Locker vs. Backpacks

The students in the crowded 2nd floor hallways.

Raelyn Young

The students in the crowded 2nd floor hallways.

Raelyn Young, Staff Writer

Many students here went to middle school at Valley View.  At the VVMS campus we all had individual lockers. Here, students carry backpacks and have a set of textbooks at school and at home. When the school first started planning the buildings layout they had to take in to consideration that the number of students could just increase over the years, and that there may not be space in hallways with lockers.

“The state gives schools a certain amount of space to build on according to the number of students at they think will be at the school, so when we were planning the school’s layout we found that there wasn’t going to be a lot of space in the halls for all of the students and enough lockers for everyone,” Assistant Principal Mr. Peters said.

The students know how crowded the halls are, so it would have been hard to fit all the lockers. Not having lockers has many pros and cons. Students have different opinions about lockers on campus.“I like having no lockers because you won’t forget any supplies in your locker if you have a backpack with all your stuff instead,” Maddy Thoma said.

The school also doesn’t have to worry about students having anything illegal in their lockers. Students could very well still put illegal things in their backpacks, but they would more commonly stored in a locker.

“It seems safer to not have lockers because people can’t hide things inside. Illegal stuff could be put in a back pack but there is less room and the lockers would seem like a better place. Students also don’t need to make sure they have time going from class to class and stopping at their lockers for supplies,” Angelina Offin said.

Also at the end of the year it saves the janitors time from having to clean out each locker. But, sometimes not having a locker can be hard.

“Coming from Valley View I liked having a locker because my bag was a lot lighter. And if you have a coat or extra bags for after school activities you can store them in your locker,” Ryan Kinney said.

There are some outside portables at GP and it would be helpful if students had a place to put a jacket if it is raining. It took a lot of deciding to find what would work best for GP lockers or no lockers, and the diction was simply because of space in the halls.