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Some schools are phasing out hallway lockers in favor of virtual storage space.

Walk down any hallway in the new Germantown High School in Madison, Miss., and one thing stands out: You won’t spot a single locker.

Lockers have served as a symbol of the American high school for decades, but with new technology–eBooks, interactive assignments, and web-based learning–they’re gradually becoming a thing of the past.

It’s unclear how many schools have gone lockerless, but New York architect Peter Lippman, who serves on the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on Architecture for Education, said the trend is growing.

“If you are talking about new technology–electronic textbooks, iPads, and things like that–maybe there is no need for a locker,” he said. “I’m not sure every school is there yet, but it does provide some opportunities.”

School officials that have made the jump to lockerless cite several benefits: less noise, fewer tardies, and an increased sense of safety.

“It’s all to create an environment that’s student friendly,” said Ronnie McGehee, interim superintendent of the Madison County, Miss., School District.

It also can cut hundreds of thousands in construction costs. Madison County saved $200,000 by not including lockers in the new high school, McGehee said.

In addition to new schools that are built without lockers, some districts are removing them from older buildings.

The Temple Independent School District in Texas removed lockers from its three middle schools last year.

“It was kind of a win all-around,” district spokeswoman Regina Corley said. “I think this is just the direction things are moving,” she said. “As you see more technology, including electronic textbooks, the need for the old locker of the past will decrease.”

Corely said they likely will remove lockers from the high school, too, but there is no official timeline.

Virtual school lockers have “really helped us go paperless,” said Justin Whitmer, the director of instruction and technology at Tipton-Rosemark Academy in Tennessee. The school, which operates a one-to-one computing initiative, is in the middle of its second year withSchool Web Lockers ^[2], a solution for online storage, cloud computing, and collaboration tools.

“One of the biggest benefits is that students know their plans for an entire week from looking at one calendar,” Whitmer said. When students submit assignments, teachers know immediately who turned it in and when. And whenever a teacher gives a PowerPoint presentation or lecture, students have access to it and can refer to it at any time for studying or note-taking purposes.

Tipton-Rosemark Academy plans to phase out textbooks in the next few years, Whitmer said. “I can see real lockers being gone, and only something students will need in a locker room for physical education,” he said.

Students are able to plan their week at school, and teachers and administrators are able to store and retrieve documents without worrying about losing them.

“It’s helped our accountability, responsibility, and organization,” Whitmer said. “We used to have paper folders everywhere, and now children just have a few folders on a computer.”

School safety

Keys to Safer Schools, an Arkansas-based safety training and advocacy group, has recommended that school districts remove lockers to prevent violence.

“It gives kids a place to hide things,” said Mike Nelson, co-founder of Keys to Safer Schools and a licensed counselor.

Nelson said he believes that some school shootings and other incidences could have been prevented if there were no lockers.

“I think it’s a way to manage students,” he said.

McGehee said the Madison district initially considered doing away with lockers in 1997 after a school shooting just 20 miles south in Pearl, Miss.

Aside from protecting students against violence, McGehee said doing away with lockers has eliminated some opportunities for bullying and ended a territorialism over certain sections of hallways.

“There are just a number of issues we can solve early on,” he said. “To me, it creates a whole systematic change.”

Finding student space

Andrew Booth, a 10th-grader at Germantown High, said there are some drawbacks to not having a locker, though.

“It can make your book bag really heavy,” he said. “That’s the only thing I would really say is a problem with it.”

Booth, 16, has four textbooks “plus notebooks and a binder” to carry to school each day. He said some teachers are accommodating: they have shelves for students to leave their heavy bags in the back of the classroom.

Others provide an extra set of textbooks in the classroom, so students don’t have to lug their books from home.

Lippman said schools will have to address such concerns and find ways to give students a “sense of space.”

“If you are carrying books around, it does limit your flexibility in the classrooms,” he said. “Where is this stuff going?”

Lippman said he would like to see schools start to use the new free space to provide less structured learning opportunities for students, including gathering areas and learning centers.

“Designers and architects are really beginning to look at how to support different learning styles,” he said. “If you think about a school with just rows and rows of lockers–there’s nowhere for learning opportunities in that.”

 Copyright (c) 2011, USA Today, with additional reporting from eSchool Media. Visit USA Today at www.usatoday.com. Distributed by MCT Information Services.