By: Matthew Sutherland

Before this school year, every student at Tuscarora was assigned a locker located somewhere in the building. However, a new policy was introduced to students this year that only assigns lockers to students if they request one. Lockers are one of the staples of an American high school, but in 2019, their usefulness is being put into question.

Eric Valdivia is a sophomore, and chose not to be assigned a locker. He says he made this decision because “there’s not enough time to get to a locker in between classes without being late, and it’s more convenient to just keep everything in your backpack.” Valdivia thinks that “we should either repurpose the lockers somehow, or remove them to free up space in the hallway.”

Valdivia isn’t the only one with this opinion either. Sophomore Navraj Gill shares similar thoughts regarding lockers in high school, saying “I don’t really need a locker since I can just carry everything I have from class to class, and most of my work is done online anyway so that frees up a lot of backpack space.” He also noted that most of his classes “don’t use textbooks, or if they do they stay at home.” Gill says that, “If we were to take any action towards the lockers, I think some of them could stay in the school, since a small fraction of people use them, but the rest can just be removed.” he said.

Between the time it takes to get to class, the small amount of items students need to carry, and new school policies, it looks like these once-useful lockers may be on their way out soon.