Locker Crisis

Over at UWCSEA East Campus, there were some very strong policies that weren’t being followed. The staff were getting very frustrated. It was 2013, the third year of the new campus. There were always some students that disobeyed whatever rules the teachers came up with. It’s not like the rules were very strict or hard to follow, the students were just disobedient. There were a few rules like ‘stay downstairs during break’ and ‘never share homework with friends’ etc. However, there was one particular, vital rule that wasn’t being followed and was starting to affect both students and teachers.

The main policy that was always ignored and forgotten, but were starting to exasperate teachers to remind all the time, was about children using their lockers. All the time, the students would carry their entire bag around the school all day instead of putting it in their lockers. Therefore, it was really irritating the teachers and forced them to make a new policy which everyone then followed; ‘No bags in the classroom’.

To rules like these there are always different perspectives and sides.

“Students should be able to decide what they want to do, they shouldn’t be forced to put their bags in their lockers when they have to walk around school in short transitions” is what Grade 8 student Tyler Gan had stated. It’s quite clear that most students are against the idea of walking up and down the stairs again and again to go to their locker. While the students feel it should be on choice, Grade 8 English teacher, Jabiz Raisdana stated that,

“Classrooms are very packed they don’t have enough space for everyones bag, but I do understand where the students are coming from”. He does strongly suggests that kids use their lockers during class.

However with all of that the main reason that this rule is stressed upon kids is for P.E. During school hours, there are a lot of non-teachers on board that wouldn’t come back for the rest of the year. They had no restriction in taking wallets or laptops out of school bags that weren’t protected. The problem was that since students didn’t want to go all the way back up to their lockers, they often left their bags unguarded either in the changing rooms or just left on a bench next to the canteen. The P.E department was becoming very strict about it and was causing students to have their organisational grade lowered. Just about half the school year had finished and there was a massive incident that had occurred and resulted in the school getting very frustrated.