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COLUMN: Curse of the alphabetical locker hierarchy

I’m here to bring you up to date on the happenings of L.V. Rogers high school as it kicks back into gear.
Gillian column 222
Gillian Wiley is back for another year as our L.V. Rogers columnist.

With the return of September arrived a fresh school year ... and the new school year brings with it the return of this column. I’m here to bring you up to date on the happenings of L.V. Rogers high school as it kicks back into gear.

Over the summer, Healthy Schools funded a new drinking fountain/water bottle filler outside the gymnasium. The installation saves kids from buying plastic water bottles every day by encouraging them to bring reusable ones.

For now, the new addition is exciting and glamorous; all shiny chrome and motion sensors. Of course, a few months of use will bring it down to the level of most gum-encrusted school water fountains, but it’s nice to see this environmentally friendly alternative to plastic water bottles.

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This year, LVR continued in the tradition of hosting a welcome barbecue for all of the school’s new students. The event took place on a sunny day in the school courtyard, with free hot dogs for all. It was almost entirely student-run, and went off with very few hitches (one working barbecue and heroic cook churning out hot dogs for dozens of hungry teenagers? Yikes!) but in the end, what better way to familiarize yourself with a new school than taking the time for an outdoor lunch?

September is the month when every group and club at L.V. hits the ground running; whether it be the Leadership class hosting volleyball intramurals, the drama department auditioning for the season’s first play, or the debate team gearing up for an October tournament, something is always going on for those who want to seek it out.

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The one thing that can’t be said is that the first month of school is boring. High school is a time to figure out what your interests really are, and to do that you need to try out at least one extra-curricular. Even if it takes you a journey from your locker all the way across the school to get there.

The long-standing hierarchy of locker placement at LVR is as follows: the younger grades are assigned lockers alphabetically across the bottom row, and the older students choose their own lockers in the top row. For the past two years, the ‘W’ at the beginning of my name has had me stuck with a locker on the fourth floor, which isn’t really a floor at all.

It could be described more as a row of lockers a small flight of steps up from everyone else, and miles away from my friends on the first floor. The alphabetical discrimination of people with Ws, Ys, and Zs in their names was really too much to bear. Of course, my mindset changed immediately when I got to choose my locker for this year.

Suddenly, it was a problem for the younger Ws of the world, and no longer worth campaigning for change. The things which affect us most closely are the things which we feel are important. So to anyone with a locker stranded in that howling wilderness of a fourth floor: I’m sorry. I did all I could.

Gillian Wiley is a Grade 11 student at L.V. Rogers. Her column appears once a month.