9486 in the collection  

Girls, moms bash ban on purses in classes

Ohanian Comment: This
Northwest Indiana schools calls it a security
issue; I call it one more step in using schools
as training ground for:

a) the captive society who have given up all
rights;

b) prison


By Erika Slife

In a variation of the saying that a woman
without her handbag feels as lost as a wanderer
in the desert, female students at Hanover
Central High School in Cedar Lake, Ind., just
want theirs to carry to the bathroom.

A newly enforced rule this school year
prohibits purses in the classrooms, adding to
an existing ban of book bags and backpacks. But
the latest provision is exasperating some
students and their parents, who say the policy
compromises the privacy of girls.

At a school board meeting this week before a
standing-room-only crowd, mom Janet Brennan
demonstrated how uncomfortable it is to cram
feminine hygiene products into pockets already
stuffed with a pen, pencil, calculator and
other items.

"I was trying to make a point," said Brennan,
whose 15-year-old daughter, Kristin Lynch, is a
sophomore at the school. "They have to carry
these products in their pocket. Girls that age
are easily embarrassed; they don't want people
to know they have their period."

Experts say banning backpacks in the classroom
is becoming more popular as schools tighten
security measures in a post-Columbine world.
However, banning purses in classrooms, they
said, is extremely uncommon, although
controversies surrounding similar prohibitions
have popped up around the country.

Last year in New York, a male school security
guard asked a 14-year-old girl if the reason
she was carrying a purse in school was because
she was on her period. The interrogation
sparked a student protest.

"We've seen a number of schools around the
country tighten up on their book-bag policies
by not allowing them to carry them to and from
class, or have them in the class. There's good
reason behind that," said Ken Trump, a national
school safety and emergency planning
consultant. "The hallways are crowded and
congested. Getting hit by a book bag can lead
to conflict.

"But when you start getting into areas of
female purses, then it kind of crosses a line
into a more difficult situation to manage."

Hanover Central officials did not return phone
calls or e-mails Wednesday. But they have told
parents and others that the purse ban was
implemented for security reasons.

Newly appointed Principal Robert McRae has said
he enforced the ban last year while he was
principal at Hanover Central Middle School
after seeing girls walking around with purses
as big as backpacks. He continued the policy at
the high school, about 17 miles south of
Hammond.

About 600 students are enrolled at the high
school, which shares the building with the
junior high.

Some parents and students suspect that school
officials are enforcing the ban because they
are worried about cell phone use in the
classroom.

"I'm all for the no cell phones. If they're
caught with them, put them in detention," said
Shelley Johnson, whose 16-year-old daughter,
Carlene, is a junior at the school.

Johnson said she is worried about locker
security.

"My biggest issue is that all these purses have
to be left in their lockers and the lockers are
going to get broken into. Is the school going
to pay us for anything that's being stolen?"
she asked.

Parents said the school board has promised to
review the policy after it hires a new
superintendent.



— Erika Slife
Chicago Tribune
2008-09-11


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