Clear backpacks now required at six APS middle schools

Bombs, knives and firearms. 

These are just a few of the items middle school students said they are hoping will never make their way onto campus after five Albuquerque middle schools — Wilson, Kennedy, Hayes, Washington and Cleveland — opted in to a new policy that requires students to have clear backpacks in school.

"The move is aimed at enhancing safety and security at each of the schools," said Albuquerque Public Schools spokesperson Martin Salazar in a news release Tuesday.

Taylor Middle School has enforced its own clear backpack policy since 2021, while Del Norte High School is set to opt in to clear backpacks in August.

The security measures come amid an uptick in guns being found on APS campuses. 

In the 2024-2025 school year, 15 firearms were found on middle and high school campuses in the district. Two weeks into the 2025-2026 school year, five guns were seized from students in a single day. 

In a few cases, guns on campus have proved deadly.

Washington Middle School, one of the schools implementing the clear bag policy, had a shooting in 2021 that left 13-year-old Bennie Hargrove dead. Juan Saucedo Jr. had brought his father's gun to school and shot Hargrove in front of other classmates.

APS spent $90,000 on 7,000 clear backpacks — roughly $13 per bag — and distributed them to the schools, said Antonio Gonzales, deputy superintendent of operations, during a news conference Tuesday. Gonzales said that the money came from revenue from a print shop — Graphics Enterprise Services — run by APS, meaning that no capital or operational funds were used.

Each student will receive one backpack and must bring it to school each day. If they lose or damage it, parents are required to replace the bag at their own expense.

If a student brings a non-clear bag to the school, teachers will provide them with a clear grocery bag as a temporary replacement and students will be able to pick their backpack up from the front office at the end of the day.

APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey said each school's instructional council — a governing body of each school comprised of teachers, parents and administration — made the decision to opt into the policy independently after reviewing the results of surveys that were taken by students, family and staff members.

"They were able to review all the surveys and really have a discussion on what they thought would be best for the school because they know their school community the best and they know that they're the ones that are implementing it," Blakey said. "It's really important that the school and the leaders of the school have a say in what they're doing if we want something to be effective."

When asked if APS would provide the data on the surveys, which were sent out in September, Blakey urged parents to reach out to their child's school principal and suggested news outlets file an Inspection of Public Records Act request in order to receive the data.

"I think it was good to give the community and staff a choice and it's only the first day, so we'll see how the kids react and whether or not people think it's effective," said Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein. "The issue of how we keep kids and adults safe at school is a very important and complex question and I think there is no simple answer."

What do the kids say?

Some students at Cleveland Middle School were ready for the transition, donning clear backpacks with blue or purple straps for their first day of the spring semester. Others seemed hesitant to swap their books and personal items over into the see-through bags. 

Teachers at the middle school spent the afternoon distributing the backpacks while speaking to students about the reasons why the school has chosen to implement the new policy. Shirley Muñoz, a seventh grade teacher at Cleveland, played music for her students as they grabbed their new backpacks in order to bring positivity to what some students felt like was an unhappy moment.

"I don't want them to feel like it's a punishment," she said. 

Students spoke of other places where clear bags were required, such as APS athletics events, while working through their apprehensions behind the transition. 

"My backpack shows my personality," one Cleveland student said, preferring her previous backpack over the new clear bags. "I'm worried about my friends getting bullied for having things like medications in their bag," said another student.

Students will be allowed to place decorative buttons on their backpack straps to add their own personal touches, but they will not be allowed to place stickers or anything that would cover the actual bag.

Michelle Nguyen, a sixth grader at Cleveland, said she was slightly annoyed and frustrated about the backpack change.

"I feel like I don't have any privacy and the backpack is pretty weak," she said. "I just saw someone who kind of broke theirs."

While the policy is being rolled out at APS middle schools currently, Del Norte is set to be the first high school to adopt it come August. 

"I'm kind of on the fence about it," said Erica Lorenz, a parent with a student at Del Norte.

"It would definitely prevent weapons from being able to enter the school, but I have concerns about my daughter — she's going to have her personal hygiene products. Is that going to get searched? Is she going to have that out in the open? That's my only concern, really."

Future APS safety measures

Other safety features may be coming to APS campuses in the future, though there has been no tentative date set yet. 

In November, the APS school board voted to invest $4 million for weapons detection systems, though Blakey said "everything is still on the table."

"Metal detectors have had mixed reviews and they're extremely expensive," she said. "Nothing is really off the table."

She said the district is also looking into cameras with AI built into them that can detect weapons.

Bernstein said she was apprehensive about metal detector systems and said she does not think any student, teacher or parent would want to enter schools feeling like a "suspect at the beginning of every day."

Gonzales said APS has invested more than $60 million to upgrade safety infrastructures, such as fencing, cameras, heavy-duty locks for all classrooms, and a security command center that monitors all cameras and alarms for schools in real-time.

Other recent safety measures include the implementation of a redirector at all elementary schools — trained educational assistants who work with students exhibiting trouble behavior to help redirect those actions — and a campaign to remind students and parents of mental health resources available at all APS schools.

Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3857.