Gen Z has given up on lockers?

[Anonymous]

My kid wants to use a locker but can't because the school doesn't have any.

[Anonymous]

I work in a HS and they have to request a locker - they don't just get one automatically, and most do not. I don't see kids hanging out around lockers like in My So Called Life.

As hard as I can tell, my kids who have lockers play a sport or an instrument or something where they have extra things to stash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So am I the only whose MCPS HS kids refuse to use their lockers?

I found out because I was quizzing my DS on why he was late to class and he explained it was because he left his coat and other items in a teacher's class and he needed to pick them up. I asked why he didn't just put those items in his locker so he could retrieve them whenever and he looked at me like I had three heads and said no one uses their lockers.

I went to MCPS high schools in the '90s and lockers were a core part of the high school experience! You scheduled your routes around being able to drop off and pick up stuff by the lockers. You met up with your friends at your locker or theirs. Kids would decorate each other's lockers on their birthdays.

So is this unique to just my kid and our DCC high school? Or have most Gen Z kids given up on using lockers?

And if so, what the heck are schools gonna do with all that unused real estate?

My eldest is a millennial and like others in her generation for attended Blair, never used her locker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet if all the lockers came with outlets for phone charging the kids would use them!

Great idea.

[Anonymous]

My DD didn’t use hers at her small private HS either. I could never figure out why

[Anonymous]

BCC parent here (with one in Silver Creek) - neither kid has used lockers. I think at some points, perhaps when Westland was wildly overcrowded, they may have been prohibited from using the lockers. In any case, it now seems to be engrained even at SC which is relatively small. My kid won't bring an umbrella or wear a winter coat because he'd have to carry it around all day. That wouldn't be my preference but it is what it is.

[Anonymous]

My son told me that “nobody” uses lockers and the kids who do, get teased about it. Not wanting to get teased, he does not use a locker. 🙄 So instead, he carries around and extremely heavy backpack with his notebooks, Chromebook, lunch, and coat. It makes no sense to me.

[Anonymous]

My kids are out of college and neither used lockers in HS. My only issue was this meant they would not bring a coat regardless of weather...too much to carry. I guess they survived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son told me that “nobody” uses lockers and the kids who do, get teased about it. Not wanting to get teased, he does not use a locker. 🙄 So instead, he carries around and extremely heavy backpack with his notebooks, Chromebook, lunch, and coat. It makes no sense to me.

At TPMS my kids has to use their locker. They won't let them take their backpacks to class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kids didn't really use their lockers 10 - 12 years ago. maybe for storage but not as a daily thing.

This. Lockers were out years ago.

[Anonymous]

Hell, when I went to high school in the area in the 90s, we didn't use our lockers. It's definitely not a "Gen Z" thing.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler will not use a locker and carries a chromebook case instead of a backpack.

[Anonymous]

I’m old enough that I had heavy textbooks to carry, so a locker was a necessity. Without the textbooks, I can see why kids would rather not deal with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:B-CC PP again. IMO the only good thing about in-person back to school night as opposed to zoom for high school was really driving home how big and crowded these schools are and how little time you have to get from place to place.

I thought the same thing at back to school night. It was tough to make it from the top floor to the bottom and different wing in time. I got so many steps just walking their schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son told me that “nobody” uses lockers and the kids who do, get teased about it. Not wanting to get teased, he does not use a locker. 🙄 So instead, he carries around and extremely heavy backpack with his notebooks, Chromebook, lunch, and coat. It makes no sense to me.

At TPMS my kids has to use their locker. They won't let them take their backpacks to class.

I don't think kids in middle school are allowed to carry backpacks for "safety" reasons.