FMS Principal: Backpacks Are Verboten In Class

Franklin Middle School students will not be able to carry their backpacks throughout the day, starting this year.

One side effect of the new Franklin Middle School schedule, administrators say, is that it will relieve students of the need to carry backpacks through the school.

And that suits FMS principal Reginald Davenport just fine.

“I have a real problem with kids carrying backpacks all day long,” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen in the classes. It’s a hazard.”

The new team-based scheduling will divide the 7th and 8th grade academic classes by floor, and will result in classes being grouped closer together. That, in turn, will mean fewer students in the halls at one time and faster “commutes” between classes.

Thus, students will have more time to go to their lockers to get books they need for the upcoming class, Davenport said.

And students won’t have more than two consecutive “instructional periods” in a day, he said.

Davenport and schools Superintendent John Ravally say they recognize that in the past, students needed the backpacks.

“In fairness to the kids, when I’m traveling halfway across the building” the backpacks are needed because there’s no time to go to a locker, Ravally said. “Now, when you get up from math and go to English, you might be going across the hall, so you have plenty of time to go to your locker.”

“I’m sure some kids had to have some anxiety about that, especially early in the year, if they were in one end of the building and had to get to the other end,” he said.

Starting this year, Davenport said, “you need to keep your backpack in your locker.”

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