Uniform policy tyranny progresses onto sweaters

by Felipe Arencibia, News, November 14, 2008

After a year without lockers, students are perplexed as to why the lockers still remain in two major hallways: 300 and 600.  The answer, however, lies simply in the subject of money and time.

                “[Removing the lockers] is a slow, ‘in house’ process,” said Joanne Gans, principal.

                The slow process that Gans refers to includes manually taking out the lockers without causing any structural damage, then retiling the floors, and painting the walls, requiring a large sum of funding.

                Ironically, students were charged five dollars to have a locker for a whole school year, which theoretically should bring in money to the school.

                “If the problem is money for tiling, then they might as well just have lockers for another year and with the money they raise from the lockers, they can remove the lockers the following year and retile the floor,” said Ania Someillan, junior.

                However, regardless if whether there is enough money or not, the main reason why the lockers are not being used anymore is because they are not “in demand.”

                Administrators noticed a decrease in demand for lockers after the 2006-2007 school year, and following the example of other newer schools, decided to get rid of them all together.

                “Not having lockers isn’t really a big deal for me,” said Priscilla Garcia, sophomore.

While Garcia is among the many students who do not feel affected by the removal of lockers, there are still some who feel it has resulted in a burden.

                “I loved having lockers freshman year. It made everything so much easier in between classes because it really lessened the burden on my back,” said Monique Alfonso, junior.

                Despite Alfonso’s and Garcia’s differing views, the results of a survey of 100 students proves that over fifty percent felt indifferent towards lockers.

                Aside from following the current trend of other schools, the other purpose was to make the school more appealing.

                “The main purpose was beautification,” said Humberto Miret, assistant principal in charge of campus beautification.

                By eliminating lockers, the idea was to add space to the normally crowded hallways, and maintain the physical appeal of the school.

                “It really opens up the hallway,” said Gans.

                While this is true for the 750 hallway, it seems the hallway that would have benefited the most from an increase in space, is the hallway that will be left last, the 300 hall.

                “We’re going to start with the 600 hall and then leave the 300 hall for last,” said Gans. “Being the longest hallway, it is the hardest to remove.”