As a result of the renovations to Derby High School, some of the lockers were removed. 

“There was no intention to ever remove all of the lockers,” principal Tim Hamblin said. “To be honest, I was very nervous to remove as many as we did for this reason.”

Students on a regular day carry around their backpack to make getting around more simple.

“Because I don’t have to use a locker, I can carry it (My backpack) all with me and It just makes everything easier,” freshman Carli Osgood said.

Some students do not think assigning lockers is a necessary step. 

“It (using backpacks) is more convenient than a locker,” junior Derion Hubbard said.

One reason Hamblin does not want to remove the locker is for safety precautions.

“We had two handgun things in the last two years,” Hamblin said. “My fear was, at some point, the community, the board of education was going to say ‘Nope, we’re done with backpacks, everything has to be in a locker.’ ”

Hamblin’s concern is that — with the two gun incidents in March 2018 and October 2018 — the school board would want students to use lockers instead of backpacks.

Instead of getting rid of them, students will not be assigned a locker, but students who wish to have one can check them out. 

“As to not assigning them, again, each locker has five combinations it could have,” Hamblin said. “Every summer, even though the lockers haven’t been used, I have one person that starts at A hall and is on just a rolling chair, and rolls down and has to manually reset every single combination. 

“I made the decision that A, based on information, the facts that nobody uses them or very few. I said that there’s no way, we’re not going to assign them.”

Junior Andrew Enslinger used his locker for his freshman year.

“I mainly just used it on the winter days to put my coat in there, so I wasn’t carrying around all day,” Enslinger said. “(My locker) was pretty out of the way but, as I said, I only used it before and after school.”

With block scheduling, students do not need the same supplies every day. 

“In high school, teachers really don’t enforce binders, so it is easier to carry a backpack,” Enslinger said.