Backpacks: The weight of the world is on our shoulders

It’s after a long day of school, and you’ve just returned to your home. You shrug your backpack off your shoulders, and it hits the ground with an audible thump. You’re forced to wonder, “Man, what did I put in there to make it so heavy?”

For 64% of West students, the answer to that is everything. A poll taken by 59 West students shows that many students can’t find the time to stop at their locker during the four minute passing time, leading to heavier backpacks and more back pain.

“My locker is in the art hallway. I don’t ever get down even near the lunch room anymore. It’s just not in my schedule to get down there,” said Renee Gould ’22. “Even if it was right on my way to one of my classes, with the four minute passing periods, I’m not even able to stop.” 

Ninety-six percent of people who took the poll said that four minutes was not a long enough time to stop at their locker, with only two out of the 59 admitting to doing it between periods instead of at lunch or before/after school. This leads to students carrying around quite a lot of weight.

“30 pounds. That’s been my [backpack’s] average all throughout high school. We actually weighed it,” said Zoe Vanatter ’20. 

Results from the poll show that on average, students think that their backpack weighs about 17 lbs. Some estimates were as low as three pounds while others were as high as 35. The cause of all this weight? Textbooks, according to the majority of students who took the poll.

“I think if your textbook is not online, you absolutely need to have a place for students to leave your textbook,” Gould said.

The large amounts of weight students have been carrying around has not been without consequences. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that backpacks should never weigh more than 10-20% of a student’s weight. This means that for the average high school student, your backpack shouldn’t weigh more than 25 lbs. Eight people who took the survey have backpacks that surpassed that weight.

“I’ve heard a lot of people who, like, complain about it, and back pain and shoulder pain has been extremely prevalent,” Gould said. “I actually go to the chiropractor.”

10 people out of the 59 polled said that they personally knew someone who has experienced back pain that came from the weight of their backpack. Despite this, many students aren’t willing to risk making a trip to their locker out of fear of being tardy. The main problem students reported was locker location, but for some students there may be a solution. Saara Engineer ’23 was able to change her locker to allow herself much easier access to it.

“I just realized that my locker wasn’t near any of my classes,” said Saara Engineer ‘23, “so I went to the main office and asked to get it changed.” 

While changing the location of their lockers may work for some, but many still feel that four minute passing times just aren’t long enough.

“I feel like on paper it looked really, really good,” said Gould, “[but] in practice I feel like it really has not worked at all. I hope that in the transition to second tri that they’re going to reset it,”