The remaining unused lockers in the SLOHS language building sit unused and ugly. Photo courtesy of sophomore Roslyn Risner.
Lockers are a part of many high schoolers’ lives across America, but not here at San Luis Obispo High School.
This is a recent change, considering an article on the Expressions website from 2021 can be found detailing the reasons students didn’t use their lockers when they were available.
Do students feel affected by the lack of lockers? 2021 was a weird time, maybe COVID-19 had something to do with students’ lack of locker use, or perhaps it was the shorter passing periods. Either way, having to lug around all of their notebooks is definitely weighing on some students’ minds, and backs. While it is certainly true some students could pair down on what they carry around every day, others cannot.
It’s a very common sight to see students carrying two backpacks around, one for school and one for a sport or after-school activity, an often cause for this is not making it to the sports locker room in time or being in a sport such as cheer in the off-season, where one wouldn’t have a sports locker.
“Without lockers, students have to carry around tons of notebooks, textbooks, binders, and other school supplies all day. With at least five different classes, the total weight of all those required materials can really affect their back and posture, which can cause chronic pain and other long-term health problems,” wrote reporter Cori Getzendanner in her article from November 2021 “Lockers Should Be Available For Student Use.”
While reimplementing the lockers is not likely going to happen, it’d be nice if there was some alternative.
“Having to carry around all of our books can get really difficult and our backpacks are really heavy. Having a place to put extra stuff would make my life significantly easier,” said Laguna Middle School student Zora Evans.
If middle schoolers are already upset about having to carry all of their stuff, imagine how tired high schoolers are.
People miss the lockers, it’s difficult to have to carry everything needed for every class, and it’s easy to forget necessary items.
“I think we should have access to lockers. It would make it easier to do homework involving textbooks when you stay on campus after school waiting for practice or something to start,” said sophomore John Hernandez.
Lockers are iconic, they are in every high school movie, and decorating them was something high schoolers all over have thought about since elementary school. But for functionality, they aren’t that important to everyone.
“Lockers offer more options for harassment, vandalization, and smuggling. [Besides] most students with lockers say that they rarely use them, so why should the school spend precious resources on lockers when there are so many other affairs needing attention,” said sophomore Lucia McCarthy Zirion.
Across the country, students smuggling things such as weapons or drugs has been a big issue. This is a main argument for not having lockers. Bringing lockers back likely would bring some older issues to the table again, such as the ethics of administrators going through students’ lockers, and what students can and cannot leave in them. As well as safety concerns.
For now, as SLOHS isn’t going to get lockers back anytime soon, maybe the best solution for students would be to consider downsizing what they bring to school. If that cannot be done, consider leaving things for certain classes in the classrooms, if teachers allow it.
Source: theroaringred.com
