Sign that school is close: locker checkout

At some point this summer, students will drop the ‘to-be’ or ‘will-be’ from their grade level. But that hasn’t started quite yet at Lincoln Southwest High School, even though the two-day Locker Checkout event is another sign that school is closing in. 

“It doesn’t sink in until like the third week of school, and then I think, ‘Oh, I’m a junior,” joked Robin Sarik, a junior at Southwest.

At Southwest and many other high schools and middle schools, this week students are making a trip to school, getting their lockers and parking passes, turning in forms, and perhaps buying a yearbook or updating school gear. 

Freshmen, for sure, but generally all students want to check out their locker locations, said Robin, a student ambassador. 

The locker checkout event at Southwest is another part of the growing reality that school is near for Cooper Christiancy, a sophomore. 

“I had speech camp last week, and band camp this week, so this isn’t the first realization for me,” he said. “I always enjoy locker checkout more (than open house). 
There’s more things to do. The open house is where you get your schedule but you kind of already have your schedule.” 

Open houses are drawing near too. Schools have or are finalizing student schedules. And this year the  city of Lincoln Public Works department is working on activating crosswalks and safety lights near schools during their open houses (yet another sign - this one in shades of yellow - that a new school year is near).

 

Kishah Rajendran, a Silver Hawk senior, is helping sell school t-shirts at the locker checkout, and can recognize the looks in the faces of different students.

 

“I remember the first time I was here when I was a freshman and how it felt to not know anything,” she said. “It’s bittersweet because I want to leave but I like Southwest a lot.”

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Published: August 2, 2012
Updated: August 2, 2012