With winter approaching, snow falling and wind blowing, it is time to whip out the jackets. At the beginning of the year, students were not assigned lockers because of COVID-19 restrictions, but as it is getting colder students are bringing more things into the school such as sweatshirts and jackets, which take up lots of space in the classroom.  If students do not want to be stuck carrying around a jacket all day and need somewhere to put it, they will be able to acquire a locker by just asking in the office as students come back from distance learning. 

Principal Secretary Ms. Dawn Tuchtenhagen mentions that the lockers will be spaced out. Tuchtenhagen said, “Lockers will be available to all students until the end of the year, most of which will be located in the G wing.  Lockers will be spaced out to allow for social distancing,” as Steele County is experiencing rising cases again.” Lockers will be cleaned and sanitized after use for the next students to use in the following school year.

Junior Jack Sande is a student and athlete at OHS and is also involved in DECA. Sande says, “I don’t think I will get a locker when I come back to school, I feel pretty okay without one. I feel lockers are not necessary if we are able to have our backpacks and computers where most of our work is done anyway.”

Conner Grems is a sophomore at OHS and is involved in athletics. Grems said, “It would be nice to have a locker, it does get annoying and stressful to keep track of all my sports equipment and school supplies.” Grems also mentions that it would be useful to have to bring less home at the end of the day.

After taking a random sample of students from different grades, it seems to be a common theme that students are moving away from using lockers because of the use of laptops in the majority of classes like Sande.

Senior Katie Cottingham is a student at OHS involved in NHS and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Cottingham also feels that the lockers are unnecessary. Cottingham says, “I didn’t really use my locker last year when we were assigned them because I could carry everything in my backpack.” Cottingham also mentions that since students were given computers they do not have much to carry around besides their coats.

This school year has come with a lot of adversity and challenges, but OHS is doing its best to make things seem normal by giving students somewhere to put the things they need to be successful during the school day.