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Due to the success of the locker policy implemented last year, sophomores and juniors were allowed to select their own lockers through the school website from Tuesday, August 19 to Friday, August 22.

Last year, students could purchase assigned locks for 11 dollars. This policy was implemented because the administration hoped to reduce locker thefts. This system of payment prevented students from taking lockers to which they were not originally assigned. Principal Stanley Teitel said that if locker thefts were reduced, then students would possibly be able to choose their own lockers the following year.

According to Teitel, “there were only three thefts last year” and “students were sharing lockers” in all of these cases. “This is a marked improvement from the previous year,” Teitel said. “On one Friday afternoon, we had three locker thefts.”

Students will have to pay 12 dollars to purchase locks this year. Teitel attributes the one dollar raise to the overall economy. “The cost of everything is going up,” he said.

Within 48 hours of purchasing the locks, students should receive their locker combinations online via e-mail.

Most students were glad to be able to choose their own lockers this year. Sophomore Kathy Lin said, “I’m happy we can choose this year, instead of being assigned by homeroom, which is pretty boring.”

Other students were dissatisfied by the new policy. “I was on vacation when the lockers were selected,” sophomore Konrad Wojnar said. “By the time someone told me, it was too late to pick a good locker.”

Senior lockers were randomly distributed.

“I liked the meaning behind [the policy], since it was supposed to improve the safety of the school. I really don’t agree with is that seniors get assigned random lockers. I think that is going to cause some problems at the senior bar,” senior Dionisio Rosario said.

“The reason that seniors were not afforded the opportunity to choose their locker online is simply because of location,” Assistant Principal Technology Services Edward Wong wrote in an e-mail interview. “The prime location which is the senior bar and part of the atrium accounts for less than 20 percent of senior lockers.  In an attempt to be fair with the distribution of lockers, they were assigned randomly.”

“It is fairer because the people selling the lockers got it randomly. When it’s so random like this whoever gets the good lockers isn’t dependent on who they know,” senior Karmen Cheung said. “Last year when we had to choose lockers, only the people who had friends who signed up together or knew when locker assignments were out got the better lockers.”

A recent Facebook group was created where seniors are exchanging their lockers or selling them for a cash payment.

“The selling and bargaining activity will always happen,” Cheung said. “I don’t feel that this policy will add to it.”

“If they would let us choose the lockers there would be fewer issues,” senior Olga Shihskov said.

Some seniors were unaffected by the locker distribution. Senior Paul Han, who received a locker on the third floor said, “I don’t mind really. They’re just lockers.”

Despite the conflicting opinions, there was a general consensus that the selection process could be further improved.

Sophomore Andrew Park suggested that if the selection process were “at the end of the school year instead of in the middle of summer vacation,” then people wouldn’t get “random lockers in the middle of nowhere.”

“It went very smoothly,” junior Mike Kurfess said. “It would have been better if there were some kind of map though.”