Underclassmen: Do you wonder why a large and brutish senior has taken your locker? The administration can't help, your teachers merely snicker at the complaint, and your classmates were relieved of their lockers, too?
The senior class waits each Aug. 30 until underclassmen are assigned lockers in the main hallway - then they pounce. After a process of tossing books out, putting locks on, threatening, or occasionally kindly asking the owners of these lockers to vacate, each year finds the hip and groovy seniors occupying most lockers in that hall.
Horning underclassmen out of their lockers is one of the great, proud senior traditions here at FHS. Threatening to maim noncomplying sophomores has been the practice in these halls since the time of Theodore Roosevelt himself. That's what the senior locker thieves would have you think. But we know better. The seniors are stealing lockers, plain and simple.
The majority of student council is in those ranks; we obviously didn't elect them because they respect our property. I would expect a good student leader to respect the property of his fellow classmates. But each morning at 8:15, these fiends of the student council chat with fellow locker-thieves next to their ill-gotten booty.
Many sophomores don't complain. Sure, some large and tattooed upperclassmen have snagged their lockers, but for some sad reason, it is accepted as tradition. Some tradition.
Others try to fight back to no avail. Large football players take time from their busy day to chase poor sophomores from their lockers. It's good training for both the Braves and the sophomores who hope to make the team's defensive line next year. Unfortunately, this is not a sign of a harmonious school.
For those sophomores who try to keep their locker, the administration is a worthless ally. Even if they keep their lockers, imagine their obstacles each day. For every trip to the locker, a poor sophomore has to tread past hundreds of angry seniors, including many who vied for his or her locker.
I suggest the administration pre-lock senior hall's lockers prior to the first day of school. It would be significantly more difficult for a senior to commandeer a locked locker. (It does, after all, bring out the true meaning of the word.)
Or, it is possible to assign seniors the lockers in the first place. This would prevent any locker-stealing and, in effect, erase that particular form of intimidation.
These are simple policy suggestions for next year's administration. Mrs. McDevitt could
try these ideas - or else invest in personal combat gear for the sophomores intrepid enough to
brave senior hall.