Lockers have become a relic in most schools including our own. These lockers get little use while collecting dust in our hallways. The lockers are easily popped, putting the few items that students may store in lockers at risk. They also require extra maintenance from our already overworked custodial staff while providing little use to the student body. Why should the custodians have to maintain and regularly inspect something that has little to no value to the students? In the end, are lockers really necessary in a day and age where students take their backpacks to each and every class?
Kevin Nguyen (10) had this to say about lockers: “Personally I don’t use them and I feel like a majority of students don’t use them.” He said this on their value to him, “I don’t really think they are necessary because everything I could ever need is either in my backpack or online.”
Eric Ramsey (10) believes, “They are not useful, except for SOLs and half of the kids leave their backpack in a teacher’s class.” When asked about the idea of removing the lockers, he said, “Yeah, I think that would be a good idea to expand the hallways because I know hallways can get congested because of them.”
Owais Baig (10) said, “I think lockers are needed for the times we need to use them like during testing.” He also said that “we should keep the lockers for the kids who play sports.”
Lockers may have some benefits, like storage during SOLs (as mentioned) and for keeping items of value safe. But a majority of students have no use for them and the lockers sit unused for the whole school year. So it may make some sense to reconsider the lockers in the hallways and to think if they are really useful in our schools. Lockers were the centerpiece of students’ social lives thirty years ago, but nowadays, they are all forgotten. Personally I feel that thinking about removing lockers from our high school would not be a bad idea and could have many benefits, mainly by providing more space in the hallways for our ever-growing student body.