The bell rings, and you are off to gym class. You quickly get dressed in your uniform and leave your belongings behind in your backpack, not locked up. After gym you return to the locker room, only to find your shoes missing without a trace! No one seems to know where they went or who took them, and you’re forever left wondering where they are. 

For many students at HHS, this is a very real thing, but to others, just a tall tale. Even if someone has not experienced any belongings being stolen from a locker room, chances are they know someone who has or might in the future. Many people who have had things stolen never find closure, and nothing is done to find the missing items. Sarah Christenson, a junior, had her shoes stolen freshman year, along with her gym shirt and deodorant a few weeks ago, and never got them back.

“I didn’t lock my small locker because they weren’t as important items at the time, so I put my backpack and important things in the big locker, and the next time I looked, they were gone,” Christenson said. 

Christenson also said that the gym lockers are too small to be able to hold all of her belongings, so she is forced to decide what is more important and should be locked up.

“I think that [bigger PE lockers are] something that they need to invest their time and money in because then we wouldn’t have to be using small lockers, and this wouldn’t be an issue because people leave their backpacks out and that’s where things are being stolen,” Christenson said. “High schoolers shove so much stuff in our backpacks, so there’s no room.”

Due to the fact that only freshmen were given lockers at the beginning of the year and everyone else had to personally request one, almost everyone has to carry their backpacks around with them all day, including to the locker room.

Locker room thievery seems like an issue that is getting worse, with people’s valuables now being stolen. Philip Furman, a freshman, had his phone stolen in the locker room at the end of September, and it was never returned.

“The gym teachers didn’t really do much except for checking the lost and found, and recommending me to visit one of the student pods,” Furman said. 

For something as important as a phone, there should be more focus on trying to find out who is stealing people’s things. Even if people are not getting things stolen in the locker room, many have experienced their things being messed with.

“I haven’t had anything stolen, but I did accidentally leave my locker open once, and all my stuff [ended up] on the other side of the locker room, so that really sucked,” senior John Fiandaca said. 

Having things moved around is still a violation of privacy, especially since students can not fit all their belongings in the small lockers; even the “big” gym lockers are too small.

“I would enjoy bigger lockers because there’s no way I can fit my backpack in a gym locker, and I can’t reach my locker that’s all the way in the circle on time,” Fiandaca said. “So if there were bigger lockers and I could put my backpack in it, that would make it a lot easier for people. Just be more respectful of people’s belongings and don’t steal. Be a better person. It’s not worth it, and there’s no point.”