... Lockers

Once upon a time, there were lockers at Cunha, Cabrillo Unified's only middle school. The district paid money to have them removed. Since that time, our students have carried their backpacks with them everywhere they went on school grounds. Plans are now being made to construct a new middle school. In those plans, one can see the location in which gym lockers are being installed. However, there are in the plans at least, no lockers planned for individual students' use. And, in fact, the administrator of the middle school has proclaimed at Site Council, in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere that "There will be no lockers in the new middle school."

The locker issue is one of those where parents and students seem to feel one way, but Cunha administration seems unable to hear.

Would you like it if, when you went to work, you were not allowed for a moment to put down your pens, pencils, notebooks, sweaters, umbrellas, etc. and were forced to carry them with you for seven hours a day, including when you went to the bathroom?

The lack of lockers bespeaks a lack of respect of students. The lack of lockers is dangerous for students. The lack of lockers at Cunha results in theft, injury to our children's backs and shoulders, frustration and crushed lunches. Gym clothes and backpacks and other personal belongings get stolen. Medical professionals have volunteered to me (as they observed my 60-pound daughter heft a 25-pound backpack onto her shoulders) that scoliosis is indeed a possible result of carrying heavy backpacks around for that many hours every school day.

I haven't yet heard a clear reason for lack of lockers. I haven't heard a clear discussion of why, according to the principal of Cunha, the plan is to not have lockers in new middle school either. I have certainly asked many times and intend to continue to do so. Here are some links to articles about lockers, or, rather, the lack of lockers, at Cunha and elsewhere:

• Their world on their shoulders by Eve Mitchell, SF EXAMINER, April 27, 1998
• Reopening door to school lockers by Lisa Fernandez, SJ Mercury News, May 8, 2000
• The weight of school on their backs by Erin Waldner, Half Moon Bay Review, April 15, 1999