Lockers are assigned to every student at Lincoln. However, according to a Cardinal Times survey, only about 1 in 15 students regularly use their lockers. Most students report that they are unable to open them, even when they enter the correct code.
This problem is not new; the current Lincoln building opened in August 2022, and students say the lockers didn’t work then, either. Junior Samuel Lipke said locker malfunctions were already common when he arrived in September 2024.
“The lock sometimes did not work [that] year, and I needed to get help for that,” said Lipke. “That’s common…that happened to me before.”
Campus safety associate Lilly Waldon helps with resetting student lockers.
According to Waldon, the locker’s mechanical problems can be attributed to improper code-setting procedures established back in 2022.
When the lockers were first put in, each padlock was set with five different codes, meant to be flipped through and
changed once per year over the course of five years.
“The first year, all of the lockers were on the first set of combinations. When they were flipped that year, they were flipped incorrectly,” said Waldon. “It caused some of them, instead of going to the second combination, to go to the third, or the fourth, or the fifth.”
This mistake caused all lockers that were incorrectly changed to be misaligned with the code that is given to each student in StudentVUE.
“If that locker is not getting used that year, it gets flipped again. Even if it’s flipped right, it’s still not gonna be on the correct combination until somebody tries to use it,” said Waldon.
In the survey, students reported struggling with opening their lockers, and students who could open their own lockers often failed when trying to help their classmates, indicating that the lockers are not consistent.
Additionally, many students feel inconvenienced by having lockers on different floors than their classes.
“This building was not built as a locker system, especially since the seven-minute passing period is a pretty long time, until you consider using the bathroom,” said Lipke. “Walking up four flights of stairs to your next class makes it so that the locker is not as much on your way, or feasible to get to. It’s more like a detour that might make you late for class.”
Sophomore Parker Ault says a six-story school makes using the lockers inconvenient.
“[My locker] is on the fifth floor,” said Ault. “I would probably [use it] if it were on the second floor.”
