Countless hollow metal structures line the halls of Liberty, their shelves eagerly waiting to hold students’ belongings. Yet of these hundreds, only a few are in use.
The discrepancy between the amount of lockers available and the number actually in use poses an intriguing question: why don’t students make use of them? After all, they are free of charge, easy to access, and relieve the pressure of an insanely heavy backpack load.
If students don’t use them, the lockers are a waste of space and money. Yes, using lockers may be impractical for some students, but there are plenty of others who can—and should—take advantage of our hallway amenities.
Maybe what’s holding people back is students’ perception of the time between classes. Five minutes does not sound like a reasonable amount of time to trek all the way to a locker before the next period. People think that in most cases, using a locker is only possible if you spring out of your chair the moment the bell rings, sprint down the hallways before student congestion builds up, gather your belongings with incredible speed, and aggressively fight your way through slow-moving students in order to make it to your next class on time. But this is only a common myth. Other than the students who have to make the long journey out to the Sports Med room, using a locker between classes is a feasible opportunity.
The lines of lockers along the walls are dispersed throughout the school, offering students with a wide range of location options. For nearly every class location, there is a locker nearby ready for use before or after class.
Plus, there’s no need to do extensive supply swaps after every class. A locker could easily be home to just a textbook or two; it would still help lighten your backpack, but you wouldn’t need to spend much time at your locker while gathering your belongings. And if you only store supplies for a couple classes in your locker, accessing it during lunch becomes a viable option, giving you even more time to use it.
While a common alternative to using a locker is using a car, this isn’t much different from using a locker: you still have to unlock it to access your possessions and lock it again once you have finished switching out class materials. Furthermore, a car is even further out of the way than any of the school lockers, making it an impractical method for holding belongings when the lockers are so much closer.
With all of the money the District poured into them, we should to take advantage of the lockers available to us. They might not work for all, but for many, they are a practical tool ready to be used.
So try one out. You might be surprised, and your back will thank you.