At Grayslake Central, there are lockers everywhere. You can’t walk in the halls between classes without passing by dozens of these metal chambers. And yet, very rarely does it seem like you actually see anybody using their lockers during this time.

Many students have claimed to never use their lockers at all, and the reason why seems fairly obvious–it just isn’t convenient. The fact that students are assigned one locker for all four years they attend this school means that their locker will not be anywhere near their classes the vast majority of the time.

For example, let’s say your fourth and fifth period classes are both on the second floor, and your locker is on the first floor.

On the off chance that you have necessary supplies for fifth period stored in your locker, you would then need to navigate through the crowded halls, down the nearest flight of stairs, find everything you need in your locker, then backtrack back up to the second floor to make it to your class, all in just five minutes.

With this in mind, it is ridiculous to choose going to your locker over just carrying all your supplies in your backpack. This way, you will actually be able to get to class on time and will not forget to grab anything while in a hurry.

Furthermore, Principal of Grayslake Central Daniel Landry noted that, despite his office being close to a hall of lockers, he rarely ever sees students going to their lockers for any reason. In his opinion, lockers may be taking up too much space in the halls that would be better used for BlendEd areas.

It’s easy to see where Landry is coming from. BlendEd Learning is quickly expanding, with a number of new BlendEd classes set to be introduced next year. With so many lockers in the school going to waste, it stands to reason that some could be lost without much fuss.

Despite all this, there seems to be an anomaly in the student body. With data from a RAMPAGE poll, almost 70% of the 149 students who took the poll said that they do use their locker, and 44% of those students use it every day. So does this mean that every previous argument is now invalid?

Well, not necessarily. 30% of the students who took the poll and are not using their lockers is still a decent chunk of the overall total, and, more importantly, many of the poll-takers agree.

When asked if they felt they had enough time to go to their lockers between classes, the percentage of those who said “no” was, again, nearly 70%. In addition, many noted that the reason why they use their locker every day is to put their coat in during the colder months, so they do not have to wear it all day.

So lockers are useful to some, but not to others. Could there be a solution to this contradictory dilemma? It turns out that there is.

Many schools in the area have noticed the same phenomena that Landry did, and came to a clever solution–keep the lockers, but make them optional and allow students to sign up for them.

This fixes all of the established problems with lockers–students could sign up for lockers that are strategically located to be accessed during passing period, while also allowing the school to remove lockers for BlendEd spaces to accommodate students who do not need lockers.

With this change in place, every locker will have a purpose, not just take up space in the halls.