If you watch closely, you’ll notice some larger objects periodically disappearing around Rockhurst. They’re tall, blue and are literally being taken out of the walls. We’re talking about lockers, of course. A lack of use prompted the school to explore other options for the storage compartments as well as the spaces along the hallways they inhabit.
Students aren’t required to have lockers anymore, hence their decline in use. Most students keep all of their books inside their bag throughout the day, in part, because they wouldn’t always have time to go to a locker between classes during the five-minute passing period. Also, given Rockhurst’s usual A- and B-day scheduling, students don’t need all of their supplies every day.
“I just put my bag [in my locker],” junior Benjamin Aung said. “For A- and B-days, I just switch [supplies] when I’m at home.”
Aung also mentioned that he uses his locker to store his coat, which is a common use for those who do maintain one. Others will use lockers as a place to store clothes and other things for after-school activities.
But, largely, lockers across the school sit empty.
“We don’t use them anymore. They’re antiquated, similar to pencils,” entrepreneurship teacher and STEAM director Tyler Baker said.
Baker says the spaces where lockers sit could be used for other things instead, such as benches, study spaces, bulletin boards and iPad charging stations.
One specific space where lockers have already been removed will become a trophy case. The facilities department said that a trophy case has been a request for a while, and they can now build one since they have the place for it.
One question that arises, however, is what to do with the lockers after they’re removed. The options Rockhurst has are to sell them to alumni, donate them, scrap them for metal, or repurpose them for use in other areas of the school. Baker says the broadcasting, photography and movie-making classes are using, or plan to use, the lockers to store their cameras and film supplies.
Slowly, but surely, the lockers around school are being turned into new, more purposeful places to help benefit students at Rockhurst.
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Lockers are being sold on Facebook marketplace under Tyler Baker. People who are interested or have questions can contact him at his Rockhurst email: [email protected].
