A Gwinnett County Public Schools representative did not directly respond to questions from the North Gwinnett Voice about the purchase of clear backpacks, instead pointing to a district statement posted online Oct. 18.

The North Gwinnett Voice emailed Bernard Watson, director of community and media relations, on Oct. 22 with the following questions:

• Did the school system place orders for clear backpacks before the community survey was conducted?
• Why did the school system decide to move forward with the clear backpack pilot program, given survey results that showed just over half of adult respondents opposed?
• Do you have any further information at this point about what the pilot program will look like?

Watson’s verbatim response from October 23rd:

Deanna,

Thank you for your interest in Gwinnett County Public Schools.

For your questions, please see the district’s statement on the GCPS website.

https://www.gcpsk12.org/get-connected/district-news-and-communication/all-news/gcps-full-news-article/~board/news-releases/post/clear-backpack-poll-results -and-next-step

I appreciate everything you do!

Serving students and families,

Bernard

The North Gwinnett Voice responded on October 23 as follows:

Mr Watson,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, the statement you are referring to does not answer my direct questions, particularly whether an order for clear backpacks was placed before the survey was conducted.

I prefer to contact sources directly rather than rely on reports from other media outlets to inform North Gwinnett Voice readers, and those readers ask questions and are confused about the school system’s actions reported by other media organizations .

Would you prefer that I share the statement you linked to with our readers and let them know that the school system is not answering direct questions from the media on this topic?

With respect,

Deanna Allen

Watson did not respond to the above email from the North Gwinnett Voice.

The North Gwinnett Voice has emailed each of the five members of the Gwinnett County Board of Education and will provide updates as responses are received.

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