School shooting survivors given mandatory see-through backpacks

  • 03/04/2018
Students at a Florida high school have been issued see-through backpacks.
Students at a Florida high school have been issued see-through backpacks. Photo credit: Twitter/Kyra Parrow

The survivors of the recent Florida school shooting have been given see-through backpacks as part of new security measures that have attracted online ridicule.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned from spring break on Monday (local time) and were greeted by security barriers and bag check lines.

Once inside, they were issued mandatory see-through backpacks and ID badges which must be worn at all times.

The new regulations come six weeks after former student Nikolas Cruz entered the school on Valentine's Day armed with an AR-15 rifle. He shot 17 people to death and injured 17 more. It was the most deadly high school shooting in US history.

The school's resource officer - an armed security worker - was slammed after footage showed that he never entered the building. Now police officers and security guards are stationed around campus, monitoring all entry points and checking students' bags.

Rather than feeling safer, students have taken to social media to mock the beefed-up security.

Many said the backpacks were an invasion of privacy, especially for girls bringing sanitary items to school.

Others said they did not adequately address the issue of how easily young people can obtain semi-automatic weapons.

Some attached price tags to their backpacks as a protest against politicians who accept donations from the National Rifle Association.

Kai Koerber, a 17-year-old student, told Teen Vogue that the new security made Marjory Stoneman Douglas feel like a jail.

"We are trying heal from the tragedy we experienced, but we're being made to feel like prisoners."

Other students also compared the school to a prison.

It's unknown how long the security measures will remain in place or if they are permanent.

Since the massacre, surviving students have ignited a national movement for gun control, the likes of which has not been seen in the United States before.

More than one million people joined the March for Our Lives on March 24, demanding tighter gun control legislation.

Newshub.