Longfellow middle school is banning the use of backpacks in hallways and classes and requiring the use of lockers.

Removing the use of backpacks in school hallways and mandating the use of lockers is unnecessary and inconvenient for students who are required to carry numerous binders, supplies, laptops, chargers, pencils, and other items.

Although not having backpacks in the hallways might slightly lessen congestion, it really does not make much of a difference. It forces students to visit their lockers in between classes, which results in more people walking across the school and clogging up the hallways as they open and access their lockers. Not to mention the fact that students who bring their own lunches now have to carry them to 4th period or take time from lunch to go get their food from their locker.
Some students have lockers on the second floors, but getting to them when everyone is going downstairs can be very challenging.
The amount of hallway congestion won't be significantly reduced by removing backpacks.

Additionally, some people may struggle to open their lockers at LMS, and it takes a while for them to do so, taking up valuable time that could be spent walking back to your next class, which could be located upstairs on the other side of the school. Many new students arriving from elementary schools do not use lockers, do not know how to use lockers, or have not used lockers in a significant amount of time due to events from the previous year. People will be unable to open their lockers during the first few weeks of school, this will cause a lot of trouble. 

There's a good reason why so few students used lockers last year, and requiring them this year will be a major hassle for many, with little to no benifits.