To refuse to give ds's locker keys back to the school

[shaketastic]

My ds is in year 11, doing his gcse's, when he started in year 7 I paid £25 for a locker for him which was supposed to last untill he finished school,

The locker was in his form room, all good, he could leave his afternoon stuff there in the morning and collect it at afternoon registration and go back at the end of the day to collect whatever was in there, obviously other lessons were taught in that classroom during the day so he would never have access whenever he wanted but it was better than him lugging his pe stuff around all day if he didn't have it till the afternoon, and if he had pe in the morning he could leave it there till home time.

He was in that form room for a year, since then his form room has changed every year as form teachers changed and left but the lockers stayed put, he has been unable to use his locker since he finished year 7 as he is not allowed in that classroom unless he has a lesson in there, at first he tried going in early and acsessing the room before registration and at lunchtime but the room was always locked unless there was a teacher in there.

I did contact the school several times whilst he was in year 8 complaining about this but they just said that he could still access his locker at certain times but in reality he couldn't so I just left it and wrote it off,

As he has almost finished school apart from his exams I have now received a letter from the school asking for the locker keys back, I really don't want to give them back as I feel I didn't get my moneys worth as it was supposed to be for 5 years and he only got access to that locker for 1 year,

aibu to refuse to return the keys

I'm surprised you know where the keys are, given they've been used so little...

What did all the other kids in his class do? I'm assuming they were all in the same situation?

It is annoying what has happened, but there are not going to be any winners. Best is to send them the keys/drop them off, so hopefully another kid has more luck and is actually able to use the locker.

Aniseeda

So why didn't your son raise this problem with tutor or the head of year? Why didn't he organise his fellow students to work out a way of approaching this with the school? As Headagainstwall points out, the same problem would have affected every student in the class. Or is it just possible that there were times when he could have got to the locker but he wasn't organised enough and the other students were?

If my child had had a problem of this kind and not done anything to sort it in 4 years I wouldn't be tremendously impressed.

Bit late to take an outraged stance on the matter now . Give it back.

What I am intrigued by, is what are they going to do with it now, if effectively it has not been used for the past 4 years? Do they end up having a 20% usage rate on all their lockers, not even allowing for the inevitable lack of usage due to broken/lost keys and any children who have left the school.

Yabu I would give them them back but with a letter of complaint so that perhaps the situation can be resolved for other students.
My dd's school doesn't have lockers and that annoys me because it means she's lugging round her stuff all day.

I'm totally gobsmacked that you know where the keys are. My kids lose theirs on a regular basis (and they get very little use out of them either, so I know where you're coming from)
Do you know anyone who is going into yr7 that you could give the keys to?

I didn't think schools did lockers these days! My kids lug EVETHING around with them all day!
I think YABU...it will be a standard letter to everyone asking for keys back. They are no use to you. Give them back, write a letter if it makes you feel better, but just forget about it ,otherwise.

"I really don't want to give them back as I feel I didn't get my moneys worth as it was supposed to be for 5 years and he only got access to that locker for 1 year,"

How do you propose to get your money's worth now, when he isn't even at the school?

YABU and petty and should have dealt with it 4 years ago

it is a crap arrangment though.

YABU of course.

But what a crap arrangement by the school!

Surely if lockers are in a classroom they should be available to that class??!!

Ah, locker issues, this brings back memories...

The only way that keeping a key would do anything would be if every parent in your son's class/year did the same. Otherwise you are just depriving a Year 7 of a locker in the only year that he/she gets access to it.