When senior Isabel Kats comes to school, she said she stands out with a stretched out backpack that weighs 15 pounds. Kats has to lug around binders, folders and a laptop until lunch when she can dump some of the load in her car to ease the weight on her back.

Kats said she does not use her locker because it is a hassle.

“The school is pretty big, and [the lockers] are hard to open,” Kats said.

Instead of using lockers, many students like Kats carry all of their supplies, potentially straining their backs.

Senior Angeli Angelos said he does not use his locker because it is inconvenient for him.

“I really don’t see myself being able to go to my locker then to my class during a 10 minute [passing] period,” Angelos said.

Angelos said lockers should be placed more conveniently for students and their schedules.

“Maybe [lockers should be close to] your 6/7 class,” said Angelos. “I think that would be the best option because if it was during 6/7, and near my class, I think I would use my locker.”

Kats said she often finds herself using her car to drop off books. Instead of going out for lunch, she goes out to her car, drops everything off and comes back.

Kats said on A days, when she has five classes, her backpack can weigh up to 15 pounds. By using her car for storage, her bag can lose up to five or six pounds.

According to Steven Mardjetko, chief of spine division surgery at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, some patients think their back pain is from heavy bags and backpacks, but he tries to find other causes of the pain.

“The very first thing you need to do is to make sure that you look for other explanations of the back pain because the backpack itself is usually not the root pain of the back pain,” Mardjetko said.

While many think the pain is caused solely by backpacks, Gregg Gerstin, chiropractor at Align Wellness Center, said there is no research that can connect heavy backpacks to back pain.

“It’s been difficult for the research to show the direct effects [on back pain] from backpacks alone,” Gerstin said.

According to Gerstin, the body starts to signal the pain once the weight of the back reaches the maximum weight the body can carry.

“When you’re wearing something that weighs a certain percent of your body [and it] can’t support the weight … the body ends up breaking down and says, ‘Hey this isn’t right for you,’” said Gerstin. “[Your body’s] response ends up in pain.”

Gerstin said many short term effects of heavy backpacks include headaches, back pain, numbness, body aches and stiff muscles.

Mardjetko said the weight of the backpack that the body can tolerate depends on the weight of the person.

“It seems that once the [weight of] the backpack reaches 10 percent of the child’s body weight, there does appear to be an increased risk [of back problems] and definitely by the time we get to 20 percent,” Mardjetko said.

To evenly distribute the weight and reduce the risks, Gerstin said it is important to wear both straps on a backpack.

“You want to make sure your straps are pulled as tightly as you can so the bags are as close as they can be to your back,” said Gerstin. “Make sure the heavier books and supplies go at the bottom of the backpack so that they’re closer to your back.”

Kats said she can barely fit the supplies she needs in her backpack.

“Having online textbooks help a lot,” said Kats. “I have two but my bag is still huge.”