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OK. I'm declaring war.

As I start this, I just walked out of the room of a 120-pound high school freshman with back problems. His pain started after a weightlifting session, but he was leaving here to return to school and asked about wearing his backpack.

Since I'm around schools on a regular basis, I know that kids today don't use their lockers very much anymore — they carry everything around in a backpack.

Everything.

So this young man was to leave my office after being treated for a significant episode of back pain and put a 40-pound backpack on and carry it around school.

One-third of his body weight on his back. There was no way that was going to work.

Another young man (one of my football players) had enough problems with back pain back in the fall that he had to use a rolling cart (think airport luggage) to carry his books and school paraphernalia.

Not too long ago, I was so amazed at the size of the backpack one of my student athletic trainers was wearing that I put her and her backpack on the scales. The verdict? One hundred twenty-seven pounds.

The only problem is that you remove the backpack and the scale barely quivered at 92 pounds. More than 41 percent of her body weight.

Her posture without the backpack was really good. With it, she looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I'm glad all these kids take their studies so seriously. Obviously, it is important enough to them that they take all (or most) of their books home at night.

But I'm afraid that backpacks in our schools are doing irreparable damage.

The American Physical Therapy Association for the past several years has offered a program aimed at this problem, suggesting that the wearer always use both backpack straps, make sure the load is carried evenly in the middle of the back, and to lighten the load whenever possible.

A review of suggestions for backpack users puts a weight limit for a 150-pound person at about 20 pounds. That 92-pound student? Fifteen pounds. But limits could mean that only the biggest students get to carry around everything they need to study.

It appears to be a dead-end situation. Lengthening the school day to allow more time between classes so the students have time to visit (and use) their lockers is not really practical, and you still have to take all your books home at night to study.

And in an era where “going green” is important, the ultimate solution is to put all textbooks on a computer disc. But not everyone has a computer at home.

Maybe federal education initiatives should focus on making sure every student has a computer at home.

Teachers are limited in what they can do. Most teachers recognize this dilemma but are powerless to solve it.

What I do know is that we are dooming our children to more spinal problems than anyone in history has experienced. And spinal care is already the third-most expensive health-care problem we have to deal with.

Joe Black, PT, DPT, SCS, ATC is a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Total Rehabilitation and is Manager of Outpatient Rehabilitation for Blount Memorial Hospital. Write to him at joeblackdpt@gmail.com.