Books, Backpacks, and No Brains.

Students of Westdale, I come to you with a problem. Rest, this is not another ubiquitous qualm with the luxuries of our fine institution; the smoking, the drinking fountains, and worst of all, the smell in the male bathrooms. No, I come to you, my beloved students with the most atrocious dilemma to strike Westdale since the departure of the great Stella.
 Westdale, take a look at our library. A precious cornucopia of knowledge, managed and maintained by none other than Westdale’s finest scholars. Open for the taking, free of charge. Oh Westdale we are a privileged bunch. Why, right about now, I could waltz down to the friendly corridor and pass through the great arches of anti theft to seize myself a copy of the famed style guide, write an essay, or grab a catnap in a stall. It is a marvelous life here at Westdale. Let me just grab my bag and go there n…
 Right, I have almost overlooked the most gripping facet of the Westdale library. Backpacks of all things are not to accompany a student to the library at any time. Yes, you are hearing this right. Your dearest knapsacks, duffles, rucksacks, and satchels must stay in your locker or classroom. This procedure was initiated to prevent the mysterious and notorious larceny of school property, mainly books. You see, if an unscrupulous student is tempted to steal some fine literature, they can’t just stroll out with it under their arm. No, that is exactly what backpacks were fashioned for! They will just plop it inside their bag, out of site, and be gone. So logically speaking, if we remove backpacks from the suspect thieves, we will cut down on book theft. 
 I certainly agree that this would work in a perfect world. However, we must remember that our school is not full of burglars looking to get their hands on a crumby atlas or two. No, we are a fantastic band of intellectuals who sometimes make mistakes. Oh my brothers, I have ensconced myself many a time in that library. I have heard the putrid shriek of the turnstiles when they recognize a fraudulent book. Students, let me tell you — and I will be completely honest here — one hundred percent of the time I have heard that alarm, it has been because a student has misplaced a book in their bag. The student will apologize, check their book, and be on their way. 
 I can see where the library staff obtain their speculations. If I worked in a library, and I noticed people getting caught with books in their bags, I would realize that as the source of the problem as-well. However I am not a librarian. I am a student — and I feel that the student body is being slandered as a circle of seething kleptomaniacs! 
 We go to a school — and thanks to our lovely government, we are still required to ship around our cumbersome, and curiously hefty textbooks. Not to mention our binders filled with paper, scientific calculators, novels, and if you are in grade nine geography, a neat set of 24 coloured pencils. It is tough enough to drag those articles around our ginormous school — but now we have to mash them in our diminutive lockers, and juggle what we need to the library. In my humble opinion, that is just damned inconvenient. I need my learning tools to accomplish tasks on my library time! Not to mention, I am not leaving my laptop and other valuables in my vulnerable to theft locker. Let’s be rational here — are students seriously going to steal books that we can borrow for free? In addition, what’s with the very expensive and high tech machinery put in place to alert upon detection? Shouldn’t that be sufficient to suppress book theft? It is also frustrating to see the infamous TNA or Lululemon bags scattered amongst the library. I will not dabble too far in that pond, but shouldn’t this rule extend to all bags. Those large totes could carry off hundreds of dollars in books, while my measly backpack could fit maybe five books. 
 I think I speak on behalf of the student body of Westdale when I say that the backpack rule needs to be abolished. We are not thieves. We accept policy–but argue the unnecessary. Students have enough trouble as it is — don’t give us another reason to be grumpy.