Green Bay Area Public School District building. (IMAGE: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Improving safety in the Green Bay Area Public School District has been a topic of discussion for months, and on Monday, the Board of Education debated it again.
This time, they considered a proposal that would require students to keep their backpacks in their lockers.
“This is another thing that we can put in our arsenal that puts barriers in between a lot of instances where kids could have access to a weapon inside of a classroom,” said Board Trustee Alex Mineau.
Mineau sees this proposal as an opportunity to allow students to use their non-clear backpacks again, but Board President James Lyerly feels differently.
“I would not see this as replacing the need for some sort of transparent backpack, because I see this as additive,” said Lyerly.
Student representatives of Intra-City Student Council argued against the policy, citing reasons like lack of access to personal items and that it doesn’t address the weapons issue.
“Many students felt as though if this action were to be implemented, that it was sort of treating high schoolers not as the prospective adults as they will be,” said Hana Song, an Intra-City Student Council representative and student at Preble High School.
Although students have spoken out against changes like this one, Mineau says Green Bay middle schools already have this policy in place, and it’s been a success.
“It has been a huge improvement in the ability for kids to focus, decreasing distractions, decreasing the amount of things that shouldn’t be in a classroom that kids want to pay attention to,” said Mineau.
The ICSC reps countered, saying high school is different than middle school and arguing it wouldn’t have the same benefits.
Mineau also noted this policy is in place at high schools in neighboring school districts.
“We need to start making some decisions because these issues, just because they haven’t been talked about recently, they are not going away, and they will happen again, and hopefully, we can be better prepared and have better responses,” Mineau said.
This policy was tabled, with an unspecified date for it to return to the agenda.
Other safety measures that have been discussed include metal detectors, increased police presence and a change to the dress code to prohibit baggy clothing. The board didn’t address those other measures at Monday’s meeting.
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