For the grueling, preponderant hump of the school year, students and teachers alike are subjected to harsh winds, uncrossable streets, and chapped hands, gifts given to us from the winter season. 

Attempting shelter in our nooks, radiators unfortunately lack a certain portability needed when thrust into the great (immense or grand, in terms of how you feel, terrible) outdoors. 

That’s where the jacket comes in. Thick and wearable, our jackets give us just the comfort we need to make it through the piercing air. The jacket, however, is a tool for enduring the outside.

What happens when we let something made for the outside…inside?

The problem is evident if you simply take a look around the room. Most iSchoolers own jackets, and once in the school, subconsciously, have no idea what to do with them! 

Jackets being out around the classroom willy-nilly isn’t just some make believe issue. Student at iSchool and peer, Valex Foresta has this to say: “Jackets bother me as a sensory issue…I’m fine with other people having jackets as long as they don’t infringe on my space.” 

The majority of schools simply have lockers. “With lockers the hallways in our school are too narrow, and it would be a fire hazard to put lockers in.” explains Michelle Leimsider, assistant principal of the iSchool. A small school means less space, after all.

Instead our school’s officiated jacket system is through advisories. “I…have hooks up in my office for my advisees to put their coats on.” continues Ms. Leimsider. My advisor, Ms. Dominguez, kindly has hooks up, which is how I store my jacket!

This, however, is advisory dependent. If you are in an advisory such as Dr. Pihura’s or Mr. Bittman’s that lacks jacket hooks (such information found from a survey we conducted), you better be looking elsewhere!

If your advisor doesn’t have hooks up, then what? If you have enough space, you can try shoving your jacket inside of your backpack, but with a minimum of 5 folders and a potential lunchbox, a jacket will be a tight squeeze.

Occasionally, you see a student with a jacket on all day. More commonly though, are the backs of chairs littered with jackets across iSchool. It’s not as if these chairs weren’t made for jacket placement.

“The 514 is a 14″ chair which is typically for grades K-12, yes, they can rest their jackets on the back of the chair,” explains Ari Werczberger, regional sales manager of Hertz Furniture, describing the exact model of chairs used in Room 503, as well as others (presumably) in the iSchool. 

I’ll admit, I don’t have a perfect solution. I think a general particularly long Commons rack could help a little, however, that creates a sort of “early bird gets the worm” situation working at a disadvantage to those living farther away from the school.

With all said and done, the season’s changing and this article will be truly relevant for 2 more weeks. 

Sayonara, grueling preponderant hump!