Beginning this school year, freshmen are the only students to receive their own lockers, requiring all other students to request a locker at the Financial Aid Office, a new policy that shocked some students.

The administration team had planned to test out the locker policy as part of the summer upgrade for the new 2017-2018 school year, ensuring that every student can have a locker if they request one.

“We used to assign a locker to every student in the school in the beginning of every year,” business administrator David Stough said. “By the end of the year when it’s locker clean up, there’s actually very few students who had stuff in their lockers.”

In preparation of the large incoming freshman class, the administration decided to update the locker policy to ensure all freshmen would receive a locker. Since the team knew how many freshmen were attending Rockville, they looked at locker use in the past to create the new policy.

Some students were surprised by the change since they use their lockers to store textbooks during the day or supplies for after school activities such as sports. Junior Kevin Akakpo said he was shocked at the decision to update the locker policy.

“Unlike everyone else I use my locker constantly every day,” he said. “I was really confused, because I really understand that not a lot of people use their lockers during the full school year.”

As students prepare for winter and bringing in their heavy coats and other gear, this new locker policy leaves many wondering where to store these items throughout the school day.

“I was not happy about it,” junior Arysa Medley said. “I thought that this year I should have a locker to myself like before.”

Over the summer the building service workers change the combinations for all lockers in the building–about 1500, Stough said. This labor-intensive task also prompted administrators to review the locker policy, which they said they’ll continue doing throughout the school year.

“We’re always open for feedback,” Stough said, “so if there’s any specific concern or suggestion, we’re always listening.”