Students, parents and staff divided on APS clear backpack policy, survey shows

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the clear backpacks required at six Albuquerque middle schools are unpopular with students, according to a district-wide survey of parents, teachers and students conducted by Albuquerque Public Schools.

Almost 88% of more than 16,000 students surveyed at 48 middle and high schools said they do not support a clear backpack policy, the survey, conducted last October, found.

Among parents, the responses were mixed. Around 33% of parents said they would support their students carrying clear backpacks to school, while 61% said they would not support it. About 5% of parents said they had no opinion.

The backpacks were slightly more popular among faculty and staff, 51% of whom said they were in favor of the policy. About 39% of staff said they were opposed to the backpacks, and just over 9% said they had no opinion.

Five middle schools — Wilson, Kennedy, Hayes, Washington and Cleveland — implemented a new policy in the beginning of January requiring students only carry see-through backpacks, a move “aimed at enhancing safety and security at each of the schools,” APS spokesperson Martin Salazar said in a news release earlier this month.

Taylor Middle School has had a rule in place requiring clear backpacks since 2021, and Del Norte High School will be adopting the policy in August.

The decision to opt in to the policy was made by each school’s Instructional Council — a governing body made up of parents and staff — based on the results of survey data from each school, according to the news release. 

“We’re grateful to the members of our Instructional Councils for their commitment to thoroughly reviewing these surveys, deliberating the findings, and reaching decisions that prioritize the best interests of their schools,” Salazar said in a statement.

At Taylor Middle School, the backpacks seem to be popular among staff and parents. About 87% of staff members at Taylor supported the policy — the highest percentage of staff support among the schools — and 62% of parents, the second-highest percentage of parent support for the policy of any school. 

Of the three students who responded to the survey at Taylor, all of them said they do not support the policy.

The clear backpacks — which allow school staff to see what students are carrying — come amid a rise in guns brought to APS campuses by students and visitors. A total of 70 guns have been found at various Albuquerque public schools since 2021 — 15 guns per school year since 2022, according to APS data. 

Just two weeks into the 2025-26 school year, five guns were found at three different Albuquerque high schools in one day.

“It is so deeply concerning that we no longer consider our schools a safe place for students and adults, and there are no good answers,” said Albuquerque teachers’ union president Ellen Bernstein.

Bernstein said she appreciated that the decision to require the backpacks was left up to each school.

“I think this is just the beginning of an experiment,” Bernstein said. “We’re looking for a conclusion. How do we keep our kids and teachers safe without treating everybody like they’re walking into a prison every day?”

In three instances in the past five years, a gun brought onto an APS campus resulted in a homicide. 

In 2021, 14-year-old Juan Saucedo Jr. shot and killed 13-year-old classmate Bennie Hargrove after bringing his father’s gun to Washington Middle School, one of the schools implementing the clear bag policy.

Washington Middle School ranked in the top five for both staff and parent support of the clear backpack policy. Around 62% of parents and 73% of staff members said they were in favor of the rule in surveys, compared with only 6% of students.

Nearly a fifth of the guns found on campus since 2021 were reported at West Mesa High School in Northwest Albuquerque. Guns were brought on campus to West Mesa 13 times in four years, and in February 2022, Marco Trejo, then 14 years old, shot and killed 16-year-old Andrew Burson outside the campus with a weapon he brought to school.

Still, clear backpacks elicited mixed reactions at West Mesa: 60% of staff members said they supported the policy, compared with 46% of parents and only 6% of students.

Students at Cleveland Middle School told the Journal earlier this month they were concerned the clear backpacks would be a breach of their privacy, while others said they were concerned the backpacks weren’t durable enough to last.

A week after the backpacks were distributed to students, Salazar said the district had received some complaints from families about clear backpacks that were already broken.

APS spent $90,000 on 7,000 clear backpacks at roughly $13 per bag, according to district officials. The most recent count of broken backpacks stands at 61, Salazar said Thursday.

 Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.