Mental strain. Privacy. Safety. High school locker rooms require carefully placed security for various said reasons. As high school students, we all need privacy and safety, but to what extent can adult supervision play a role in a scholar’s life including sensitive dressing areas?

Locker room conditions are the talk of every new school year at both Leyden High School with student tensions caused by lack of surveillance mentality. Some students feel that stress or fear can grow from security in sensitive areas. Others might find it not a big issue and even an absolutely essential for safety. 

School locker room security can be a difficult compromise between safety and privacy of the students. In both West and East schools, there are guards to ensure safety for any situation, as well as personal privacy. While some kids feel that the level of surveillance established is not necessary and interferes with more daily and personal issues, such as lack of dress time, can create a form of fear or stress where kids are most openly exposed to others. Most parents and adults find it crucial in order to prevent different types of altercations in school grounds.

“In many cases, lack of adult supervision reflects administrative fear that grown-ups in the locker room could prey on children or face accusations to that effect,” well-explained by the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS) in Indiana, “However, the locker room is where students are most vulnerable to hazing, harassment and injury from horseplay making it the last place that supervision should be lacking.” (Pennepacker).  

Many students find that adult supervision by security guards in locker rooms isn’t completely necessary, in fact, some believe that they can behave appropriately without the solid surveillance. Evelyn Amaro, sophomore student at East Leyden, explains her view that security in the changing rooms: “I think in some cases, yes, it’s necessary to have them, but at the same time, I think it’s like, fine without them, because in the girls locker room at East nothing really happens. From my experience, the locker rooms are fairly nice.” 

Surveillance mentality in locker rooms can affect student issues like the amount of time to dress up. As much as it is an individual problem of how efficiently students can get settled in, security can play a role in how they manage this with care. “It does get sort of annoying when they yell at people to hurry up and then they also, like, prevent people from changing if they come in, like, a few minutes late. So it’s just annoying,” shares Evelyn. 

Furthermore, the NFHS explains that, “Rules, requirements or recommendations for adult supervision in locker rooms are typically local decisions. Schools often do not have anything in place until there is a problem – typically after a hazing incident has occurred.” Junior at West Leyden, Jessica Palma, explains her views on security in locker rooms: “They will start yelling at you if you’re not actually ready to go out into the gym class. I haven’t had it, but I’ve heard stories of girls getting yelled at for that stuff, and same thing with the guys.” 

On the other hand, some students can agree that locker room supervision is absolutely necessary for keeping kids behaving appropriately in sensitive private areas in public settings. While privacy is still a priority, student safety is as important to parents and administration. Having adults supervise student activity once in a while can prevent and help defeat altercations. 

“If a student is constantly complaining like, Oh, I’m feeling threatened, feeling unsafe and stuff like that, then yes, they should have security in the locker rooms at some points,” says Jessica. Describing her views on locker room security and safety, she takes us more in depth by telling us how she developed her stance on this issue. Jessica says, “My freshman year, there was an actual altercation with some kids in the locker room, and they had put security in there. But then at some point she stopped going in. She just wandered around, and then right when she wasn’t there, the fight actually went down. So that was not fun.”

Security at West Leyden shares her view on locker room safety, “I don’t think there’s anything I’ve known about being unsafe here. I haven’t heard anything about theft or graffiti. I haven’t seen that since I’ve been here. So I think you know what we’re doing is working okay.” 

Leyden High Schools continue to strive for safety protocols, student privacy, and care for mental strain. We can look forward to changes in additional privacy and safety measures followed by students to avoid and prevent altercations. Mental strain caused by security surveillance may see changes in following years.  

Works Cited

Pennepacker, Peg, editor. “Tips and Techniques for Locker Room Supervision.” The National Federation of State High School Associations, NFHS, 5 Oct. 2022, www.nfhs.org/articles/tips-and-techniques-for-locker-room-supervision/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

“In many cases, lack of adult supervision reflects administrative fear that grown-ups in the locker room could prey on children or face accusations to that effect. However, the locker room is where students are most vulnerable to hazing, harassment and injury from horseplay making it the last place that supervision should be lacking.”

“Rules, requirements or recommendations for adult supervision in locker rooms are typically local decisions. Schools often do not have anything in place until there is a problem – typically after a hazing incident has occurred.”