You sigh in relief as the bell rings, signaling the end of the school day. You take one step out the door before it hits you: you’re missing your jacket. Frantically, you glance around the classroom, but you don’t see it. You sprint toward the Learning Commons, where you had spent your free period earlier that day, and begin to scan the tables and chairs. A few water bottles left behind, someone’s sweatshirt…It’s not here. Balling your fists in frustration, you promise yourself to search again tomorrow and then rush outside to catch the bus.

Many students around the school have faced a strikingly similar situation, unknowingly filling up the various lost and founds with an assortment of items ranging from sweaters to phones. Although many students search extensively for their items, it can be hard to find the right place to look. More often than not, the lost and found is where their belongings stay.

James Goutzounis, SHS head custodian, reported that he and his colleagues find more than a dozen items every day, the majority of which are made up of three items: water bottles, sweatshirts, and AirPods. Though it seems reasonable that phones would be a commonly lost item as well, the recent ban has led to fewer students forgetting their electronics.

To avoid unnecessary anxiety, Goutzounis and his team have a policy of leaving items out for one day before depositing them in a lost and found. “There’s a lot of times the students come back to the area to look for the item,” he explained, “so it’s just a little bit easier for the kids to find their stuff.” He fears that many students will roam around aimlessly without knowing where to look.

Once that 24-hour deadline has passed, ordinary items are brought to “the end place for everything,” as Goutzounis put it: the General Office. For certain items, however, Goutzounis has a different protocol: “If it’s an important item—a wallet, cell phone, jewelry—stuff like that, we bring directly [with no one day wait] to the General Office.”

Alyssa Garro, manager of the General Office lost and found, confirmed this guess. She revealed that she sees only “four to five kids in here every day trying to look for something that they lost.” Compared to Goutzounis’s guess of over a dozen items deposited per day, it is clear that the majority of students are not recovering their belongings.

The likelihood of a student claiming an item depends heavily on what that item is. Common items such as water bottles, which Garro described as “an all-year-round lost and found item,” are rarely rescued. Items of importance, like phones, almost always find their way back to their original owner.

Custodians are not the only ones discovering lost items. Various faculty members managing specific areas, such as the librarians and Learning Commons monitors, have set up their own lost and founds. The librarians do a daily sweep around the library to find anything that may have been forgotten, and many items left in the Learning Commons are placed in the cubbies located beside the second-floor entrance. Even the Brewster guard has his own lost and found on a bench near the entrance doors.

While custodians have their own method of collection, items found throughout the school day are often brought to the nearest lost and found rather than the General Office. “So if you’re closest to the library,” Garro elaborated, “even if you’re not in the library, the item will show up in the library.” This shuffling of items throughout the school can lead to further confusion for students just looking to recover a lost sweatshirt or water bottle.

So, where should an anxious student look for their belongings?

Checking through the last places that you have been is the first logical step. Often, a lost item can be found forgotten on a table or in the back of a classroom. If you come up empty-handed, the next move should be to visit the General Office, since the majority of lost items can be found there.

Still nothing? This is where it gets tricky. It’s time to look elsewhere.

In all likelihood, your item has made its way to one of the smaller lost and founds, located in the following places: the library, Learning Commons, athletic entrance, Brewster entrance, cafeteria, and auditorium. 

If worst comes to worst and you still have not found your item, you can rest easy knowing that it is at least going to a good cause. When the year comes to a close, all the remaining items, excluding electronics, are sent off to find new homes among the several charities suggested by teachers. “The Midnight Run has already contacted me for any donations we have,” Garro shared.

No matter where or when an item goes missing, SHS students can rest assured knowing it will likely end up in one of the school’s lost and found areas, waiting to be recovered by its owner.