question about H.S. lockers

When I was in high school the school furnished a small combination lock. They were issued at the start of the school year (generally by the PE coaches). Someone could easily have bought their own and replaced it.* The school would probably have replaced the lock if a student had asked.

*As I recall, schools have a master key to open the locks they furnish, and if that doesn't work and they want to get into a student's locker, they have very large bolt cutters.

At my school, we were required to bring our own locks, but we had to tell our homeroom teacher the combination.

My school lockers used keys

My high school (and middle school) had built-in combination locks. I can't remember anyone ever needing to change a combination, but I can't imagine it would've been a huge problem. On the other hand, you could probably *make* it a problem for your characters by having someone obstructionist and unhelpful in the main office who refused to help the students. Or something.

And I'd imagine the custodian would be the one to change it. Not certain, but I can't think who else would . . .

ETA: And here's a fourth!

Ours were like these. Master combination locks with key control (I wasn't sure what it was called until I looked it up).

http://www.padlockoutlet.com/1525-Master-Lock-Combination-Padlock-with-Key-Control.html

Y'all had lockers? Lucky.

Long time teacher here.

The lockers in my school had an outside lock, issued at the start of the first year in that school. The student kept this lock until he left the school - in the summer we'd tell the kids to put the 'lock in with your socks' so they wouldn't lose it. That next fall they'd bring the lock to school with them.

For a short time we did allow kids to purchase 'outside locks' but they had to tell administration their combination, and/or give the administrators a copy of their key, if it was a key lock.

We stopped doing this, and once again, you'd get your lock in Grade 7, junior high, or Grade 10, high school. (I taught at a junior high for most of my teaching career, Grades 7, 8 and 9. It was one of the last 7, 8, 9 junior highs in my state.)

If you thought someone had your combination, you'd see the asst. principal for a new lock.

Keep in mind, though, a lot of high schools in the US now are moving away from having lockers for the students. Sometimes it's because the school is overcrowded (has more students than it was designed for and thus there aren't enough lockers to go around), and sometimes it's over fears that students will bring in explosives or guns and keep them in their lockers.

Being a HS school student, I thought I'd put my input in here.

My school has lockers, but almost no one uses them. And we only get them for our first year of high school. After that we have to pay for one, although no one does, since we're allowed to carry our backpacks around.

For gym, we use lockers, but the lock is already on there. If there was a problem with the combination and someone having it, we'd probably switch lockers, but would have to talk to the assistant principal and gym teacher.

Good luck, and I hope I was of some assistance! <3

mellymel said:

If you think someone knows the combo to your locker (not in the gym, the one where kids keep their books and stuff), and you want to change it, 1) Will the school allow you? 2) Who would you speak to about changing the combo? 3) Is it something done right away or do you have to wait for maintenance/custodian to do it?

Also, do most H.S. school lockers come with locks built in, or do the students bring their own lock?

Thanks!

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I had this problem when I was in HS. My idiot friend liked to get everyone's combos by looking over their shoulder when you weren't expecting it. He even put a mousetrap in someone's locker once lol (I only lol because the person suspected there was something going on and found the trap before touching it)

Anyway... After he figured out mine I went to the office and requested a new locker because someone had figured out my combo. A day later and they moved me to the next locker over which was empty. It was done by the custodian.

For the gym lockers it was the same deal. But my brother goes to my former high school now and they changed the gym lockers. Now they need to provide their own padlocks.

One of my high schools has dial combination locks built in to the locker. A desire to change the combination goes to the attention of an assistant principal, official title "Dean of Students" (She handles discipline and parking and all things student but not classroom related.) Also, the combination locks have a key slot that the Dean of Students has a master key for.

This isn't high school specific, but you can get combination locks where you can reset the combination yourself pretty easily.

The ones my daughter has also have a master key slot on the bottom. They are designed for use on hold luggage in aircraft - I'm not quite sure who in airport security has keys,but basically it means that if they want to search your luggage they don't have to cut the lock off.

Just another option, in case you don't want to make it a pain for your character to get the combo reset...

Almondjoy said:

Being a HS school student, I thought I'd put my input in here.

My school has lockers, but almost no one uses them. And we only get them for our first year of high school. After that we have to pay for one, although no one does, since we're allowed to carry our backpacks around.…

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What?! Do you mean to tell me you're "allowed" to carry all of your books on your back all day? Could that be why so many kids have bad posture? I heard that schools are getting rid of gym class—maybe this is considered modern-day "exercise."

I changed schools senior year (our school system built a new high school since ours was overcrowded). 9th-11th grades we had half-size lockers that we had to bring our own locks for. A lot of people didn't use locks (and then complained their books and papers were missing). I don't remember having to give anyone our combinations -- maybe homeroom teacher if anyone. Since the school was really crowded, we shared lockers -- usually could pick a friend. I was a library assistant and stored a lot of my books in the library "spare" room (also ate lunch there with the other library assistants).

Senior year, our lockers were made with built in locks. Underclassmen had 1/2 lockers, and seniors got the full-sized ones. Sharing was allowed but not encouraged. The school had a master list and key for the locks.

The school has grown so much since I graduated, I believe they are back to mandatory sharing and/or carrying books at all times.

Junior year I had so many heavy books that it really hurt my back when I had to carry all of them to class or home from school -- ripped a couple of backpacks that year. We had 2-3 full-sized textbooks for class sometimes. I think a lot of schools and classes have gone toward e-books and iPad to replace the huge books.

I wonder whether the locker thing also varies by region. I went to school in Wisconsin, where we were lugging around coats from October through about March (and jackets most of the rest of the year). Now I live in Alabama and we have maybe a month or two of coat-necessary weather . . .

I went to two different high schools. Both had small-ish lockers, neither had locks built in. If you wanted a lock you had to get one from the little student-run store in the school, for like five bucks, I assume that allowed them to record the combination, or bring in a lock and get it approved. I never used a lock, never had anything stolen- never had anything of value in there either- and stolen tectbooks weren't really a thing in my fairly well to do suburban PA schools. Gym lockers were assigned, had built in locks and combos were given when the locker was assigned.

I live in Florida. In middle school, we had half-sized lockers. In high school, we had full-sized ones. I remember not really using them in high school all that much. Whenever I did, it was a mess. Anyway, it was bring-your-own-lock (they recommended Master). I don't recall ever having to give the school the combination. Some years, I simply didn't get a locker and lugged my books around. I remember the school started a program where we'd have only certain periods on certain days, and each of those would be extended, so I didn't have to bring every book to school every day. (The year after I graduated, they started the "4x4" model, which meant an alternating set of four classes every day, and they somehow amounted to students being able to complete their course requirements early, resulting in two graduations every year, one in December or January and one in May. At least, that was the idea as forecasted in the school paper. I don't know if they ever did the two-graduations-per-year thing.)

I read an article in the paper a few months ago that one of the schools in this county (and keep in mind that I live in a semi-rural county with plenty of scenic views of cows and horses grazing, but we also have three Wal-Marts) has done away with textbooks entirely and assigned each student an iPad. That means no need for lockers, really.

mellymel said:

Again, all very helpful information! I really appreciate the input. Interesting thought about the reason for some schools not having lockers anymore. I wonder if this is the exception however rather than the norm?

But, many of you have confirmed that in the case of schools having lockers/locks with a problem, that the asst P is the one to handle it. And the idea of there being a master key to those locks...Oh the possibilities.

All very helpful, guys! Thank you so much.

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An addendum to my post (up there)

I taught in an older junior high, built in 1957, and kids each had their own locker and separate lock. When the school was renovated and had a HUGE new addition put on it, so many new lockers were added we had extras galore.

Saying this as an example of a newer school which still gave each student a locker. Oh, kids also had their own locker in the gym locker room. Same procedure, you got a lock; you owned it for three or four years. If you lost it, you paid for a replacement, otherwise you returned that particular lock at the end of Grade 8 (or 9) or Grade 12.

I shall never forget saying, as kids left at the end of June: PUT YOUR LOCK IN WITH YOUR SOCKS.

I think I said that more times than 'have a good summer.'

Hmm, my high school had lockers where we had to bring our own locks. You picked your locker and could change it if you wished, though of course, it had to be to an unclaimed locker. But there were lots of empty lockers in my HS when I was there (30 years ago), though, because we were in a sort of enrollment dip (I was born in the early 60's, sort of between the end of the baby boom and the beginning of generation X). In HS, they told us we had to empty our lockers over Christmas and spring breaks so the Janitors could clean and fumigate them. If you left your lock on during a school break, they'd cut it off. Our gym lockers in HS, and our Jr. High lockers had built-in locks. I don't know if it was possible to change the combo on those. They likely would have just changed your locker assignment if there was a problem with someone else knowing the combo.

Though now that I think about it, maybe they did have a way of changing the locker combos? Seems like previous students might remember the combo of their old locker, and if they were jerks, they could break into their old locker and rob its current owner. They told us to never leave anything valuable (like money, jewelry, wallets etc) in our school lockers. Which was a bit hard with PE lockers when you dressed out in gym clothes that didn't have pockets for these things. Honestly, though, I don't think the teachers and administrators worried about things like that back when I was in jr. high and high school. Kids pretty much had to deal with everything--bullying, theft, harassment etc. on our own, and if you complained to the teachers or school authorities (or even parents) you were mostly likely told you brought your "victimhood" on yourself by provoking the bullies or thieves in some way.

So it may depend on when and where your story is set. If it was more than a few years back, and there aren't any free lockers to switch the kid too, the school officials might just shrug and say, "You shouldn't be leaving valuables in your locker anyway."