Student lockers an endangered species
Students walking down PHS hallways carrying their bags. Since PHS has no lockers for students, they are forced to keep everything on them at all times.
When grazing the halls of the many Chandler Unified School District junior high schools, it is hard not to notice the abundance of student lockers that are dotted along the walls. This is a sharp contrast to the CUSD high schools, as they lack lockers for personal use. This may leave students wondering, “How did the junior high students get so lucky?”
Student lockers serve many purposes in a school including a place to store backpacks, binders, and textbooks. Perry students (as with Basha and Hamilton) are not offered a secure place to store their stuff, and as a result, have to lug their heavy backpack around campus all day.
Not having lockers comes with a slew of various problems. It is an hassle for students to bring their textbooks to class, so they are forced to use class sets provided by the teachers. These class sets are notorious for containing much graffiti and some even have groups of pages missing which can affect a student’s learning. Enabling students to bring their own textbook would put that student responsible for his or her textbook and not leave them gambling for a good book every class period.
Secondly, having to store personal items in a backpack puts those items at risk of being stolen. It is all too easy for a determined thief to take anything from a student’s backpack. While lockers can get broken into, backpack zippers will always fall behind combination locks in terms of security.
Lastly, research shows that carrying around a heavy backpack all day has a high chance of causing back pain and posture problems for students. According to NBC2 News, the way students carry their backpacks is a great factor in causing bad posture and “a lot of posture issues start very young.” Enabling students to store their backpacks in a locker would have a large impact in eliminating the risk of back problems for Perry students.
Perry and the CUSD should try and fit student lockers into their ever-changing school budget. Filling the large, mostly white hallways of Perry with cardinal red and blue lockers would greatly benefit the student population and give them more options in choosing where to put their personal items.
Cooper is a senior and this is his second year on The Precedent staff. After being a writer last year, he is now the News Editor.
Paige Coakley is in her Senior year at Perry High School. She is a returning newspaper student for the 3rd consecutive year. Her background includes...
