New locker policy shakes things up

By Bernardo Verdiguel,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

In previous years, Davis High administration always gave seniors and juniors priority over lockers. This year, however, the school’s administration has decided that sophomores have greater use for these lockers, and will thus give them priority over upperclassmen.

“At the end of the year in the spring there were 200 plus lockers empty, and seniors and juniors, especially seniors, don’t use the lockers as much,” attendance officer Maria Leigh said.

The new policy allowed sophomores to be assigned lockers during schedule pick up so that they could use them starting the first day of school. Juniors and seniors, on the other hand, now have to petition for a locker.

To petition for a locker, students had to go to the attendance window with a lock in hand, where they would be issued a locker number.

The problem with this system, however, is that some juniors and seniors in need of lockers were either too lazy or in too great a hurry to petition. These students chose to assign themselves lockers– by way of putting their belongings in an empty locker and then putting their lock on it.

Junior Alex Droege is one such student.

“Stole is a harsh word. I’m borrowing [this locker] until Sept. 5,” Droege said.

Droege decided to choose a locker for herself because she was in urgent need of one.

“On the first Friday [of the school year,] I got four textbooks. I’m a small person who doesn’t drive so it’s really difficult to carry so many textbooks and make it [to] class on time,” Droege said.

Junior Salma Doulaki is another such student. She also decided to take her own locker because of the number of books she had to carry. Doulaki believes upperclassmen have much greater need of them than sophomores.

“I use my locker daily, especially as a junior, because of how many books I have. I don’t think sophomores need them. In my previous year I had one book in my locker,” Doulaki said.

Should a student choose to claim a locker without going to the attendance office, they run the risk of getting their lock cut. An orange notice will be slipped into any locker claimed without permission, saying that the student must remove their belongings and go to the office to be issued a locker in no more than three days. If the student fails to comply, administrators will be forced to cut the lock.

Luckily, there haven’t been any serious problems so far.

“I have used these [warning] slips, and they’ve all removed their locks. We haven’t cut any locks yet that I know of,” Leigh said.