Coweta parents may want to add one last item to the Christmas list this year — clear or mesh book bags.

When students return to school Jan. 10, only those two types of book bags will be allowed in the county's middle schools and high schools.

Last spring, the Coweta County Board of Education passed a policy allowing only clear and mesh bags. The vote came after the Columbine shooting, and board members and the superintendent made it clear that the policy was being adopted as a safety measure.

The new style book bags allow principals and school officials to view contents of the bags and are a deterrent to students bringing items to school that are not allowed on campus, officials said.

The clear book bags are the latest example of the school system trying to prevent any violent activities in the school. According to superintendent of education Richard Brooks the system also:

• Conducts system and school safety surveys which identify possible trouble areas.

• Studies our schools for various kinds of potential trouble and makes recommendations for improvement through an ongoing safety committee.

• Assigns law enforcement-trained student resource officers full-time to each high school and part-time to each middle school. This person is a regular law enforcement, badge-wearing individual specially trained in student concerns.

• Has student resource officers provide training to school faculties regarding student violence, gang-related membership and activity, and spotting weapons at school.

• Allows resource officers to assist in providing training to spot students who match the profiles of those students in school violence cases.

• Has school administrators stay in constant and immediate contact with each other via hand-held radios.

• Uses surveillance cameras in hallways and high traffic areas in some schools.

• Uses hand-held metal detectors when appropriate.

• Uses radio contact and surveillance cameras on buses.

• Requires all school visitors to sign in at the principal's office and wear a visitor's badge while on campus.

• Requires students and faculty in high schools to register vehicles with the school's student resource officer.

• Provides a panic button in each classroom which provides immediate communication with the office.

But Brooks explained that these measures also need the support of the parents.

“Become a mentor first to your own child, and if you have additional time and concern, become a mentor to a student who needs your compassion and support. In every instance of school killings, the suspects have been profiled as loners, outcasts and students without much self-esteem and hope,” he said.

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