At the start of classes there are usually the one or two students who wonder in late, causing a quick pause in beginning a day's lessons. One of them usually chalks up her lateness to "I had to go to my locker." Although this may be the case in many situations, students interrupting lessons is a small effect of locker use in schools that over time adds up and has a larger impact on the material students can successfully cover in a course.
Decorating locker doors inside and out is a staple of locker use. Although some schools have attempted to regulate such decorating by prohibiting use of pornographic images and material, innocent decorations often draw crowds. In some instances "decorating" lockers turns malicious when slurs and other hurtful material is pasted across locker doors and locker walls against a targeted student. For this reason, many schools have removed locker bays and rededicated the space for award display cases, wider walkways or group rest areas for students.
Concealed weapon in schools have been at the forefront of media attention and regulations and policies put in place to institute constitutional searches of student lockers. Lockers have generally been deemed searchable on the grounds they are school property. Overall student safety has been the deciding factor in upholding these locker search policies against legal challenges. Authorities justify their policies on the increasing number of school shootings and violent incidents at the hands of armed students.
From prescription drugs to illegal narcotics and steroids, school lockers have been a way to conceal and vend drugs to students. The influence of drugs on young adults has seen a push in school resistance programs. Banning lockers in some areas has come at the behest of school officials and parents who are concerned at the level of drug accessibility in schools.
As a result of locker bans, students have had to carry the load of multiple course books and material on their backs each day. By streamlining required textbooks needed in class and maintaining in-school copies of books for use during school hours, schools are attempting to adjust to the loss of school locker use. Schools concerned over misuse of lockers have resorted to security changes in addition to removing and banning lockers. Such measures include installing security scanners and cameras.