Lockers serve a crucial role at Edison High, helping students store items without having to take up space in their backpacks. This was evident during the winter months, when coats and jackets become commonplace in the school environment. Furthermore, a delayed rollout of lockers has left many students without a designated place to keep their belongings, resulting in overcrowded floors and stuffed backpacks. However, as the school year has chugged along, student opinions on having lockers have changed. As mentioned in the previous Eagle’s Eye locker article, a tentative deadline was given to students over the rollout of lockers. With the original tentative deadline of Thanksgiving having passed, what happened and why?
Prior to November, lockers couldn’t be given out as they weren’t assigned. A miscalculation in the number of new lockers led to the reassignment of all locker numbers and combinations. However, due to Genesis’ inability to integrate this information into the portal, EHS Principal Charles Ross and his team haven’t been able to provide every student with their locker information simultaneously—therefore, making it hard to communicate with each individual student in the school and give them a locker.
“You think I could go into everyone’s history class and knock them out?” said Ross when asked about how he plans to give out combinations and assignments.
According to Ross, students’ study halls aren’t a viable option either because they are multi-graded, making it increasingly difficult to distribute lockers at that time. On the other hand, English and history classes are organized by one grade, making those classes easier to hand out lockers in.
It is apparent that using academic time to pass out lockers is questionable and it takes time to assign over two thousand lockers and combinations to students, but Ross also finds that it really isn’t worth it to give everyone a locker.
“Even if I do give lockers, people don’t even use them,” he said. “People still use their backpacks and barely make use of their lockers.”
Last year, Ross gave the sophomore class lockers, but found that they were rarely used. They were a waste of time to assign and maintain, serving no purpose to the students and taking time away from administrators that could be better placed elsewhere. However, Ross also believes that during passing, even though students are carrying bookbags, they go to their lockers to “hang out.” This habit slows down the already overcrowded traffic.
“All of a sudden, someone else will stop to talk at a locker, and another, then out of nowhere you have a full group overcrowding the already crowded eight-foot-wide halls,” said Ross.
The EHS principal is also in the process of calling down students to talk about their grades, at which point they can also ask for a locker. If a student isn’t called down, they can email Ross or one of the main office secretaries. Ross will provide them with a locker combination and number, which they can then use. Otherwise, if a student ever finds themselves in the main office, they can always ask for one.
“I just want everyone to have a place to store their belongings,” said Ross. “Tell them I am really sorry for the delay.”
Students are mixed about getting lockers at this time of the year, with there not being as strong of an opinion in favor as compared to the start of the school year. One of the main reasons to get a locker during the winter was to have that extra storage space to store winter gear, so that it wouldn’t be a pain to carry around and the gear wouldn’t get lost. Increasingly, students find lockers a waste of time and space.
“I don’t think there is any point,” said Micheal Morales ‘27. “I don’t see a use for it because I don’t bring my jacket into school anymore due to the warmer weather, unlike the winter months.”
Morales is not alone in his changing opinion. At the start of the school year, Vinuthna Yerra ‘27 found it increasingly difficult that she wasn’t given a locker as she would have to carry her heavy coat around and occasionally lose it a couple times. Now she doesn’t believe she personally needs one.
“They could still be helpful,” said Yerra. “Personally, I don’t require one, but those who need extra storage space could use them.”
Administration would like students to be mindful to only email and request a locker if one is really needed. If students only use a backpack and believe they will never use a locker, they should continue carrying their bag from class to class.
