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Right now, in a society full of mean girls, bullies and bag-kickers, little wheels are pouring out of classrooms and into hallways all over the world. This is to those who refuse to let heavy books and a little humiliation give them back pain: the rolly backpack users.

Somewhere around the beginning of the 21st century rolly luggage made the leap from airports and train stations to cafeterias and classrooms.

I remember clearly my first encounter with a rolly backpack user in the sixth grade. He hung his head in shame wheeling into class every day. I imagined the look on his mini-van-driving soccer mom's face when she first discovered the item. For the rest of the year his bag became more of a kickball than a savior. Sure, he gave up his pride for a few years, but wherever he is right now I bet his back doesn't hurt.

Over the years, rolly backpacks have become more popular and accepted, mainly on college campuses. Daytona State College student Crystal Evans uses her bright blue rolly every day.

"I just don't have time to go to my car in between classes. Sometimes I have to carry five or six heavy books at once, so the wheels help me a lot."

Evans does admit she wouldn't be caught dead using one in high school. "It was a different territory then. I did sometimes make fun of kids who used them. They are more accepted here in college since we don't have lockers."

In 2004, the University of California-Riverside studied 3,498 middle school students between the ages of 11 and 15. Their average backpack weight was 10.6 pounds. Sixty-four percent of students tested said they felt back pain. Forty-one percent reported feeling it while carrying their bags.

Maybe the rolly backpack crowd has the right idea.

DSC students Jessica Ingram and William Grim both laugh at the idea of using a rolly backpack. "Who needs a healthy spine, anyways? Plus, I always trip over other people's rolly bags, so I might accidentally fall and kill myself with mine," said Ingram. Grim's logic is more simple: "I kick wheeled bags, not use them."

So here's to you who ignore the Facebook groups "Friends Don't Let Friends Use Rolly Backpacks" or "Rolly Backpacks Ruined My Life." To the proud who wheel around not caring whose feet you're running over. You who will be the senior citizens that can walk without walkers: the rolly backpack patrons.

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