School lockers painted as book spines

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That is a fantastic idea, but as I suspected the ā€œunusedā€ part is borne out of security theater which forces students to carry a full load of books and other belongings all day long:

189 unused lockers—which had been sealed shut for security reasons for more than 15 years

Oh well, I guess at least there’s some silver lining. I wonder why those things weren’t just ripped out years ago to open up the space.

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Fun idea. All four (?) twilight books, eh? I’d have painted only the first one of popular multi book series to make space for more title variety, myself. Too bad about not being able to use them as lockers.

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That looks like some really dedicated but awkwardly sideways painting work. And during the summer, which is supposedly a holiday for teachers. Further proof that teachers get an especially bad rap (rep?) these days.

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I was hoping for a list of the titles. Most of them are pretty bad, but I did see Oryx & Crake,

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The other silver lining is no one can be stuffed into them.

Admittedly that’'s not always a bad thing.

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I was going to lament for the poor schmuck who gets stuck with the Twilight locker, but it seems the school’s way ahead of me…

Note also the ridiculous ā€˜fire safety’ sloping tops…

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Le sigh… I wonder if the painters have ever looked at a shelf of books. All of these are painted as if the books were shelved upside-down.

My own junior high had unused lockers back in 1983. And my high school didn’t seal shut its lockers until 1990 or so. For all the good that does. :^/

Not a consensus everywhere.

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Nah. Just in bookshelves where these titles would be found in English.

I do applaud the idea and the attempt (though I wish the kids could still actually use the lockers). I just figured, if they’re gonna put in the effort to do it at all, at least they could have oriented the titles to look like they weren’t upside-down compared to any editions of these books that these kids would be likely to see.

I don’t think any normal kid will be bothered by this, though, so carry on.

Makes me wonder if ā€œsecurity reasonsā€ means ā€œwe’re too lazy to guard themā€. I had a locker in high school but never used it because other students would break into them, and somehow would never, ever get caught by school security. I could see a school just saying ā€œdon’t use lockersā€ rather than being forced by angry parents to improve security.

Good thing the lockers are unused. I’d hate to be the loser with the twilight locker.

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My school growing up had teeny tiny lockers, and one day we were all ushered out onto the campus by a fire drill, no big deal… until we saw multiple black vehicles with strobe lights flashing and police and CID (Criminal Investigation Department, a sort of FBI) running around everywhere. There had been a fake bomb threat, and the police had to go through and cut off all the locks on lockers for students who hadn’t provided spare keys and combinations.

It was time-consuming, and no doubt, annoying. Considering how likely schools are to receive fake bomb threats, lockers genuinely seem like a gigantic hassle to go through every few years even when there is no threat. I mean, even if you strongly suspect that a bomb threat during finals is probably a dumb kid who didn’t study, you still have to take it seriously. Besides, I’m not sure that forcing me to lug Campbell’s Biology to and from school every day was doing me any favors- it’s high time schools issued E-books and dispensed with the pounds and pounds of books.

Carrying all those books is just one need for a locker though. What about just having a place to stash a heavy coat on a cold day? Or having a place to leave a gym bag and tennis racket until P.E. class? Or have a safe, clean place to stash a laptop computer during a ceramics class?

Bomb threats aren’t really any more of a danger in schools today than they were a generation or two ago but we’ve started treating teens like prisoners in a high-security facility nonetheless.

Anyway, depriving kids of lockers doesn’t even solve that problem. There are plenty of places an ill-intentioned person could hide a bomb (or claim to have hidden a bomb) in a high school. Are they going to ban trash cans next?

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I will be happy if this means I can look forward to more US schools refusing to be spineless.

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Oh… I don’t know about that…

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[laugh tracks at the slime drop on Daemonworks]

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If I had Twilight written on my locker I’d do my best to set up an old timey style extending boxing glove system inside that jack-in-the-box wallops anyone that comes by and says ā€œcool, twilightā€.

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Don’t worry, the Creationists are working tirelessly to ensure future generations will not suffer so…

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