Once a cornerstone of American high schools, the common sound of clicking locks and slamming metal doors has been eerily quiet in recent years. Locker usage has declined and disappeared from students’ routines at Algonquin due to a variety of factors, signaling a shift from traditional school culture.
In recent years at Algonquin, students rarely utilize lockers as storage space, walking by them like they are not even present. With an increased reliance on technology in classrooms, less textbook shuffling, tight passing times and the COVID-19 pandemic, students find convenience in backpacks alone.
According to a Harbinger survey of 136 students from Jan. 13 to 15 through Google Forms, 95% of students claimed they have never used their locker. As locker usage declines and past high school traditions start to fade away, administrators also seek new ways to use and repurpose the space.
Through long-term observation, Principal Sean Bevan has observed the decline in locker usage among students at Algonquin. Bevan claims current locker habits differ from the past.
“I’ve been a principal for 15 years, and early in my career we started to see locker usage really decline,” Bevan said. “Before that time, most kids used lockers pretty routinely. When I was growing up, everybody used their lockers all the time.”
History teacher and class of 2000 Algonquin graduate Amelia Braun relates to the experience, recalling how locker usage used to be a core part of everyday experience in Algonquin.
“Everybody used a locker,” Braun said. “You would figure out in your schedule, when you could stop at [your] locker, put stuff in your locker for lunch and decorate your locker.”
Beyond storage purposes, lockers were a significant and enjoyable part of students’ social and personal life, providing a platform for expression and connection.
“I loved my locker,” Braun said. “It was fun times. I decorated it, you’d have pictures of your friends and you hung out at the lockers in between classes.”
Similarly, Bevan shares similar experiences using a locker growing up. For Bevan, lockers also fostered a close-knit school community.
“For me as a teenager, it was fun to have a locker,” Bevan said. “You got to know your locker neighbors and it was all alphabetical. There was something communal about that.”
Alongside everyday traditions, Braun claims locker culture at Algonquin remained a meaningful part of students’ lives throughout years in high school.
“You could not wait to get a locker in the senior hallway,” Braun said. “That was the epitome of locker access.”
Despite the historic significance and past popularity of lockers, many factors have led to the decline of locker usage. Bevan believes the cause is related to the ever-developing digital world.
“I think a few things happened,” Bevan said. “One was with laptop usage. Kids are carrying their laptops instead of carrying lots of books from class to class. That was really the major driver. When our schools and the way we conduct education started to shift to be a little more digital, students did not need to carry every textbook from every class to every other class, and when that changed, students just didn’t need to stop by their lockers as much.”
Increased reliance on technology was not the only trigger to the decline in locker usage. Braun also believes distance between classes has made locker access less convenient during the school day. According to a Harbinger survey of 136 students from Jan. 13 to 15 through Google Forms, 75% of students admit to neglecting their locker due to lack of ample passing time.
“I think it’s just a mechanism of time and maybe [it is an inconvenience] to where your classes are located,” Braun said. “The school is also bigger, which might factor in as well.”
In addition to time and convenience, science teacher Daniel Welty believes the COVID-19 pandemic also shifted past locker habits to more students storing belongings in their backpacks. According to a Harbinger survey of 136 students from Jan. 13 to 15 through Google Forms, 69% claim lockers unnecessary as backpacks fulfill all storage needs.
“I believe it was a COVID thing,” Welty said. “Students were instructed to not use lockers during [the] COVID era and they would carry their backpacks all day through the building from class to class.”
According to Bevan, the combination of these factors have ultimately changed locker usage habits.
“I have not seen too much [locker usage],” Bevan said. “I would say maybe even less than 10 kids that I’ve ever seen.”
Senior Linden Schaffer is no stranger to this observation as they recount their experience with lockers.
“Personally, I am not a huge fan of lockers,” Schaffer said via email. “I myself have never used them in my time here, even when I was assigned one.”
The presence of lockers also prevents viable hallway seating, space and usage, prompting the discussion of whether or not their presence is relevant.
“When you go through hallways, especially science, English, foreign language and history, students are in the hallways and sitting on the floor. So we said ‘alright students want to be in the hallways and want to get out of the room, but everyone is sitting on the floor’, [and] if you had a [seating] space where they go out and they could sit somewhere in the hallway, would it be a nicer experience?” Welty said.
This problem sparked an idea among Welty and students in his Innovation class, as many shared similar experiences around lockers. Because students no longer use lockers and hallways lack seating spaces, Schaffer and other students have been attempting a locker project in hopes of repurposing lockers and making better use of hallway space.
“In my opinion, the school really needs some more secondary locations where students can work during class, outside of class or even just eat at, which this project would provide,” Schaffer said via email. “Our main goal with repurposing these lockers is to add another useful space for students to use and better their experience at Algonquin.”
The initial idea opened the door to a more focused discussion on how the hallway area could be reimagined and the process necessary to achieve it.
“The idea was [to] pull out a bank of lockers and put in a bench seating,” Welty said. “Then, behind it where the lockers came out, you could just paint the wall or put a whiteboard back there.”
However, there are many obstacles and safety concerns that require consideration, which also prevents the idea from becoming successful in its entirety.
“We’re still waiting to get permission and some direction on the prototype to go forward, ” Welty said. “The biggest thing is also the cost associated with removing the lockers and then whatever’s behind there. Do they need to do any work to make it safe? How do we find benches to either purchase or get made here and then also paint the back wall? It’s all logistical.”
Schaffer, who is involved in the project, has high hopes for its potential impact in the long run.
“I honestly think if we end up committing to this project fully, it could go really far for future classes at Algonquin,” Schaffer said via email.
In the meantime, people are using the locker space in other creative ways.
“A lot of teachers use [lockers] as a space to use magnets to display student work or have students complete group work up against the [lockers],” Bevan said.
For example, the Social Studies department uses the space for various class activities outside the classroom.
“[History teachers] use the lockers a lot with magnets to hang things and do gallery walks, so we’re still utilizing the space,” Braun said.
Building on this existing practice, Bevan has contributed to and looked for ways to support the current ways of using the locker space.
“I’ve purchased really strong magnets to be able to promote the usage of the lockers as display places for student work when teachers have kids in the hallways.” Bevan said.
The shift highlights how lockers serve as a marker of an earlier era and its lasting legacy on past American high school culture.
“[Lockers] are kind of around and they are like a vestige,” Bevan said. “They are this historical artifact of what kids’ life was like back here in the olden days.”
Going forward, schools will have different priorities over lockers. According to Bevan, decisions over funding will be rethought as lockers are no longer considered.
“When they’re building new high schools now, they don’t even invest in lockers anymore,” Bevan said. “We’re not the only school, nearly all American schools now just don’t use lockers so they don’t spend money to build lockers when they won’t be used.”
