In nearly every movie about high school, there is always some
scene of characters putting books in their locker or having the

romantic scene over the lockers, but in reality, nothing ever hap-
pens along the lines of lockers.

It’s true that it might take quite a while for a student to hap-
pen upon one of the only 50 or so students who actively use one.

“We have tracked locker usage for several years now,” Prin-
cipal Heidi Weaver said. “We have about two-to-three hundred

students who request a locker out of 2000 lockers, but of that
many, about 50 of them use
it,” she said.
Sophomore Victoria
Kreitler is one those few
students who have and

actually use a locker. Kre-
itler said that she uses her

locker to put her lunch and
winter coat in there every
day.
Though she uses her
locker, she said it’s not easy.

“Definitely isn’t ef-
ficient, especially when it’s

on the other side of the
school, and you can’t even
get to your locker,” Kreitler said. “The only time you have to
get to your locker is during the passing period but everybody is
blocking the lockers,” she said

Sophomore Allison Eller says she doesn’t use a locker be-
cause there are so many people in the hallways that she can’t get

to them and be comfortable getting all her stuff and not rushing.
“We don’t have time in the passing period to get in a locker
especially if you need to use the bathroom,” she said.
As the student population continues to grow, the passing
periods are getting more and more packed.
Removing lockers “would create more space in the hallways
and that’s what’s really needed for kids to get around and that
would lead to kids not being late as much and maybe extending
the passing periods,” Eller said.
Many students would agree on Eller’s point of view, when it

comes to the space being used more efficiently. Kreitler’s opin-
ion is that “It would just be good just to leave the space open to

have more room in the hallway for everybody to walk since it’s

always so crowded and no one uses the lockers.“ Sophomore
Lauren Dill said removing lockers would, “create more common
spaces for people to hang out in, like little nooks.”
Overall, students at Millard South think that there would
be no harm in removing the lockers and that it would help out
with traffic during passing periods, less people being tardy, etc.
Therefore Principal Weaver is the judge on whether or not we
can or should remove the lockers.
When asked about the locker situation, Mrs. Weaver said,
“We have tracked locker usage for several years now, we have
about two-to-three hundred students who request a locker out
of 2000 lockers, but of that many, about 50 of them use it, and
I think that has even gone
down through the years.[If
were to take the lockers out,
there’s a possibility that the
next trend would be back to
everyone wanting a locker.”
Although taking out lockers
would improve the amount of
space at school, we would be
stumped if everyone wanted
to use lockers once again.]
If we get rid of them, the next
trend, we would be back to
everyone wanting lockers.”
Saying that some students

would still be in need of lock-
ers, without any lockers available to satisfy their need.

The newly added common spaces by the south door was an
appealing feature for the school, with many believing the same
could be done in other spaces that are currently occupied by
lockers. This appeal hasn’t gone unwarranted
“We’re watching the South doors and the common space
there,” Weaver said. “There have been lots of good things, but

there have also been a few things that I think have been nega-
tive impacts that we need to work through before we would do

something like that.”
According to Weaver, some students are using this new
commons area as a way to skip class. Weaver and the rest of
the administration plan to combat this by “sweeping” the area

and plan to put up a sign stating the area is a “senior-only” sit-
ting during the school day. That isn’t the only negative impact,

though. According to Weaver, some students have been seen
standing on and messing around with the furniture. This has led
her to ask herself one big question: “Do we open up more places

for people to go that should be where they are supposed to be?”
Another obstacle in the way of more common spaces being
added, is that some people question the school’s ability to even
remove the lockers in the first place. When asked about this,
Weaver said, “It’s possible,” but the ability to fund said projects
is what truly stands in the way of future common spaces being
added.
With “Less than fifty” people with lockers, one question truly
arises: Are the lockers truly necessary? And if they aren’t, is there
even a good enough reason to do anything about them.