Why aren’t lockers being used in middle and high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

Losing battle. This was going on at Langley when my kid was there 16 years ago. Drugs. It us what it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

wow pt for just having to carry a laptop and charger and some maybe pens and pencils!?!

You’re an out of touch idiot. Kids need binders for their classes too. They also have lunch, their pencil pack and maybe some folders. All with a laptop. It gets heavy. To reduce weight we try to have only 1-2 binders max. Even with 2 binders and the laptop it’s very heavy.

However did we all survive? We had binders for each class, textbooks for at least five classes, our lunches, a pencil pouch, and instruments/sports equipment. The difference was that we didn't carry a massive metal water bottle. We also didn't have computers, but our textbooks outweighed computers by at least 2-3x, so we were actually carrying MORE weight.

We used lockers in our high school, I don't know about you. We didn't carry ALL our books around. Before classes started, we went to the lockers and unloaded all the books/binders for the after lunch classes. At lunch, put morning books in lockers and take out afternoon books. Repack everything at the end of the day. I played an instrument and that went in the music room cubbies in the morning before school, used it in class and then picked it up after all classes were over.

What did alter some Gen X was the perception that it was uncool to carry your backpack with straps on both shoulders. I knew a kid with one shoulder slightly lower than the other after doing that all through junior and senior high. He did have to walk to school, so that was likely a factor.

[Anonymous]

Keep hearing fire trucks and ambulances from my house in Falls Church - seems dangerous out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

Losing battle. This was going on at Langley when my kid was there 16 years ago. Drugs. It us what it is.

So why did a recent reno include the installation of lockers? More wasted $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

wow pt for just having to carry a laptop and charger and some maybe pens and pencils!?!

You’re an out of touch idiot. Kids need binders for their classes too. They also have lunch, their pencil pack and maybe some folders. All with a laptop. It gets heavy. To reduce weight we try to have only 1-2 binders max. Even with 2 binders and the laptop it’s very heavy.

However did we all survive? We had binders for each class, textbooks for at least five classes, our lunches, a pencil pouch, and instruments/sports equipment. The difference was that we didn't carry a massive metal water bottle. We also didn't have computers, but our textbooks outweighed computers by at least 2-3x, so we were actually carrying MORE weight.

We used lockers in our high school, I don't know about you. We didn't carry ALL our books around. Before classes started, we went to the lockers and unloaded all the books/binders for the after lunch classes. At lunch, put morning books in lockers and take out afternoon books. Repack everything at the end of the day. I played an instrument and that went in the music room cubbies in the morning before school, used it in class and then picked it up after all classes were over.

What did alter some Gen X was the perception that it was uncool to carry your backpack with straps on both shoulders. I knew a kid with one shoulder slightly lower than the other after doing that all through junior and senior high. He did have to walk to school, so that was likely a factor.

We definitely carried around far more weight than these kids now carry. At a few of the middle schools where I sub, lockers are assigned to every student, but very few kids use them, choosing to use the time between classes to socialize rather than go to their lockers. That's on them and their parents.

Their backpacks are ridiculous, but a lot of the stuff they pull out of their backpacks seems unnecessary for school. Some girls carry full makeup kits, complete with eyelash curlers and large metal eyeshadow pallets (which they have to take out of their backpacks when they go through the metal detectors, so it seems like it would be a pain). Several kids bring their Nintendo Switches, which they claim they play on the bus. A few kids bring lots of sports equipment to use at recess, and a huge number of them have more than one of those "Doh" stress balls that weigh quite a bit. They have toys weighing down their backpacks.

Then there is the food. They bring a ridiculous amount of food to school, which they try to eat during classes. Some have multiple cans of Alani or Starbucks drinks, entire bags of cookies, an entire box of Cheezits, multiple full-size candy bars, an entire box of fruit snacks, a family-sized portion of grapes, a metal Bento box packed full of snacks, cereal packs, multiple yogurts, and much more. They have grocery stores in their backpacks. No wonder the backpacks weigh so much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

Losing battle. This was going on at Langley when my kid was there 16 years ago. Drugs. It us what it is.

My kids HATED using the lockers. They literally have 4 minutes between classes — not enough time to go to their locker.

[Anonymous]

Because the lockers are too narrow to put ANYTHING in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is now in PT for muscle pain. Pretty sure it is the backpack. I can barely lift it. Figure this out, FCPS!! They shouldn’t have to be an oddball who requests a locker to not have back pain. If you don’t care about school and aren’t in sports or music, you don’t have to carry much. If you’re an involved, hard-working kid you end up with back issues. Sounds like an equity problem to me. Our school is newly renovated…with lockers…at great taxpayer expense. If kids could handle lockers at our MS, why not in HS?

Losing battle. This was going on at Langley when my kid was there 16 years ago. Drugs. It us what it is.

So why did a recent reno include the installation of lockers? More wasted $.

You can request a locker if you want one, but nobody wants one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do girls stash period supplies

Why is this so hard to understand? They can carry a small purse or keep supplies in their pencil pouch.

This is not a hard concept. It's hard to imagine how some people, who clearly have zero critical thinking skills or ability to be resilient, survived to adulthood.

Some people said they're not allowed backpacks.

[Anonymous]

Herndon assigned all kids lockers this year to give them a place to store their phones. Kids absolutely refuse to use them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do girls stash period supplies

Why is this so hard to understand? They can carry a small purse or keep supplies in their pencil pouch.

This is not a hard concept. It's hard to imagine how some people, who clearly have zero critical thinking skills or ability to be resilient, survived to adulthood.

Some people said they're not allowed backpacks.

Since when is a backpack the same thing as a small purse or pencil pouch?

[Anonymous]

Carson doesn't allow backpacks in the classroom so kids have to use their lockers. DS has one binder for all of his classes on A and B day, I am not sure what else he needs to carry with him or how often he needs to go to his locker.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea how my kids' backpack is so full when they have a textbook for one class and a novel for English, at most, plus they only go to 3-4 classes a day and buy their lunch in the cafeteria. And, my favorite - they won't take a coat because it's too much stuff to carry around.

It seems like a choice to me, and I've suggested they get a locker (which are readily available and easy to request at our school), but they refuse to do so and would rather complain about having to carry around binders, taking everything out for the morning pass through the weapons detector, etc. Of course, if they had a locker, they'd just forget all their shit at school all the time.