America's backpack dilemma

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Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

New school rules requiring see-through backpacks are rising as students return to class this year, Axios' April Rubin reports. Why it matters: More shootings on campus are making administrators choose between letting students express themselves and taking extra steps to keep schools safe. At least 27 school districts in the past 18 months have started restricting backpacks, The Washington Post reported. There have been 221 school shootings so far this calendar year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. There were 305 total in 2022. A decade ago, there were 34. ?️ The big picture: Some schools started giving out clear backpacks in the immediate aftermath of a shooting in the mid-2000s, said David Riedman, the database's founder. Now many districts are instituting it as an umbrella policy. ? Zoom in: The policies span the country and vary widely. In Newport News, Virginia, where a 6-year-old shot his teacher last year, clear backpacks were part of several districtwide changes. Many Texas schools made changes after the Uvalde shooting, Axios Dallas' Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi reports. Schools in Flint, Michigan, banned backpacks altogether. Keep reading.