Why do teens often hold their books in their hands in US movies and series?

Have you ever wondered why teenagers in American series and movies often carry their books and notebooks in the hallways of their club? Admittedly, this is partly due to the fact that they generally have a lot of lockers, compared to France. Surely it’s also to allow for a cliched encounter where a guy pushes a girl and helps her pick up her fallen things. But another much darker reason could explain why students are sometimes forced to bring their belongings to the US, actually.

Many schools in the United States, in fact, limit the choice of model, even the use of backpacks inside them. And this mention in the regulation is not romantic, contrary to what the series and the films would have us believe.

Mass killings in schools, a common reality

Indeed, killings in primary schools, colleges and high schools are the order of the day in this country which allows firearms under certain conditions. (not in schools, but this rule is often broken). The Columbine shooting caused a particular stir: on April 20, 1999, in a Colorado secondary school, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed twelve classmates and a teacher, and more or less seriously injured twenty-four other students. And this is far from an isolated case, at least since the 1920s.

Among the deadliest school killings Recent events include the April 16, 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech University in Virginia, which resulted in the deaths of 33 people, including the killer. Also noteworthy is the February 14, 2018, Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where former student Nikolas Jacob Cruz killed 17 people and hospitalized another 15, presumably for believing in white supremacy.

nothing butin the school year 2021-2022 in the United States there were 193 incidents with firearms in institutions, including 22 homicides mass, relay TF1.

Weapon scanner and backpack limit against school kills

In addition to the security gates used to scan for the presence of knives or firearms to avoid further killing, the house rules of many schools in the United States prohibit either limit the use of backpacks inside them.

Some schools completely ban themas reported News week in September 2021, when others only allow completely transparent onesrelieves USA Today in July 2022.

The latter media questions in particular Kenneth Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a consultancy firm in safety and protection services for schools in the country, which analyzes with relevance:

“Most shootings and other security incidents involve alleged breakdowns of people, policies, procedures, training and other human factors and not breakdowns of materials, equipment and things like bags with clear backs. “

For this expertschools would do better to invest in better staff training, more supervision in corridors and more teachers to build relationships with students for greater safetyrather than a backpack ban approach.

The absurdity of the backpack ban, mocked on TikTok

Sometimes these are temporary measures, sometimes they last for years. And students have more and more fun making fun of these kinds of absurd restrictions, particularly through TikTok videos.

Because some students compete in wits to still carry their heavy things without having to carry them away all the time. While it may seem funny at first glance, it says a lot the absurdity of the policies of this country which prefers to ban backpacks rather than firearms…

The sadness of the growing market for bulletproof armor

For establishments that allow backpacks, an entire armored backpack market is also developing to be bulletproof, as capitalism always enjoys insecurity. Sadder, even the parents of the students tell on the networks what they explain to their children to react in case of murder in their school. In August 2022, this video of a mother buying a bulletproof armored backpack for her 5-year-old boy went viral and asked him how he would react in the event of a murder:

Hesitating to equip your child with a bulletproof backpack for school remains a reality that few American series and films dare to tell. Because a shooting proves certainly less photogenic and romantic than a run of future lovers loaded with books in the hands that meet in the corridors of a college-high school.

Front page photo credit: Screenshot from teen movie Clueless.