SCHOOLS BAG PURSES IN CLASS

Citing Security Concerns, Administrators Expand Backpack Rule to
Include Handbags

Some high school administrators charged with keeping their students
safe are zeroing in on a potential vulnerability: the purses many
teenage girls say they can't live without.

Educators in Minnesota, Kentucky, Florida and elsewhere are banning
purses from classrooms, saying students can hide weapons or drugs
inside. Their security concerns have grown as purses have. Some bulky
purses are the size of backpacks, which many schools restrict.

"With the recent shootings and the threats that we had this year, I
don't want to take the risk," says Jeff Sampson, assistant principal
of Winona Senior High School in Winona, Minn. A shooting threat
prompted a lockdown at the school in October.

The previous month, the 1,400-student school had broadened its
existing backpack restriction to include purses. Now, students must
keep purses in their lockers unless they have an approved medical
reason to carry one, such as needing to carry a medical device that
won't fit in their pocket. He wouldn't be more specific.

Students are allowed to take small pencil bags to class, Sampson says.

No one keeps statistics on the trend, but the National Association of
Secondary School Principals agrees that more schools are adding
purses to their restrictions on backpacks and other large bags. "You
shouldn't underestimate how prudent school officials have to be,"
says Dick Flanary, the group's director of professional development.

Some students say the purse ban goes too far. Abby Kowitz, 16, of
Fergus Falls, Minn., says she and her friends carry ChapStick, gum,
pens and, when necessary, feminine hygiene products in their purses.
Last month, officials at Fergus Falls High School told them their
purses, like backpacks, would have to remain in lockers during class.

"We allow students, both female and male, to carry a small bag,"
Assistant Principal Tindyl Rund says. "It can hold pencils, a
calculator, ChapStick -- we showed the students several examples. We
have termed them 'hand-size.' "

Kowitz, a junior, says she and her friends consider the policy "kind
of pointless." "If someone wants to bring a weapon to school, not
being able to carry a purse won't stop them," she says.

Sophomore Rebecca Stenstrom, 15, says it's important that girls have
personal items close at hand, and she worries about leaving valuable
items such as an MP3 player in her locker. "Even the guys think the
girls need to be able to carry their purses," she says.

Rund says students who need feminine products can take their purses
to the bathroom between classes, visit the school nurse or carry what
they need in their "hand-size bag."

Restricting purses to lockers also reduces clutter and crowding, she says.

"Some of the purses were getting so huge," says Michael Blevins,
principal of Conner High School in Hebron, Ky. The 1,650-student
school expanded its backpack policy to include purses in October, he
says. Pencil bags are allowed in classrooms.

"We have overcrowding in our school," he says. "Purses were banging
into people in our hallways."

Restricting purses to lockers isn't a foolproof way to keep drugs,
weapons or any prohibited items off campus, Blevins acknowledges, but
they're less accessible. "If they're in a locker, I'm not saying it
couldn't harm somebody, but it would have decreased the amount."