By Hasan Mirasyedi, Staff Writer
People crowd the halls as the bell rings, signaling the end of a period. Students walk from class to class, but in the midst of all the clutter and chaos, not a single locker is being used. Beat-up metal lockers sit against walls, almost like an abandoned ghost town. Students walk by, ignoring their presence. This begs the question: are lockers even necessary anymore?
Junior Tim Kim states that lockers don’t seem to be of any use anymore. Tim explained, “Everyone just holds their stuff. [They] should be removed as no one uses them.” Junior Joseph Montgomery agreed, adding, “They are a waste of space,” and are “inconvenient to use between classes.”
However, the lockers may not be entirely useless. Sophomore Luke Martinez explains that he uses the “team locker rooms near the gym area” to “keep sports stuff” in them during the school day. Senior Batu Korugulu also agrees that lockers are not entirely useless, mentioning that “Athletes seem to use them to keep their sports equipment.” So why are lockers barely used anymore?
Where the lockers are situated in the school might play a part. Batu suggests that lockers should be “moved to a certain area of the school,” that way it would “free up space in the hallways,” allowing for easier movement and less crowded hallways when transitioning between classes. Senior Renato Tejeda also mentioned how they are “positioned awkwardly, because students walk right next to them” causing students to have “no room to get into [the lockers].”
Another reason for the lack of use could be the digitalization of school materials. With students now having access to chrome books, they don’t need physical materials as much. Luke Martinez explained that “our teachers’ textbooks have been put online for us to access,” which in turn limits how much you have to carry around in your backpack during the day. Renato added to that by mentioning how “all [his] folders are in his chrome book,” so he “barely even [carries] things in [his] bag anymore.” It’s almost like a “domino effect.” The more online resources students have, the less things they have to carry around all day, which in turn limits the use of lockers as everything fits in the students’ backpacks.
It seems that the limited use of lockers at River Hill can be narrowed down to two reasons: the awkward placement of the lockers in the hallways and the use of electronics for school work. Students suggest that that school should not get rid of lockers entirely, since a portion of students still use them, but instead move them to a more secluded area of the school campus to free up space in the hallways and motivate students to use them before and after school more.