When students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School return from Spring Break this week, they’ll be coming back to a few security changes. The Parkland, FL, high school is the location where a gunman opened fire and killed 17 students and faculty members on February 14.

In a letter released on March 21, Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie announced to students and their families that Marjory Stoneman Douglas will now require all students to carry clear backpacks as a security measure. Runcie added that students would be given the backpacks free of charge, and that they are now the only bags allowed on school grounds.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas students will not be allowed to carry any bags other than clear plastic ones, similar to the backpack shown here from Amazon, to school starting next week. 

“Over the past several weeks, we have received many inquiries regarding our District’s efforts to fortify the Marjory Stoneman Douglas campus and expand safety protocols at the school,” the letter read. “We want to assure you that the safety and security of our students and employees remain our highest priorities.” The letter went on to state that the school is considering installing metal detectors and using metal-detecting wands.

Immediately after the announcement, students at the high school took to Twitter to lament the policy, citing a failure to address the real issues.

Clear backpacks don't do anything except make us look stupid. We want to be safe, not uncomfortable. The only thing that can really have an impact on our safety is gun control

— Carly Novell (@car_nove) March 21, 2018

Enforcing students to wear clear backpacks is simply like putting a band-aid on a broken bone

— natasha #NeverAgain (@sighnatasha) March 22, 2018

Can everyone write "we need real change" in black sharpie on our new backpacks to protest, violating our privacy is NOT a solution 😒 https://t.co/rEbvYbhW4P

— briana (@brianaellie14) March 22, 2018

While schools’ decision to use clear bags could potentially pick up over the next few months, possibly creating a selling opportunity for distributors with education clients, it doesn’t look to be a long-term trend, says Michael Dorn, the executive director of Safe Havens International, a non-profit school safety center in Macon, GA. His organization put together a training video that showed his team hiding more than a dozen handguns, a sawed-off shotgun, a fake improvised explosive device and 12 knives in a small clear plastic bookbag. In another video, Dorn’s son Chris demonstrated that he was able to conceal a dozen weapons of various sizes in his clothing alone.

“Even with clear bags, students often just hide weapons in hollowed-out books or tennis shoes, or wrap it in a T-shirt,” Dorn told Counselor. “I don’t think we’ll see a large-scale trend in these across the country. Many school districts find that they don’t work to reduce problems, and the bags wear out and have to be replaced several times a year. Students and parents often complain that they don’t like being inconvenienced with an approach that’s easy to defeat. For example, they don’t work well for those planning to carry out an attack soon after their arrival at the school.”

Dorn adds that, while it's been a strategy at some school districts, most school security experts don't recommend them as a sustainable solution to security concerns.

Pat Murphy, president of LPT Security Consulting outside Houston, agrees that clear bags won't become a long-term trend. "They are, at best, a short-term, highly isolated reaction," he told Counselor. "Unless someone is checking every kid as they come through any door, all day, it's window dressing."

A number of suppliers in the industry offer clear bags, from zippered backpacks, to drawstring bags, to totes and more, often used for large gatherings with strict security, such as concerts and athletic events. Debco (asi/48885) which offers several styles of clear plastic bags, has yet to see a significant rise in interest among end-buyers in the Education market, though quote requests are up slightly since the Marjory Stoneman Douglas announcement. “I’m not unhappy that we haven’t seen a spike in demand,” marketing manager Daniel Baker told Counselor. “I’d hate to think that these kind of horrific events are so common that they’re creating a tangible, substantial market demand. We have a hundred of these backpacks here that we’d be willing to donate, if schools want to put them to use.”