School Lockers-Yes or No?

Authors Note:  I was looking for current events to write about and I decided to write about this.  In this piece I will be working on using good transitions.

   
According to USA Today some schools around the country are getting rid of lockers.  Though there are many reasons for this change my view is that this is the wrong course of action.

Firstly the article on USA Today’s website says that the reason for this change is to support a more modern learning style.  "It's all to create an environment that's student friendly," said Ronnie McGehee, interim superintendent of the Madison County, Miss., School District.  However taking away lockers is like taking away students personal space.  A locker isn’t just a place to throw your bag in before first period, it’s the place that all of my classmates go to before every class, even lunch! 

Some teachers think that school shootings could be avoided by getting rid of lockers.  This is because “It gives kids a place to hide things," says Mike Nelson, co-founder of Keys to Safer Schools and a licensed counselor.  So are you saying if there were no lockers these one-in-a-million school shootings wouldn’t happen?  Wrong.  I’m sure kids would still try it, with or without lockers.  

And of course the final reason for this terrible decision is money.  Apparently new schools can save $200,000 by not putting in lockers.  But what they don’t tell you is that the reason they don’t want lockers is because they want to integrate more rooms for “gathering areas and learning centers”.  An action that surely costs more than the money that what could be saved.

Since I am in the Academy 21 program if I lost my locker it probably wouldn’t be that big of a problem. However if many of my friends lost theirs they would have huge problem.  They would have to lug three or more textbooks around with them every day.  Not including their computer, folders/portfolio, and pens/pencils.  So despite our teacher’s best intentions the environment won’t be very “student friendly”.

So what’s the point?  The point is if our school decides to go locker-less please review the arguments I gave for any reason they might throw at you.  And teachers if your school is thinking about removing the lockers, for the students sake, please discourage them.