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Students and parents urge changes to phone-backpack plan, cite dignity and sanitary concerns
Summary
During public comment students and parents at the Atchison board meeting urged the district to preserve student dignity and practical access to materials while implementing the new device-inaccessibility law; speakers also flagged sanitation risks for shared lunch storage and lack of early community input.
Multiple students, parents and community members spoke during the public-comment period, urging the board to refine the task-force proposal so it reduces classroom distractions without creating new barriers.
"All we want is basically just full empathy," a student said, asking the board to avoid policies that would make navigating the school day harder for girls or for students with allergies. Another student cautioned the board that removing backpacks from classrooms could make it harder to carry binders and materials that support learning.
Parents and community commenters raised sanitary and safety concerns about proposals to collect brought-from-home lunches in shared totes. One parent said, "Lunch bags all thrown into 1 bin together from a medical aspect... there's no way" in reference to allergy and contamination risks; district staff said they were researching cross-contamination options but had no final plan.
Several public speakers also criticized the process, saying broader community input should have been sought earlier in the task-force work. Board leadership and staff said materials had been shared publicly and that the task force sought stakeholder feedback, and they reiterated that the plan would be reviewed after two weeks of implementation.
