Losing lockers: the disappearance of a social space in US middle schools and high schools

ABSTRACTLockers in middle schools and high schools in the United States are currently disappearing. Due to safety concerns and digitalized textbooks and other school supplies, lockers are becoming obsolete. As larger societal and technological changes drive this trend, the loss of lockers as a shared social space demands careful attention and consideration. Many students use lockers as a means in which to project their identities and membership in different social groups. At the same time, visiting lockers during passing periods provides students opportunities to run into (often literally) students from other social groups, creating unique possibilities for relationship-building that are rare in other school spaces. As social and political polarization continues to intensity in the US and other countries around the world, the loss of lockers in American schools can serve as a caution of the consequences that accrue from disappearing shared social spaces.KEYWORDS: School lockerstechnologysocial spacesocial relationsstudent cliqueshallways Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Recently in Australia, for example, parents have raised concerns about new schools without lockers. See Vanessa Arundale (Citation2021 Not in refs, February 12), ‘State-of-the-art agriculture at our $121M school – Take a video tour here’. The Armidale Express; Jordan Baker and Deanna Ruseka (Citation2020 Not in refs, 26 January), ‘Parents are genuinely confused’: The problem with tech in schools. The Sydney Morning Herald.2 Additional surveys have been conducted in individual schools. The student newspaper of Downers Grove North in Downers Grove, Illinois, reported in their 23 September 2023 issue that 44.2% of the 283 students surveyed said that ‘they have never used their locker’. https://dgnomega.org/12702/feature/the-decrease-in-locker-usage/. The school newspaper of Alliance High School in Alliance, Ohio, reported in 2019 that in a survey of 204 students, 91.2% said that ‘they do not use their locker at all’ and that 79.4% said it was not important to use a locker. https://www.accrtw.org/o/high-school/article/1718003 See, particularly, Chapter 5.