LOCKERS: A HOME AWAY FROM HOME

Cape Central High School students, from left, Kathy Wilbanks, Zena Al-Shukri and Dennis Clay, share a locker by choice because of its location and convience and to be with friends.

Cape Central High School junior Emily Hall decorated her locker with photos and other mementos.

Maybe it happened in middle school, or perhaps it was junior high.

The student went to orientation, received a class schedule, books and a combination lock -- his very own for a year.

The lock, of course, went to a locker. For most young teens, it represents a few square feet of personal space. They may spend a lot of time decorating it with posters, stickers and memo pads, or they simply may throw books into it two or three times a day.

But it's something to call their own.

Most students at Cape Central High School share lockers with another person. They sign up to share with friends, but may switch around with other friends depending on where classes are.

For example, Zena Al-Shukri, a junior, originally shared a locker with her friend Kathy Wilbanks, a senior. Then Al-Shukri's boyfriend, Dennis Clay, another senior, moved his books into their locker.

In addition, the two girls have some of their books on the second floor in another friend's locker because it is closer to some of their classes.

Sound confusing? Not to the three lockermates.

"If you share with people you know, you don't have to worry about them stealing your stuff," Clay said. "Plus, this gives Zena and I a place to see each other between classes."

Al-Shukri, Wilbanks and Clay manage to stuff three sets of books, assorted folders and five jackets into about a 1-by-5-foot space.

Emily Hall, a junior, has a locker to herself and uses her space as a burst of inspiration between classes, filling it with pictures of herself and her friends running track. A small poster read~s: "The height of a tree is determined by the depth of its roots."

Central High School Principal Dr. Dan Tallent said students were free to decorate their lockers as they please, as long as it isn't obscene or gang-related. Not many students have violated rules about what can be kept in lockers.

Most schools take measures to keep locker content problems to a minimum.

For example, Douglas Berry, superintendent at Scott City public schools, uses surprise inspections with a drug-detecting dog to keep problems with locker contents to a minimum. Grande, Mississippi County's drug dog, visited the school in January and found nothing.

Another inspection could happen at any time.

"When the dog is in the building, we don't allow people to go to their lockers," Berry said. "You see them looking out their windows as the dog goes by."

Besides helping keep the school drug-free, the surprise dog checks make for good community relations. When Scott City residents hear the dog didn't find anything, they think their schools are safer, Berry said.

Poplar Bluff Junior High School eliminated lockers altogether. The experiment began in August, and students were given a set a books to use in the classroom and a set to take home. They don't need lockers.

Gary Cooper, assistant principal at the junior high, said he immediately saw a change for the better~.

"You wouldn't believe it," he said. "If we knew it would be this good, we would have done it last year. There is less fighting, trash, noise and tardiness."

The school board considered doing it at Poplar Bluff Senior High School, but the cost of extra books was prohibitive.

Schools nearer to Cape Girardeau mentioned the same problem with finances, so lockers and will be around for awhile.