{"id":66470,"date":"2026-05-22T14:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=66470"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:29:22","slug":"polk-county-public-schools-pcps-just-announced-that-backpacks-are-banned-at-all-pcps-school-sites-for-the-final-week-of-the-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/05\/22\/polk-county-public-schools-pcps-just-announced-that-backpacks-are-banned-at-all-pcps-school-sites-for-the-final-week-of-the-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Public Schools (PCPS) just announced that backpacks are banned at all PCPS school sites for the final week of the school year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning <strong>Tuesday, May 26, 2026<\/strong>, backpacks are banned at all PCPS school sites for the final week of the school year.<sup><\/sup> Because Monday, May 25 is Memorial Day, the rule effectively covers the final three days of class through the last day of school on <strong>Thursday, May 28<\/strong>.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"77ab56\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #77ab56;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/download-15.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66471 not-transparent\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The specific details of the temporary policy include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Allowed Bags:<\/strong> Students are permitted to carry small bags, but they can be <strong>no larger than a small purse<\/strong>. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lunchboxes:<\/strong> Standard lunchboxes are still permitted. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reasoning:<\/strong> PCPS stated this is a standard precautionary security measure. It is commonly implemented during the final days of the term when students no longer need to carry heavy textbooks or school supplies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If a student requires specific accommodations regarding this policy change, parents and guardians are advised to contact their individual school&#8217;s administration directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beginning Tuesday, May 26, 2026, backpacks are banned at all PCPS school sites for the final week of the school year. Because Monday, May 25 is Memorial Day, the rule&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDVcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTE1LndlYnA_Zml0PTI3NSUyQzE4MyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IFB1YmxpYyBTY2hvb2xzIChQQ1BTKSBqdXN0IGFubm91bmNlZCB0aGF0IGJhY2twYWNrcyBhcmUgYmFubmVkIGF0IGFsbCBQQ1BTIHNjaG9vbCBzaXRlcyBmb3IgdGhlIGZpbmFsIHdlZWsgb2YgdGhlIHNjaG9vbCB5ZWFyIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.w0F59OrV_4Dbxd4ze3_AIGbgatTb8D6aL_a98tDM6-0MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA1XC9kb3dubG9hZC0xNS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiUG9sayBDb3VudHkgUHVibGljIFNjaG9vbHMgKFBDUFMpIGp1c3QgYW5ub3VuY2VkIHRoYXQgYmFja3BhY2tzIGFyZSBiYW5uZWQgYXQgYWxsIFBDUFMgc2Nob29sIHNpdGVzIGZvciB0aGUgZmluYWwgd2VlayBvZiB0aGUgc2Nob29sIHllYXIiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.eBfMVpsYsF-5I3Kf_5h6l3jmBLTT4UFFEWUMJgWnAkkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[14679],"class_list":["post-66470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-polk-county-public-schools-pcps-just-announced-that-backpacks-are-banned-at-all-pcps-school-sites-for-the-final-week-of-the-school-year"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66473,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66470\/revisions\/66473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}