Lockless Lockers Leave Students Sore and Disillusioned

Students at White Memorial Adventist School in Boyle Heights know cheating is not too cool.

But having to shoulder the burden of someone else’s transgression? Well, that plain stinks.

They learned that lesson this week as the fall semester began. A local company that was paid to put new locks on school lockers took the money but did not do the work, leaving seventh- and eighth-graders to lug backpacks stuffed with their books and belongings.

“After yesterday, my back started hurting,” said Jared Hughes, 12. His book bag registered more than 20 pounds when his grandmother put it on the family scale Monday night. Other students at the private kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school also complained.

School officials say Best Deal School Furniture of Boyle Heights has given them the runaround since cashing a $500 check earlier this summer.

When asked about the money by a reporter Tuesday, company owner Robert Fox said he was under the impression that the order had been canceled. White Memorial school officials deny that.

Fox said that his business has dealt with the school regularly in the past and that the firm kept the $500 as credit for future services.

But, Fox said, “We’re going to give the money back now.”

School officials have already chalked it up as a loss.

At White Memorial, which operates on donations and tuition from its 260 pupils, school officials scrambled to find money for the locks.

They found it in a school account funded by student bake sales, said Principal Michael Woodbury. He expects the locks to be installed in about two weeks.

Five hundred dollars is a lot of money to the small religious school, struggling to maintain itself as a sanctuary from the sometimes mean streets of Boyle Heights, Woodbury said.

“What we teach here is that we want to be able to trust each other and that people should follow through on what they say they’re going to do,” he said. “When they don’t, it hurts.”

Students agreed. A school locker is more than just a storage bin, they said.

“It’s like your own private place, where you keep pictures of your friends, famous people, your clothes, things you don’t want to get stolen,” said Marcella Ribeiro, 14.

Without a lock, it’s not a locker, said Nicole Gonzalez, 12.

“I don’t like the fact that we’ve been cheated,” she said, summoning up a bit of adolescent drama. “I don’t think we’ll be able to trust another company ever again. We feel like we’ve been stabbed in the back.”