Cleaning out locker after high school student's death

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

I am writing a scene in my novel where they MC sees the locker of her dead friend being cleaned out. In my head I envisioned it as a student putting his things in boxes, an office aide, who didn't know him. This, of course, upsets the MC.

Who cleans out the lockers of students who have died? We lost kids in my class, but I don't re-call knowing who cleaned out their lockers.

I do remember in my high school that only freshmen and sophomores used their lockers. Most who could drive used their cars to store books, since we had off-campus lunch.

alleycat · Dec 17, 2012

I'm not sure. I would guess one of janitors/maintenance men (to open the locker) and someone from the office, possibly just one of the staff or the vice-principal.

fadeaccompli · Dec 17, 2012

I would imagine it would be done by some school official, and after hours. Or, more likely, by a parent who'd come in after class hours to collect the effects, with some school official opening the locker for them. I'd be pretty shocked if they did something like that during the school day in front of other students, but I suppose if you're trying to portray the school officials as unusually malicious or callous, that could work.

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

alleycat said:
I'm not sure. I would guess one of janitors/maintenance men (to open the locker) and someone from the office, possibly just one of the staff or the vice-principal.

Hmm...that gives me an idea. The office staff could be so upset by it, and someone who didn't know him offered to do it, like a kid from a different class. This would give me a chance to weave in back stories about how the secretaries knew his family.

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

fadeaccompli said:
I would imagine it would be done by some school official, and after hours. Or, more likely, by a parent who'd come in after class hours to collect the effects, with some school official opening the locker for them. I'd be pretty shocked if they did something like that during the school day in front of other students, but I suppose if you're trying to portray the school officials as unusually malicious or callous, that could work.

It could be after school, but my MC could have stayed late. That would make sense, because she has missed a ton of school and would be making up work.

alleycat · Dec 17, 2012

Again, I'm not sure, but I don't think they'd have another student do it.

Of course, you have some leeward in a story, or you could come up with something plausible such as a trusted student volunteering to take the belongings to the parent's house (maybe this student is president of the class or whatnot and never gave the student who died the time of day; this angers the MC as the "big shot" will get brownie points for doing it).

Williebee · Dec 17, 2012

I have some small, second hand experience here. It's going to depend on the size of the school and how the child died.

In a medium to small school (in the midwest or west Texas, say) the Principal or his/her adult designee is going to do it -- the Assistant Principal or a teacher who was a friend of the family, for example. In a large school, with a number of Assistant Principals, it is logical that it would be assigned to one of them to handle.

In at least one small school I know, it was emptied with a family member there to take the stuff home. There are privacy issues that have to be observed here.

If the death was criminal or mysterious in nature, it could well happen that a law officer, accompanied by the previously mentioned folks, empties and catalogs the locker and then takes the contents until a determination is made as to whether any of the contents qualifies as evidence.

With the exception of the small (and by small, I mean less than 75 kids total, K-12) school, it would, if at all possible, happen during the day, while the kids were in class and the hallways were empty.

So, if your MC was headed to the restroom, or the library, or some such, and turned the corner...

In the case of the small school it was done during a weekend, by the school superintendent/principal (she was both) and a family member.

jclarkdawe · Dec 17, 2012

A dead student's locker would not be opened while kids were in school. It's hard enough on the staff. It should never be a student.

Instead of a locker, I'd think about something that had been posted in a classroom, like artwork, or classwork. A teacher, not thinking, could take down something like that during a study hall or other free time with students in the classroom and not think anything of it (because they're taking down a bunch of student's work).

Another more plausible scenario is the school janitor removing the memorial stuff that had been placed by the flagpole (or whatever) outside the building.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

lolabelle · Dec 17, 2012

I'm not sure if you could use this or not, but when one of my friends died in high-school it just so happened that he shared a locker with another one of our friends. No one ...really thought about the locker, until we were on our way to biology and he opened up the locker and our friend's books, pictures, and football shoes were still there. Our other friend ended up cleaning it out and taking the belongings to our deceased friend's mom.

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

lolabelle said:
I'm not sure if you could use this or not, but when one of my friends died in high-school it just so happened that he shared a locker with another one of our friends. No one ...really thought about the locker, until we were on our way to biology and he opened up the locker and our friend's books, pictures, and football shoes were still there. Our other friend ended up cleaning it out and taking the belongings to our deceased friend's mom.

I think this would work really well and would fit in well with some of my sub-plot. It would give the chance for his football friend and her to talk more and build some tension.

Thanks for all the input. I didn't think they'd let a student aide do it. But, I could just imagine my MC getting very upset about someone he didn't know touching his things.

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

Williebee said:
If the death was criminal or mysterious in nature, it could well happen that a law officer, accompanied by the previously mentioned folks, empties and catalogs the locker and then takes the contents until a determination is made as to whether any of the contents qualifies as evidence.

He committed suicide right before graduation. My MC is in the grade below him. So far, I haven't written in her going back to school at the end of the year. She is seen going back in August, and it's awful because everyone thinks he did it because of her.

I think they would've have left the locker cleaning out after school was out, since it was so close anyway. The MC didn't go to school the last week, so she would be around taking make-ups.

I could also have her walk by and see the lock removed and everything gone. She could get upset and go to the front office, where she spots the box with his last name on it or something like that.

blacbird · Dec 17, 2012

This has to be just plain a horrible task. i have a bit of personal insight:

Back in 1970 my best friend and working colleague, U.S. Army Vietnam, was killed in a field assignment that ordinarily would have been mine, except that I had been assigned by my full bird colonel commander to another job the day before. It fell to me to collect his personal effects from the barracks and get them sent back to his family.

Took a lot of bad whiskey to get past that one.

caw

hillcountryannie · Dec 17, 2012

blacbird said:
This has to be just plain a horrible task. i have a bit of personal insight:

Back in 1970 my best friend and working colleague, U.S. Army Vietnam, was killed in a field assignment that ordinarily would have been mine, except that I had been assigned by my full bird colonel commander to another job the day before. It fell to me to collect his personal effects from the barracks and get them sent back to his family.

Took a lot of bad whiskey to get past that one.

caw

So sad. Must've been incredibly tough on you. Couldn't even imagine.

When my grandma sold her house, I helped her clean everything out. She went out to run an errand and I kept working. In the back bedroom were boxes full of my uncle's things. All those years later and it still hurt to go through it. The worst thing...the college application he never got the chance to fill out.

Williebee · Dec 17, 2012

hillcountryannie said:
He committed suicide right before graduation. My MC is in the grade below him. So far, I haven't written in her going back to school at the end of the year. She is seen going back in August, and it's awful because everyone thinks he did it because of her.

I think they would've have left the locker cleaning out after school was out, since it was so close anyway. The MC didn't go to school the last week, so she would be around taking make-ups.

I could also have her walk by and see the lock removed and everything gone. She could get upset and go to the front office, where she spots the box with his last name on it or something like that.

This changes things a bit, and would work, to a point.

In a larger school, with several buildings, some kids might have several lockers. They have the official "assigned" locker, and a couple others they share with other kids, or empty ones they've claimed, to keep from hauling stuff across campus.

If no one cleans out a locker, and there isn't a lock on it, the maintenance staff would clean it out when they got around to it. (A lock on it would most likely be noticed sooner, however.)

If the materials are scheduled right and arrive right, they like to work "outside-in" -- in other words, classroom repairs first, hallway repairs and cleaning last (so they don't track repair dirt, paint, etc. across clean polished floors and new paint surfaces.)

Several of our schools have summer hired students doing some basic maintenance stuff, cleaning lockers, painting, etc. In that case, a kid might be the one opening the locker.

Duncan J Macdonald · Dec 18, 2012

Williebee said:
Snip to here:

Several of our schools have summer hired students doing some basic maintenance stuff, cleaning lockers, painting, etc. In that case, a kid might be the one opening the locker.

I had that job at our local Middle School (6th - 8th) -- the summer between Senior in High School and Freshman in College. One of the fun drudgery jobs was changing all the combinations on the lockers. I had a sheet with the locker numbers, current combination, and the new combination listed in columns. Had to unlock each one, insert combination changing key, zero combination, set new combination, remove key, and test new combination.

Cleaning out locker after high school student's death

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

alleycat

Still around

fadeaccompli

here and there again

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

alleycat

Still around

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

jclarkdawe

Feeling lucky, Query?

lolabelle

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

blacbird

hillcountryannie

Son, you ain't kiddin'.

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Duncan J Macdonald

Plotting! Not Plodding!