Hello I am a first year student of Colaiste Einde of Threadneedle Rd, Salthill, Galway. 

For the past month my fellow students and myself have been experiencing back pain due to an arbitrary rule that is only being enforced in our school, but not in any other school to my knowledge. 

We are not allowed to make use of any of the locker facilities in place, and are required to carry ALL of our school textbooks, copy books ect. at all times, which is a weight of 14kg being carried by a child of 13 years of age. This places undue pressure, strain and exhaustion for all students on a daily basis. 

We have already attempted to resolve this by approaching our teachers and our year head, but our concerns have fallen upon deaf ears, and the lack of concern from the school staff is highly concerning. 

Given that every day is already stressful due to all the changes, covid, and overall inconsistency of our school year, it puts even more stress on us to have our issues and troubles go completely unnoticed by the school. 

It is already difficult enough to carry everything with us all day between classes as well as up and down flights of stairs, but it has been especially taxing on me because of my atshma, and I am not the only one either.