More than ten items have been stolen from the girls’ and boys’ locker rooms for one class alone, and administration and students are struggling to prevent theft.

Seniors Ethan McRae and Frances Palmer have had multiple articles of clothing stolen from their lockers, making them and other students question the school’s policy towards preventing and dealing with school thefts.

“I came into class last week hoping to get sweaty in my old tee. Unfortunately some thief stripped me of this opportunity,” McRae said.“I have also had shorts taken for some time, but they were eventually returned.”

“I had a pair of shoes, Nike shorts, and a shirt taken from my locker. These were valuable so it really bothered me,” Palmer said.

“It happens every now and then,” Principal Tom Mead said. “ Our students are encouraged to use locks. They don’t always do that though.”

Mead believes that students are not always willing to take the necessary precaution in locker room security.

“All our [gym] lockers don’t have built in locks on them so they would actually have to go to a store and buy a lock, but that’s asking them to do something they probably haven’t done or thought about so it doesn’t always happen,” Mead said. “Typically when students get something stolen from their locker it’s not because a student broke a lock, but because there was no lock at all.”

Physical education teachers are deemed responsible for promoting proper behavior in the locker rooms. However there are limitations for teachers like Patrick Russell that prevent them from monitoring locker rooms at all times.

“We can’t put cameras in the locker room,” Russell said. “The design [of the locker room] is tough for us to supervise. I can’t go into the changing rooms while students are in there too.”

Russell, like Mead, believes the responsibility lies in the student’s hands.  

“There’s not much we [teachers] can do. Lock your valuables,” Russell said “Don’t give out your combination. Write down your combination but keep it somewhere only you know. Be careful who you trust too. Someone you tell might give it to someone else, and at that point it’s out of your control.”

Frances Palmer thinks the root of the problem lies with the school’s newly imposed gym requirements among upperclassmen.

“I have been noticing a recent spike in theft,” Palmer said. “Maybe it is because of the new gym requirement. People don’t own enough gym clothes to supply themselves everyday so they decide to take others… I feel like the only way to stop school theft is to eliminate the gym requirement.”

Although the Student Handbook states “The school is not responsible for safeguarding the contents of the lockers,” Mead believes there are some ways to promote better locker safety among students.

“I suppose we could buy up some master locks and sell them in the school store along with Arnold Palmer,” Mead said.