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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Two drivers die in single-vehicle crashes ... Medford swim fans want indoor pool ... Lassoing Legend ... Two drivers die in single-vehicle crashes ... Medford swim fans want indoor pool ... Lassoing Legend ... Cramping their style: Students say their lockers are too small By Daniel de Vise,The Washington Post MailTribune.com By Daniel de Vise,The Washington Post Posted Mar. 3, 2007 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 11:04 AM By Daniel de Vise,The Washington Post Posted Mar. 3, 2007 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 11:04 AM » Social News Kids say lockers are far too small for the needs of today's needs — Oversize textbooks, rolling backpacks, sub-zero mountaineering parkas: The gear required to equip today's student is getting bigger. But the school locker, that shrine to adolescent personal space, is not. A typical school locker is — foot wide, — foot deep and 6 feet high. The dimensions are meant to balance the needs of students & 8212; who desire sufficient space for their books, jackets and Justin Timberlake collages & 8212; and the concerns of school officials, who don't want lockers so large as to hold an entire wardrobe or an entire student. In Montgomery County, Md., the current crop of middle-school students count locker space among their top grievances & 8212; on a par with bullies, bland cafeteria food and the scarcity of paper towels in boys' restrooms. They say there just isn't enough room. Dennis Creegan, 12, a seventh-grader at Baker Middle School in Damascus, Md., took the issue to the Board of Education in December, when the board met with student leaders: "So is there any way the board could, like, confront this issue?" Lockers are one of the few things that haven't changed much in the daily rounds of students. But bulky textbooks have spawned bulky backpacks, some of which, in turn, have grown wheels. — Crowd-control issues have led principals to restrict the times students may go to their lockers and to shorten periods between classes; some students at sprawling high schools have stopped using lockers altogether because of that. Similar crowding concerns have led administrators to ban backpacks in classrooms and common areas; a 40-pound pack on the back of a 70-pound middle-schooler creates something administrators call the "turtle effect," causing collisions and the occasional fight. Rolling backpacks, road hogs of the halls, are particularly unwelcome. All this makes kids more dependent on the locker as a place to unload. "In my locker right now, I have a 1-inch binder, two 2-inch binders, three folders, two workbooks, three textbooks, five reading books, a calculator, a backpack and a jacket," said Zach Kram, 12, a seventh-grader at Rosa Parks Middle School in Olney, Md. "Lockers are too small." Never is the inadequacy of locker space more evident than in the depth of winter. Many students say that once they hang up a coat, the locker will hold little else. Zoe Bulitt, an eighth-grader at Rosa Parks, said she "can't even bring my winter jacket, or my locker will probably get jammed." So she often leaves it at home, to the distress of her mother. Chris Cymerman, a sixth-grader at Rosa Parks, said of the lockers, "They jam all the time, and they can't fit all my stuff, and I have to kick it to close it half the time." Nationwide, school lockers range from — to 2 feet wide and deep and 5 to 6 feet high, said Scott Howard, a sales manager with locker seller Cisco-Eagle Inc. in Dallas. "There are four, five major locker manufacturers in the country, and they've all been making them for a million years, and they really haven't changed," he said. Dimensions are ultimately dictated by space. There's not enough hallway in the typical school to fit 1,000 lockers wider than about a foot apiece, Song said. Whatever the shortcomings of lockers, principals also fault the tenants. Middle school students, they say, are especially prone to treat a locker much as a Southern Californian would a car: as a second home. William Schmidt, a professor at Michigan State University, blames textbooks. He is an expert on the size and weight of American school texts. "Worldwide, we have the biggest textbooks that exist in mathematics and science," he said. Middle school books often top 700 pages, he said, because publishers attempt to include all the material taught in several of the largest states. "We are so far off the scale, in terms of what we expect our kids to lug around." By Daniel de Vise,The Washington Post MailTribune.com By Daniel de Vise,The Washington Post Posted Mar. 3, 2007 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 11:04 AM » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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