“Name: Wei, Tom
Grade: 12
Locker: No Locker Assigned
Grade 12s can apply to Ms. Liebster for a locker starting Sept 10th”
School’s back, and even in what is (hopefully) my last year at Garneau, I feel none too welcome here. I trust a lot of Grade 12’s shared this sentiment, given the news that they would have to line up for locker applications like aliens in need of visas, but perhaps the worst part about waiting until the 10th to get lockers was having to carry every textbook and notebook to and from class for an entire school week.
That’s 5 days too many.
Before it seems like I’m complaining about the unchangeable, let me first make clear what I’m not complaining about: the need for an application. Overcrowding has been a major problem at Marc Garneau Collegiate for several years now. It’s the reason the stairwells are saturated with people moving at a snail’s pace between classes; it’s the reason friends from other schools ask us questions like, “How do you have a spare in Grade 10?” In a school with more students than lockers, having to apply for lockers on a first-come, first-served basis comes as no surprise to anybody; if the current system is any indication of what’s to come, it won’t be long before students at Garneau will have to apply for textbooks, or seats.
I’m sure most locker applicants would have preferred an earlier application date: the first day of school perhaps. Most students receive textbooks from their courses on the first day, and having to lug them around for the rest of the week doesn’t really make sense when hundreds of lockers go unused on the third floor. Yet this is the way things have transpired. Twelfth graders plod through the hallways with backpacks bursting at the seams and those not present on locker application day are left wondering if they will get a locker at all.
To those in Grades 9 through 11 reading this and asking themselves why I’m wasting their time with an article concerning twelfth graders, I extend my sincerest apologies—you must be planning to drop out of Garneau before Grade 12. To everybody else, however—including those in charge of locker registration, please—do whatever it takes so that the seniors of next year won’t have to wait a week for somewhere to stash their books. The students of MGCI thank you, and my aching back thanks you.
