GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Students in Grand Rapids Public Schools will be returning to the classroom on August 22nd. Returning with them are backpacks.
GRPS banned backpacks back in May, following four instances where guns were confiscated from young students in the district.
"We've had some very difficult and challenging situations over a very short period of time. And we felt that we needed to do something to just kind of calm the waters, calm the fears."
Larry Johnson, Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety for GRPS, says that the reversal was in response to dialogue with students and the community.
"There's always concerns when a decision is made that goes outside of the norm. And so we heard those concerns about students not being able to have a place to store personal items. Also, the the transporting of electronic devices as well as books back and forth. That was a challenge for some of our scholars."
Johnson says that an online survey was sent out to students and conversations were held with parents, staff and community members to make this decision.
"Overwhelmingly, over 90% of our scholar, staff and parents agreed that we should return to some level of use of backpacks in our district."
"We plan to do more. We plan to engage our parents more, because we really want to hear their perspective and in their concerns, and that that is critically important to us."
Kai Hyman, an incoming 9th grader, was outside of Burton Elementary at the playground with their family, and reacted with relief when they received the news.
"I would lose stuff all the time, because I didn't have a backpack."
Parents and guardians are also recommended to purchase clear backpacks for their students to help with monitoring items children bring to school. A move Hyman supported.
"We still have backpacks, and you can see what's inside the backpack. So I feel like that would be safer."
The other measures the district will be implementing this school year include the following:
- Increased Screenings
- Prevention programming
- Mental health and social-emotional learning programming
- Parent Action Leader (PAL) Awareness training
- Scholar forums
- Silent Observer partnership
- Building assessments
- Weapons detectors
- Training
- Crisis after care
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Watch 13 ON YOUR SIDE for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and on your phone.