The cliché of “locker culture” as portrayed in movies and shows about high school is at its downfall in RMHS.
Talking at friends’ lockers and the slamming of lockers as the bells rings have been silenced and replaced with the “convenience” of heavy backpacks. The heavy backpacks seem to be the solution to avoid being late to class.
The passing period is currently three minutes and with lockers on all main floors, successfully making it to your locker and to class on time is near impossible. Senior Kaleigh Letourneau stated,” My locker is assigned on the 4th floor and none of my classes have ever been there. So it makes it more of an inconvenience for me to go up and have to come back down between classes for materials. It’s better to just carry what I need in my bag and not have to worry about missing materials.” Having a locker near where your classes are is slim as the locations of classes are different year to year for every student.
Walking at a steady pace within the traffic of the building in between classes from one side of the building to the other takes the entirety of the passing period. The students who do use their locker often seem to only access it before and after school. Senior Jessica Santilli qualified with, “I usually only use it at the beginning and end of the day for my jacket mostly.” Lockers may be used, but they are not often used for their intended purpose of school supplies and textbooks.
Athletes also aren’t taking advantage of their lockers within the school, Senior Abbi Magazzu mentioned how she keeps her soccer equipment in her car due to the distance of her locker in relation to soccer practice. Tyler Branson (‘24) explained why he doesn’t use his locker, “I don’t have time, I think the only reason it was used before high school was because we couldn’t have our backpack.”
For the 2023-2024 school year RMHS currently has 1103 students (as provided by guidance) and a rough estimate of 1486 lockers (as provided by the main office). This confirms that the lessened locker use is not due to the lack thereof because there are more lockers present than students.
