North Fulton Today

Clayton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Morcease Beasley has announced a ban on backpacks at middle- and high schools in the area through the end of the school year. 

The policy change is in response to an increase in the number of weapons found at schools, Beasley said in a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta.

"I want to be very clear, I am not trying to make all of you happy," Beasley said in the report. "I would be considered insane if I thought I could make all of you happy. The Board of Education is very clear with me as their superintendent — their one employee — that they expect me to address this, and they expect us to do whatever we can to make schools safe."

As part of the crackdown, students will no longer be permitted to use their lockers, and schools in the district will be adding or updating metal detectors on campus, the report said. Random searches of students will also be instituted, and metal detectors will be on hand at graduations.

Additionally, the Fulton County School System will be banning backpacks on a school-by-school basis. 

The newly enacted policy goes into effect just two months after a gun was fired at Jonesboro High School, the report said. That incident forced the school into a lockdown that lasted several hours and required a police response before normal operations were restored.