it was a tragic accident but the (completely, utterly negligent asshole) has suffered enough, they feel terrible, you can’t charge them with anything.”
Hellbastard
The state itself is quite beautiful and Moscow, ID is really liberal… the Austin, TX of Idaho. I did some shopping there last weekend on a motorcycle trip through the area.
trollhattan
Lacking availability of a Hello Kitty motif version, borrowed the spouse’s stadium-approved clear backpack (“no larger than 12 x 12′) with weed emporium graphic to take to the Sea-SF game yesterday. Luxury travel at its finest.
Warning: shop for this item on Amazon and they will spam you mercilessly with a thousand variations. You’ve been warned.
How long before we need to be buck-nekked like our stuff?
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
I carried a loaded gun when I was in the Navy and on in port watch. My watch was called sounding and security. I walked one end to the other and made sure that the ship wasn’t taking on water or anyone was boarding to take over the ship. There was another man at the ship end of the gangplank also with a loaded .45 semi auto pistol with a round in the chamber and the safety on, same as me. American ports, foreign ports, same watch, same loaded gun. It was the two of us, on a 450 ft ship, we were supposed to stop any and every one. Of course never had to pull it out of the holster and shoot it but that is what we were supposed to do if the issue arose. It wasn’t a lot of an improvement over a child taking a gun to school, age considered, other than we were supposed to be doing this and none of us actually wanted to shoot or even scare anyone. The level of trust that the navy put in everyone rather amazed me. But then the country was taking 18 yr olds and sending them to an actual fighting war that over 58,000 Americans got killed in. And more amazing we only carried a night stick and a set of handcuffs when I was on temp duty in the Shore Patrol later on. And all the guns on board were locked up tight when not being carried on watch or qualifying. Doesn’t sound like a lot of houses in many parts of the country, actually locking up dangerous weapons, how insane is that?
Kent
@Hellbastard: Exactly. The only real difference between Idaho and Oregon is that Portland is 4x the size of Boise and Eugene is 10x the size of Moscow. It’s a rural vs urban thing and Idaho just has way too much rural as a percentage of the population. The rural parts of Oregon are just as red as Idaho.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: The lightning gave me a chance to try out the lightning trigger I have for my camera. It looks like that I got some interesting pics.
gene108
@trollhattan:
I try to think of odd things to search for on Amazon to see what it does to their algorithm. Probably doesn’t do much of anything to Amazon, but I like to think it does.
***************
The idea that the kids will save is bunk. NYC, LA county, San Francisco, Boston, and other places may get more liberal as a younger more tolerant generation comes of age, but I haven’t seen a damn thing change in heavily Republican states, like Idaho or South Dakota.
If anything, they have become more Republican over the last 20 years.
oatler
@Kent:
“The rural parts of Oregon are just as red as Idaho”
I lived in southern Oregon for 15 years and good lord that is true.
lurker
@Adam L Silverman: While it is a federal offense, U.S. v Lopez ruled the original federal offense unconstitutional and the amended statute potentially has some loopholes in it. The Giffords Law Center has some information on this.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@gene108: The problem is that the kids we’re depending on to save the world, the ones who have seen the horrors and want to fight them, are up against the kids who have been isolated by their parents and communities from those ugly realities, who have been indoctrinated and then are sent out and imposed on the world with their worldviews entrenched.
This is why I object to home-schooling: because it helps reinforce the isolation and indoctrination that threatens to destroy our nation.
Gvg
@Ken: Those rules already exist. Guns were already against the rules at school but kids still brought them to the school. The problem is the parents and the adult culture around them.
Schools cannot make an enforceable rule that the parents and friends and neighbors of school age children must not have lots of unlocked weapons around. They can’t make the police charge adults who don’t keep weapons locked up, they can’t make their state have stricter gun laws. Local areas don’t think they can pass strict laws because of the Supreme Court and politicians pander to gun fetish collectors who will vote instead of concerned parents.
police and prosecutors don’t charge careless adults, letting the norm become never holding the adults responsible and they never charge the adult bullies for intimidation when they attack those who speak for stricter gun laws.
I just think our ire is wasted on some school district, it needs to go higher to legal authorities and frankly to the society surrounding the school.
sab
I always looked at school as kind of like a job but for children. And I never thought that I had any privacy or privacy rights at school or my job. Higher ups could always rummage through my office desk or my school locker. It’s their property. I may not like it but it is what it is. What am I missing here?
Bill K
@Ruckus: Yeah. Same in the Army. The military has the most experience with lots of people with guns, and they have incredibly strict gun control because of that.
mvr
@sab:
According to https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/school-lockers-what-can-a-teacher-search the matter varies with California offering greater protection and the US Supreme Court seemingly requiring teachers to have something akin to probable cause but related to school rules and not the law.