Parkland Students: New Security Measure Is Ridiculous

After a gunman massacred 17 students and staff, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students called for nine changes to gun laws. Instead, they've been given clear backpacks as part of new security measures at the high school in Parkland, Fla., and many of them mocked the change after they returned from spring break Monday, NBC News reports. "My new backpack is almost as transparent as the NRA’s agenda. I feel sooo safe now," tweeted Lauren Hogg, younger sister of student activist David Hogg. "As much as I appreciate the effort we as a country need to focus on the real issue instead of turning our schools into prisons."

Other students called the backpacks an invasion of privacy and said they were a ridiculous, meaningless gesture, while some used them to make a statement, the Sun Sentinel reports. Numerous backpacks had $1.05 price tags attached, referring to the donations Sen. Marco Rubio has accepted from the National Rifle Association: $3,303,355, which works out to around $1.05 for each of the 3,140,167 students enrolled in Florida schools. Others had different messages: "Clear backpacks are stupid," read one sheet of paper displayed inside a backpack. "I AM SINGLE" advertised another student. The school district says students are also being given identity cards and it is considering installing metal detectors. (More Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School stories.)