Since the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020, lockers have lost their relevance as a tool to ease the weight on students’ backs.
“I don’t think a student has used their locker for the last five years.” said English teacher Mike Kelsen. “I think ever since COVID happened, I think the point of lockers has gone downhill.”
Students themselves have no reason to use their locker or even remember where it is or how to get into it.
“I don’t even know my locker number,” said sophomore Anders Raines. “I only know of one person who uses [their locker] but he doesn’t use the lock.”
With advancing technology, lockers just can’t keep up with new innovations. The relics of the past have no use when everything is online.
“I think the point of them is kind of gone now, because, especially in 2024 where a lot of our materials are digital.” said Kelsen, “The point of the lockers was so you weren’t carrying around every book for every binder in every class. Math textbooks, science textbooks were massive.”
Some students, however, are still convinced that they have some use.
“I think lockers can be necessary for some students and not necessary for others.” said sophomore Ada Paglierani, “But all of my classes are spread out so I wouldn’t have much time to get to my locker and open it, and then close it again.”
While lockers might be impractical in this day and age, there seems to be no efficient and meaningful way to remove them.
“Right now, it’s wasted space. I also wonder what we would do with that space,” said Kelsen. “What would you do? Just have walls? I think in order to get rid of lockers, we need to do an overall of what a school building looks like and how we could better adapt our school to fit the needs of 2024 students and learning where it’s supposed to be more collaborative. If I had my way, I would say, get rid of lockers and redo the inside of the school.”
With only three minutes to get to each class, there is simply not enough time to go to a locker, unlock it, grab the needed materials, put unneeded materials in the locker, close and lock it, and get to class. By the time you’ve done half of that the next period will already have started.
“While being a good idea, lockers are simply useless,” said Raines. “Because people carry their bags and there’s just not enough time in between classes to get to your locker and grab the stuff you need for the next class.”
In the modern education system, there’s just no room for lockers. So, they’ll either sit in the halls as fewer and fewer people use them as the years go on, or someone will find some genius way to use the space. There’s just no telling what will become of them in the future.