Having 5 kids and a husband who is a teacher has made it easy to get involved in school issues in Tracy, CA. 
9 years ago myself and several other parents went up the ranks of the school administration all the way to the school board to get class sets of books for our High School Students.
Our complaint was that frequently backpacks weigh far more than the Academy of Pediatrics says is healthy for young backs. The Academy of Pediatrics recommends that backpacks never weigh more than 10- 20% of your students body weight. 100# girl - backpack should not weigh more than 10 - 20#. Get your scale out, let's see how much that backpack weighs.
What we got at West High - which was fairly new at the time, was Class Sets of books. A Class set is a set of books that stays in the class room and students have the same book at home. Eliminating the need to carry books.
I'm hearing from my son, a Junior at Kimball High School in Tracy CA, is that they don't have class sets of books for any of his classes. He's not allowed to go to his car at lunch (Which I don't understand - I can see them not leaving the campus, but why not have access to a cooler, trade books, etc during lunch) so on Wednesdays he has 5 LARGE books to carry. Approximate weight of backpack 38 pounds.
Keep in mind our kids get to carry these backpacks everywhere. It's not like when we go to work with a heavy briefcase and we get to put it in our office, only getting out what we need to use. No these kids get to carry this 30 - 40# back pack to lunch, the bathroom, etc.
All this to say - does anyone know, have you heard, are class sets of books on there way for to Kimball for upper classmen? Are you concerned?
Let me know.
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