By Lina Coppola
Westhill is lined with lockers which haven’t been touched in years. Many students want to use the lockers, yet they remain locked and unavailable. Lockers used to be a staple for Westhill students before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Westhill administration decided to do away with the practice for the foreseeable future. Proponents of this move said the lockers were a time-waster for students, but for the 2024-25 school year, their argument stands on shaky ground after passing time increased from 5 to 8 minutes in order to accommodate the latest schedule change.
Students like Joshua Villard (‘25) and Banks Valentine (‘25) said the increase in passing time has been so exorbitant, they have now begun to do extra laps around the halls in order to “kill time,” and both said they wouldn’t mind lockers making a return if it meant having something to do.
Students believe that having a locker will be beneficial as the extra storage could help in many ways, especially with the weight of their backpacks. Rylee Walters (‘28) believes the weight of her bag to be too heavy, arguing that the long-term stress of her backpack may lead to back problems. “My back always hurts from [my backpack], and it would make it a lot easier [for students] to be able to put books away in your locker,” Walters said. For her, being able to put items in an assigned locker could decrease the weight of her backpack, potentially giving students like herself a break.
Student-athletes claim it would be more beneficial for them to store their equipment and uniforms without having to go to the locker room. “They don’t open [the locker rooms] until 7:20 and we have to get to class at 7:25 which leaves us barely enough time to get into the locker room and get to your classes,” Sophia Calorossi (‘28) said. She claims items are being stolen from students when they leave their stuff there. These events led to many of Westhill Athletics participants carrying their stuff around all day. Therefore, being able to put sports bags in lockers could be a more time-efficient and safer option.
Some also believe possessing lockers will lead to being less forgetful, and cleaner transitions will occur. “It could help us with transitioning [during the passing period] and not keeping our stuff at home,” Sophie Barwinski (‘28) said. This means students might not have to carry everything throughout the day, reducing clutter. And students could quickly grab what they need between classes without having to carry it around all day without having the lug around class projects around all day to only use in one class.
While the students The Westword spoke to were very vocal in their approval of reviving lockers, there are those within the community who argue bringing back lockers may exacerbate problems at Westhill relating to smoking and drug use. Ms. Caryn Corridon, a Language Arts teacher at Westhill, previously taught in Florida before moving to Connecticut, and her experiences there, she said, make her skeptical about bringing lockers back to Westhill. Hiding contraband such as e-cigarettes and lighters was an issue at her previous school in Florida, and she said that bringing back lockers could pose a threat to Westhill’s ongoing initiative to curb smoking and drug use.
There is also the concern that bringing back locker usage may lead to a revival in pest populations like mice and rats, as pointed out by science teacher Mrs. Wendy Bosco. However, she said she understands that students “have a lot to carry in their bag” and qualified the argument of bringing back assigned lockers to Westhill.
The Westword tried to reach out to Westhill administration but received no response upon the matter. Either way, the purple lockers will still serve as a manifestation of that classic American high school aesthetic, though one that, for now, has no practical use. The iconic purple lockers will always remind the student body to be Westhill and proud, whether students can use them or not.