Lockers have been a fundamental part of high school for
decades, but recently students have been using them less and less.
Twenty years ago, most schools had a schedule where students
had all seven classes every day. Seven classes creates a situation
where students begin to have a ton of class materials. This is the
reason lockers were implemented in schools, to allow students a
place to keep their school supplies. This way, students can make
trips to their locker whenever they need something.

Within the past few decades, the majority of schools have
adopted a schedule where there are four classes a day. This new
system means that students need fewer materials in a school day,
and thus fewer trips to their locker. In addition to a lack of trips
to lockers, most students here at Falls Church never go near their
locker, because they bring their backpack full of materials to every
class.

Locker assignments here at Falls Church are also pretty
random. Many times someone’s locker could be located at the
complete opposite side of where the majority of their classes are.
This means that if a student wanted to go to their locker, they’d
have to almost run to make it to the locker and back, without being
late to class. As Paul Huddleston (11) explains, “My locker is
nowhere near my classes, so I have no use for it.” With the large
size of high schools, it’s a rarity to have your locker in the perfect
position.

As the number of students not using lockers rises, the
number of students who bring their backpacks to class rises. Instead
of using lockers most students drag their massive bags from
class to class and this causes a problem with some teachers. A
perfect example of this is Ms. Jo who thinks back packs in class
create too much clutter and disturb class. In class students tend
to put their bags in walkways and this makes the already small
classes, even smaller.

On the other hand, teachers such as Mr. Masghati are not
affected by students bringing their backpacks into class. As he
says, “If a student brings all their stuff and it’s organized, then the
student’s backpack will not bother me.”

Lockers used to be more useful when we had seven classes
a day but recently they are becoming outdated. Anthony Ponce
(12) simply stated, “Lockers are of no use to me.”

As schools in this area started to expand and become renovated,
having seven class in a day began to seem impossible. Students
did not have enough time to go to their locker before class
because their locker could be so far away from their next class
and they did not have enough space in their backpack to carry all
their materials for all seven classes.

Students also only have about three to five minutes to get
to class. Soon teachers and administrators started to notice the recurring
theme that students were constantly late to class because
they had to go far away from class just to get the materials they
needed for the class period. Soon after, schools started switching
to a block period. Now students do not need to go to their lockers
before every class, because they can bring all the materials they
need for the day in their backpack. As a result fewer and fewer
people are using lockers.

As a consequence of this, lockers are taking up meaningful
space in the hallways. Getting rid of lockers at Falls Church
High School would help open up the often crowded hallways that will continue to get even more crowded as the population at Falls Church High
School increases. In areas around the school, like the math hallway lockers are taking
up the most space. If Falls Church High School got rid of lockers, we could also
use the little extra space to expand classrooms. Granted that students had a little
more extra room, they might feel more comfortable in the classroom. Assuming
that students are more comfortable in the classroom they might be able to focus
more and produce better study habits and grades.

Lockers are a thing of the past because students do not use them anymore.
Students can now take all their class supplies to each class because they
only need to carry supplies for four classes instead of seven. Lockers should be removed
from our school and the extra space should be used to either expand classrooms
or just open up the hallways to provide more comfort to our students here.