Lockers have long been a staple of the high school experience. Showcased in every high school drama ever, each locker becomes someone’s personal space for self expression in a very public school.
I remember my middle school locker neighbor stringing hers with fairy lights, while I bought a locker shelf off Amazon to fit all my books and binders. Yet today, most lockers remain bare, never opened for the entire school year. With the changes in how students store things it is time to reconsider their existence.
Instead of holding on to this outdated tradition, schools should remove lockers altogether to create a more open, functional, and safer environment for students.
Why are we using lockers less and less? The change was certainly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to K-12 Dive senior reporter Kara Arundel, the true reason “is the shift to 1-to-1 devices, electronic learning platforms and other digitized resources…”
The days of school supply lists that require a 2-inch three-ring binder for every class are over. Students are given the freedom to bring what they need, all of which can be stored in a backpack, leaving lockers vacant and useless.
Removing these lockers gives us the opportunity to transform the architecture of a school entirely. Hallways could be redesigned to feel more personalized and functional, featuring student artworks, collaborative seating, and quiet nooks for students to work in throughout the day.
“Learning hallways” have gained a lot of traction as we look to maximize space. Arctobell, a company specializing in school furniture design, has created pieces to promote this concept. Communications manager Alicia Springer says, “By utilizing learning hallways effectively, schools can maximize their available space and create additional opportunities for students to engage in various educational activities.” She suggests adding whiteboards and benches to hallways, allowing students to change their work environment so they feel less constricted during long periods of schooling.
Safety is also a big concern on school campuses, and removing lockers may address this issue effectively.
A study done by the University of Texas at Austin by James Bartosh, evaluates the lockless schools that have become prominent in Texas over the last 10 years.The study surveyed students, teachers, and administrators, finding that 73% of teachers and 82.5% of administrators believe lockerless schools improve safety and security.
The survey also highlighted subtopics like contraband, bullying, and textbook care, all of which showed positive outcomes in favor of the lockerless model. One teacher commented, “Not having lockers for students means there is no place for them to hide anything, this is the second best decision we made when building this school. The best decision was installing security cameras.” This goes to show that the removal of lockers creates a safer school for everyone.
As a school in the Northeast, concerns may arise when the winter months come and students may need a place to store their jackets. The gym locker rooms that currently go unused can be repurposed into a storage area much like the locker rooms we see for athletes who need to store their equipment. Students can bring combination locks from home and sign out a locker for a day.
However, with a school like Shen that already has lockers, why should we spend the money to get rid of them? According to the same University of Texas study, custodians spend a significant amount of time with locker-related issues. “These jobs occur daily and are time consuming. Examples of these jobs are: dirty lockers, locker graffiti, locker overflow, food in lockers, locker maintenance, locker pest control, and locker top dusting.” Redirecting their efforts towards classrooms and libraries would make the school more clean and cost efficient.
Overall, making the change to a lockerless school would benefit our school in many ways. Let’s lock the lockers away to create a safer and more efficient school for everyone.
