UPDATE: DISD to require clear backpacks — and you’re paying

by Mike Orren

DALLAS — Over on Dallas.org, Allen Gwinn liveblogged the DISD board meeting and reports that the starting next year the district will require students to carry clear or mesh backpacks, presumably so teachers can gauge the caliber of weapons being carried.

Fair enough-- It's a dangerous world out there these days. But Allen also reports that for the more than 80% of DISD students on subsidized meal programs, the district will buy them compliant backpacks, at a cost of between $1-$2 million annually.

Clear backpacks appear to retail for $16-$25.

UPDATE: The school board rescinded its requirement. They got out of it because they say that two board members were absent from the original vote, and those two say they would have voted against it, anyway.