Whether you’ve seen them in movies, TV shows, or most likely throughout the hallways of Elk Grove, lockers are a facet of every high school. In recent years, from a student’s perspective, they are becoming a thing of the past. 

On an average walk down the hallway during passing periods, it’s clear that many students do not stop at their lockers. I’d also say that many students don’t even know where their lockers are. Now, this isn’t something new, and many of my peers say that lockers aren’t necessary.

But why did they used to be?

Well, lockers are used to store items that you might need for later, but they were also used for expressing students’ identities. Students would tape pictures, decorations and more to make it feel more personal. This is, admittedly, one of the best parts of lockers, as people have the ability to make it their own.

One reason why lockers no longer have a personal touch is that so much more schoolwork is done digitally. There are just so many fewer things to carry. If students had to lug around a bunch of textbooks like they did in the past, it would make sense to put them inside their locker instead of carrying them all around for the entire day.

Then there’s the convenience. A lot of students I’ve spoken to say that their locker isn’t near any of their classes, and with a five-minute passing period, this makes it a hassle to make a visit and grab one book for one class.

The biggest game-changer, as I see it, would be backpack use. It is evident that backpacks are the exact reason why lockers are almost never used. In my middle school (due to some unfortunate circumstances), we were not allowed to use backpacks throughout the day. This caused almost everyone to use their lockers, and while this is a solution to get kids to use their lockers, it wasn’t without its problems. Students would sometimes forget materials in their locker while in class, and it would cause hallway congestion with a lot of students opening their lockers at the same time at the beginning and end of the day.

In the end, I feel like more students should use their lockers. There are many good reasons to actively use them such as storage and decorative purposes. There are definitely reasons why we might not need them to be necessary, but then we wouldn’t have to visit them everyday.

So, find out where your locker is. Take those three minutes or so to open it up and put what you want in there to personalize it. Why should it be there if you aren’t going to use it?