If I am correct, Brambleton Middle School has announced that next Thursday when school starts students will be forced to put their backpacks in a locker and use a sack as a replacement. This affects the students, their parents, and honestly the growth of our society.

There are so many reasons why this is completely unreasonable. One being it's taking away a tool for our personal education. Backpacks were created to help students with organization and tidiness as it has multiple pockets and has easy transportation. Taking away that tool makes it extremely hard for students to prioritize organizing their school work. I know for me, and many other students at this school, when my school work isn't organized it overwhelms me and makes it hard for me to do my work at all.

Also, parents spent lots of money on high quality backpacks for their kids assuming that they would be able to actually have access to them. Backpacks can also be a form of self expression through designs and patterns. Taking away backpacks is stripping away resources for students to have their own personality. This sends the message that students and their originality are not important and clearly are not high in the school's values.

Another thing is that backpacks are is a place to store personal items. Such as feminine hygiene products. At this age menstruation is still a taboo subject. So most teenagers who menstruate prefer to keep it in a private place that is not out in the open for all to see. A small pocket in their backpack for example. Not a flimsy sack where everything is out in the open. This embarrassing for teens, and not to mention increases the risk of bullying. So most students probably won't even bring them to not risk embarrassment. And it's not like those tampon dispensers in the bathroom can do anything, they are always empty. So now this also wastes money students used on extra feminine products to bring to school which are already too expensive due to pink tax.

We need to act now and fast. School starts next Thursday and if this isn't fixed, I can almost guarantee this year is starting off in chaos. It's about time we ask ourselves, how is taking away an important resource like a backpack going to be beneficial for Brambleton Middle students well being?

(Please only sign this petition if you are a student at Brambleton, relative of a student, or a teacher at Brambleton. This makes the petition more effective as it is a local issue and not a global issue.)

(Also please do not chip in any money. Change.org does not use the money towards the petition. If you would like to help, please share the petition and/or write a comment.)

UPDATE: As school has started and people are getting used to the new rules, I have a few updates. Here are some of them.

1) Everyone was given an identical drawstring bag and told to write their name on it. The problem with this is that people could still get bags messed up. Students are only given 4 minutes to transition to their next class, so they are just grabbing the bag closest to them assuming it's their own. It's only a matter of time before everyone starts mixing up bags daily.

2) The strings on the bag provided dig into your shoulders and as you are walking cause friction against your shoulders. Speaking from experience, it feels almost like someone is rubbing sandpaper on your shoulders. It's almost unbearable to wear in the hallways because of the pain. 

3) Mine and other people's bag have already started to break, and it's only been about a week.   The bag has gotten holes, the straps have broken so you have to literally carry it over your shoulder like a potato sack, and the seams are started to come apart. These bags are not made to be able to hold all the things students need. I get stressed out from going to my locker in between classes, so I just put everything I need for the day in the drawstring bag at the beginning of the day. But even if i didn't do that, this bag is not big enough or high enough in quality to hold a notebook, a pencil case, a water bottle, a folder, and feminine products. You could argue that people can buy their own more high quality drawstring bag, but nobody right now wants to spend more money. Even though most people in this country are very well off economically, that shouldn't make it ok for them to have to spend more money than they already have on school supplies.

4) The locker bays are chaos. You have to squeeze through a crowd of people to get to your locker and then when you get there to move your stuff from your backpack to your drawstring bag while your head is being repeatedly hit by multiple people's drawstring backs they are trying to get to their next class. I'm starting off my day feeling like Mufasa from the Lion King when he got trampled by a stampede. Because there is so much chaos to get in and out of your locker everyone is always late to their first block. 

5) Because the strings of the drawstring bags are to slippery to go on the back of your chair and it it to complicated to reach in for stuff that way as it is essentially a endless black hole, most people put their bag on the ground. I have heard stories from teachers of students getting their feet tangled in the strings of their back and tripping. A big reason why our school got rid of backpacks in the first place was because they took up too much space if there was an emergency and students needed to evacuate the school. But the drawstring bags are posing more risk as people are tripping over them.