CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokesperson confirms that the school district has approved the clear backpack sale last Friday for $85,000.
It's about a fifth of what the district spent to buy the bags, close to half a million dollars.
A spokesperson for CMS told WCNC that the decision to accept the bid was a "cabinet-level decision."
District leaders opted to put the approximately 46,000 backpacks up for auction after it was discovered they came with a Proposition 65 cancer warning from the state of California.
Proposition 65 is a measure California passed in 1986 to get companies to replace toxic chemicals with safer ones. Under the law, businesses have to show warnings if their products have chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive problems.
The auction listing states the manufacturer of the backpacks, A D Sutton said the Proposition 65 warning applies only to California and does not affect the other 49 states.
With clear backpacks out, body scanners are in, with CMS spending nearly $10 million for body scanners in its middle and high schools. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh said middle schools will start seeing the scanners, which were installed at CMS high schools last school year, in the coming months.
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