Video makes a few good points, but is quite sensationalist.
The point I do agree with, which is the main point the video makes, is that clear backpacks are essentially security theatre.
All the other points, otoh, seem overblown or conspiratorial, and this video seems made to farm views via appealing to teens prejudices, rather than really assess what is going on.
The video says several times that clear backpacks are embarassing, humiliating, or dangerous because others can see what is in the bag. But the video then goes on to point out that, yaknow, you can just keep whatever inside an opaque bag. The “humiliation” seems to stem entirely from being require to carry an unfashionable backpack. Which, given that this is purely security theatre, is dumb. But isnt any more humiliating than being required to wear a school uniform or carry a briefcase to school (as the presenter had to do as a student).
The video seems to imply some sort of conspiracy between backpack manufacturers and schools in order to make a lot of money. For this, I would like proof. Clear backpacks have been a common requirement for concert venues for years now, so they already existed. Manufacturers of all sorts of things strike deals with school districts to make bulk orders all the time.The video seems to demonstrate that there is no lack of competition in the clear backpack market. And it doesnt seem like students are being gouged on clear backpack prices, given that the price for a clear Jansport now seems the same as the price of the canvas Jansport I bought when I was in middle school about 2 decades ago. And while it is, again, quite dumb to impose these financial obligations on families which may not be able to afford them, nothing here seems to imply any sort of corruption to me.
The video tries to make a point about how schools are taking away kids privacy, and implies this may be some kind of sinister plot… but this seems very overblown to me. The video gives 4 examples: hall pass apps, phone pouches, chromebook tracking, and clear backpacks. But none of these seem like sinister invasions of privacy. The video also points out that these things make it seem like the school doesn’t trust kids… which is true. Schools, in general, don’t trust kids, and this hasn’t been news for a while now. The hall pass app makes sense as a replacement for the purpose of an old physical hall pass - catching Billy the Dumbass skipping class so that they can get him to graduate and work at the Grease Monkey instead of dropping out and trying to sell Mexican brick weed out of his parents basement in a state where weed is already legal. The phone pouch is to try to keep Billy somewhat focused on class. And the chromebook tracking is to make sure Billy isn’t filling the schools computer with viruses from sketchy porn sites.
Of course, problems of violence in schools - especially gun violence, and students underperforming and skipping class, are real problems, and they should be addressed at the root cause and not just given bandaid solutions. But in fairness to the schools and school boards… school boards don’t dictate national level gun policy. They can’t ensure that Billy’s mom eats a healthy diet with appropriate supplementation during pregnancy. They can’t steer Billy away from toxic tv shows, websites, or social media during his formative years. All they can do, is do what they can right now with the resources they are given. And for all the intelligent, responsible teens who have to deal with a bunch of bullshit due to the lack of larger government support for the Billys of the world… well… sorry. You can’t make a policy that only applies to some students, or someone will say it is discriminatory. So everyone has to deal with the fallout of Billy’s dumbass.
But why have clear backpacks if they are so dumb and clearly security theatre? Well because, school boards are typically filled with Karens who love to make security theatre.
I feel that training kids to think of an extreme level of surveillance as a normal and unremarkable thing to be asked to comply with is going to have terrible consequences because it means a generation of adults with the mindset that it is no big deal.
I’m not saying I agree with any of these policies. I’m just saying that they aren’t some kind of huge emergency that is a massive departure from existing school policies, nor that they imply some sort of corruption. And my main issue is that the video is made as essentially a one-sided hate-jerk, rather than as a thoughtful analysis of why things are happening and what to do about it. It seems made to appeal to (1) teens that don’t like the policy, and want to learn more reasons about why their anger is justified and (2) conspiracy nuts who want to believe that the lizard people are training us to be slaves.
This, then, fails to adequately inform any viewer of the actual cause of the problem, which may then result in actual solutions - realizing that these policies are made by not-very-smart, handwringing school board members, and that the solition is to take an active role in your school board if you care about things like this.
That’s fair, and I don’t know about backpacks, but commercial conspiracies to get anti-privacy products into schools absolutely do exist. I know someone who worked for years with technology training programs for school employees and much of the funding was coming from Google, with the main effect of pushing chromebooks and their cloud ecosystem. Lots of free stuff, innocuous seeming propaganda and networking, and hiring people to do this who the target audience will respect and relate to. Money buys access and influence, don’t imagine that lobbying is only a thing in the context of high level government officials. The idea of competing with this as someone with an axe to grind, no bribes to offer, and large cultural differences with the decision makers… maybe it could move the needle slightly, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Video makes a few good points, but is quite sensationalist.
The point I do agree with, which is the main point the video makes, is that clear backpacks are essentially security theatre.
All the other points, otoh, seem overblown or conspiratorial, and this video seems made to farm views via appealing to teens prejudices, rather than really assess what is going on.
The video says several times that clear backpacks are embarassing, humiliating, or dangerous because others can see what is in the bag. But the video then goes on to point out that, yaknow, you can just keep whatever inside an opaque bag. The “humiliation” seems to stem entirely from being require to carry an unfashionable backpack. Which, given that this is purely security theatre, is dumb. But isnt any more humiliating than being required to wear a school uniform or carry a briefcase to school (as the presenter had to do as a student).
The video seems to imply some sort of conspiracy between backpack manufacturers and schools in order to make a lot of money. For this, I would like proof. Clear backpacks have been a common requirement for concert venues for years now, so they already existed. Manufacturers of all sorts of things strike deals with school districts to make bulk orders all the time.The video seems to demonstrate that there is no lack of competition in the clear backpack market. And it doesnt seem like students are being gouged on clear backpack prices, given that the price for a clear Jansport now seems the same as the price of the canvas Jansport I bought when I was in middle school about 2 decades ago. And while it is, again, quite dumb to impose these financial obligations on families which may not be able to afford them, nothing here seems to imply any sort of corruption to me.
The video tries to make a point about how schools are taking away kids privacy, and implies this may be some kind of sinister plot… but this seems very overblown to me. The video gives 4 examples: hall pass apps, phone pouches, chromebook tracking, and clear backpacks. But none of these seem like sinister invasions of privacy. The video also points out that these things make it seem like the school doesn’t trust kids… which is true. Schools, in general, don’t trust kids, and this hasn’t been news for a while now. The hall pass app makes sense as a replacement for the purpose of an old physical hall pass - catching Billy the Dumbass skipping class so that they can get him to graduate and work at the Grease Monkey instead of dropping out and trying to sell Mexican brick weed out of his parents basement in a state where weed is already legal. The phone pouch is to try to keep Billy somewhat focused on class. And the chromebook tracking is to make sure Billy isn’t filling the schools computer with viruses from sketchy porn sites.
Of course, problems of violence in schools - especially gun violence, and students underperforming and skipping class, are real problems, and they should be addressed at the root cause and not just given bandaid solutions. But in fairness to the schools and school boards… school boards don’t dictate national level gun policy. They can’t ensure that Billy’s mom eats a healthy diet with appropriate supplementation during pregnancy. They can’t steer Billy away from toxic tv shows, websites, or social media during his formative years. All they can do, is do what they can right now with the resources they are given. And for all the intelligent, responsible teens who have to deal with a bunch of bullshit due to the lack of larger government support for the Billys of the world… well… sorry. You can’t make a policy that only applies to some students, or someone will say it is discriminatory. So everyone has to deal with the fallout of Billy’s dumbass.
But why have clear backpacks if they are so dumb and clearly security theatre? Well because, school boards are typically filled with Karens who love to make security theatre.
I feel that training kids to think of an extreme level of surveillance as a normal and unremarkable thing to be asked to comply with is going to have terrible consequences because it means a generation of adults with the mindset that it is no big deal.
I’m not saying I agree with any of these policies. I’m just saying that they aren’t some kind of huge emergency that is a massive departure from existing school policies, nor that they imply some sort of corruption. And my main issue is that the video is made as essentially a one-sided hate-jerk, rather than as a thoughtful analysis of why things are happening and what to do about it. It seems made to appeal to (1) teens that don’t like the policy, and want to learn more reasons about why their anger is justified and (2) conspiracy nuts who want to believe that the lizard people are training us to be slaves.
This, then, fails to adequately inform any viewer of the actual cause of the problem, which may then result in actual solutions - realizing that these policies are made by not-very-smart, handwringing school board members, and that the solition is to take an active role in your school board if you care about things like this.
That’s fair, and I don’t know about backpacks, but commercial conspiracies to get anti-privacy products into schools absolutely do exist. I know someone who worked for years with technology training programs for school employees and much of the funding was coming from Google, with the main effect of pushing chromebooks and their cloud ecosystem. Lots of free stuff, innocuous seeming propaganda and networking, and hiring people to do this who the target audience will respect and relate to. Money buys access and influence, don’t imagine that lobbying is only a thing in the context of high level government officials. The idea of competing with this as someone with an axe to grind, no bribes to offer, and large cultural differences with the decision makers… maybe it could move the needle slightly, but I wouldn’t bet on it.