Locker Room Locked Due to Vandalism

“We have had vandalism– clothes, food–and we are just trying to prevent it and find out who’s doing it,” Physical Education teacher Joseph Palacz said.

They call them gym teachers for a reason. Their jobs aren’t to clean up after high-school students trashing their own locker room. If they wanted to, they would’ve signed up to be a janitor. The gym teachers are tired of cleaning up after students’ messes and looking at all the vandalism that takes place in the locker rooms.

To fix that problem, the teachers met together and decided they would close the Locker room every day at 2:30 p.m. Students must now use the team locker room after school if they need to change. The locker room will not be open and will not be opened by custodians or security guards. The biggest question is, Why was this done so late in the year?

“We gave kids the benefit of the doubt, and they abused it by damaging it, so Mr. Palacz and I sat down and said ‘no more,’” gym teacher Eric Jonassen said.

The custodians are responsible for keeping the school clean, but the question is Why do students purposely attempt to make it harder on them?  Vandalism goes from something as simple as punching a hole in the wall to as much as vandalizing an entire room.

“We have had a progressive problem, and we want it to stop and make it better for next year,” Palacz said.

Although they are currently unsure of whether this “lockout” will be in action for the start of next school year, the teachers do know that faculty and custodians have had enough and are doing their best to prevent the continuation of the problem.