Backpack Checks at Rialto High School
- Jesse Noriega
- Apr 12, 2022
- 2 min read
On Friday, April 1, Rialto High School principal Dr. Caroline Sweeney made a campus-wide announcement stating that on Monday, April 4, 2022, everyone who walks in through the Great Hall will get their backpack checked in regards to the confetti eggs that students cracked on campus that week.
Immediately students got upset.
On Monday, as I walked into the Great Hall, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it all seemed normal, just a quick peek into my backpack, not even checking the smaller pocket.
Chris Suba, one of Rialto High School’s custodians, said that the backpack checks help a lot in minimizing the confetti mess left by students.
But, junior Vanessa Mendez says the backpack checks are, “ineffective, because there are other ways that students could sneak in eggs.” She elaborates by saying that students could stuff their sweater pockets with eggs, and so she doesn’t see how backpack checks could help.
Dr. Sweeney says that with the backpack checks in place, they’ve already confiscated many eggs, which helps minimize littering on campus.
It seems as if the backpack checks were put in place to help keep the school clean, and from what I can see, it is working, in regards to the confetti eggs.
Junior Emily Bravo questioned the administration authorizing backpack checks to what went down a few months ago when shooting threats were happening. Dr. Sweeney responded by saying, “I know confetti eggs were being brought on campus, but I don’t necessarily know if guns are,” she adds, “when we do things, there’s a thing called reasonable suspicion.” If she knows there’s going to be a school shooting, a backpack check might be put in place to help prevent harm..
Luckily, on Friday, April 1 more than 50 students volunteered to clean up the campus which according to Suba is a huge help to the night cleaning crew.
Junior Vanessa Mendez says that she doesn’t mind if backpack checks are put in place “as long as you have nothing to hide, and as long as it’s a safety reason.” Vanessa does not believe this is a safety reason and points out that checking backpacks could be an invasion of privacy if they check too much.
However, Dr. Sweeney says she warned students about the backpack checks and tells students, “If you’re worried about me seeing something that’s private to yourself, either don’t carry it in a backpack, or make sure it doesn’t look like an egg.” She continues by saying they’re only looking for eggs and are not hoping to find anything else, but confetti, flour, or glitter eggs.
It seems like backpack checks are not going to be happening everyday. Dr. Sweeney just wants to make sure a pattern is in place if this were to happen again.
Remember knights, we have to be considerate of our school, and what we can do to maintain the cleanliness of our campus.
At the time of the articles publication, I was 100 percent on board with the backpack checks, and still now were it to occur again. I always entered the school early, so I never got held up in a line at the front gate. At the time I might have found it annoying, but I understood that it was necessary. The inconsideration of the student body sneaking in eggs was very apparent upon entering the school and looking at the trash scattered everywhere. A single quick glance in a backpack makes all the difference and should never be a major problem
Personally I don't see anything wrong with backpack checks on campus, I never saw it as an inconvenience. The people that had a problem with backpack checks definitely had something to hide and saw it as a threat to them especially since the backpack checks were never consistent they were mostly random days out of the week. I don't see how backpack checks could have been inconvenient to others since they were very quick and sometimes the people in the front did not even check bags, so its not like students were waiting in a huge line for a large amount of time. I do see the concern of invasion of privacy, but at the time it was not just…
Backpack checks, in my opinion, are an effective way to discourage and minimize the sneaking in of confetti eggs or dangerous items. Though it was inconvenient to wait in an often long line in the morning for the backpack checks, it was a process that was very necessary. The excessive use of confetti eggs made the campus extremely dirty and unfortunately left more work for the custodians. It won't completely stop the issue but by no means is it completely useless. If a student has nothing to hide, then a quick glance in ones backpack should be no problem at all.
I agree with Principal DR. Sweeney about the important of backpack checks. Students would feel annoyed, frustrated, and irritated with these backpack checks, but it's not fair to the custodians to clean up their mess. Students don't understand confetti eggs are difficult to clean up by yourself. However it is exciting to see that 50 students volunteered to clean the campus after the confetti eggs. Junior Vanessa Mendez does have a excellent point, it can be an invasion of privacy for students to get their backpacks checked. For example, girls on their periods get embarrass about their feminine products being seen. I understand Junior Vanessa's perspective about checking backpacks invasion can be of privacy. Both perspective are understandable I see…
Backpack checks should not be a problem, like Dr. Sweeney said we are given a notice and if at that point you still decide to bring something that might get you in trouble then that is on you. They also worked, not to long after the backpack checks started the eggs started to lessen because no one cared enough to try and sneak them in. Even if they did it would only be a couple because bringing too many would be obvious. I do however believe that this should have been done when we were receiving threats. I understand that a lot of schools get threats and we had a lot last year but it's such a small thing to…