Every August, students come to fill the halls of LHS. Students love coming back to see their friends, but the one part of school that students dread the most is the hallway traffic.
In my two and a half years at LHS, the hallways somehow seem to get smaller every year I come back. During passing periods I am constantly squished between hundreds of other students trying to make their way to class on time. The hallways can get so crowded that students have to stop walking and wait for it to clear up. This leaves many students anxious to get to class on time, and annoyed with running into and being squished by strangers.
A possible cause of this problem are the blue lockers that can be found throughout almost every hallway of LHS. With the lockers being 15 inches wide and on both sides of the hallway, 30 inches of space is being taken up in most of the hallways. 30 inches may not seem like a lot, but if this space was added, there could be at least two more rows for students to walk, helping with the hall traffic jams. At most, I see 10 students a week using a locker. With over 1,000 students roaming the hallways every day, and less than 25% of the student population using lockers, it seems as if lockers are not a day-to-day priority for many students.
Back when LHS opened, there were no Chromebooks and online technology, so students carried around heavy books for each class. Due to all of these supplies, more students used lockers to set certain books in, so they would not have to carry them around all day. Now, students can be found online almost the entire school day, with access to learning online, so students do not need heavy textbooks for every class. With fewer books to haul around, it seems there isn’t as much of a need for lockers as there was years ago.One of the newest schools in Sioux Falls, JHS, had different ideas for the layout. JHS was built on the idea of having space for students to lounge and have focus areas for study instead of having lockers. A recent transfer to JHS, junior Savannah VanderZee feels that getting to class every day is not a struggle.
“Traffic in the hallway is very steady and I wouldn’t really say there is traffic, the school is very big and nicely laid out, so going from class to class is very quick and smooth for the most part,” said VanderZee.
There are a few lockers that JHS incorporated for students who still like to use them, but other than that, VanderZee and many other students have no use for lockers.
“Students can go to the office and request a locker. My friend has one that we can put our winter coats in, but I don’t need a locker for my school stuff because the teachers don’t give us big books. I just hold everything in my backpack,” said VanderZee.
LHS is already very crowded, and the lockers are not helping. Removing the lockers would help with hall traffic and ease the crowding. Some students would be upset if the lockers were removed, so there could still be some lockers in a few of the hallways to provide for those students. LHS can become a more enjoyable environment for all students when they know they can get to class on time, have room to walk and not be squished in between other students.
