There’s a new hall pass system for the AHHS, and with it, very mixed opinions. We got student opinions about the good and bad of the e-hallpass through student interviews to truly answer the question: E-Hallpass… E-ffective or a waste of time?

What is the E-Hallpass System and why should Abington students care about it?

The E-Hallpass system is a system where teachers issue their hall passes to students completely online; no paper is needed. It is supposed to help bring down the amount of traffic in the hallway at any given time, ensure that all teachers are aware of where their students are at all times, and attempt to lessen the overall effect of people causing issues around the school in between or during classes.

First Impressions

First of all, we wanted to get some students’ opinions on the system. After all, they are the ones that will be benefiting from this, right? Well, that was not entirely the case. We asked students in the first week of using the system way back in January what their thoughts were.

Sophia Gowarty, a freshman, shined a light on some of the ineffectiveness of the system. “It interrupts class. I don’t like it. At the moment, only one of my teachers uses it, and anytime anyone has to go anywhere like their locker, to the bathroom, she has to completely stop class. Plus, it defeats half the purpose of having a pass. You don’t have anything to show that you’re authorized to be out of the classroom. There are pros to it as well considering you don’t have to touch the same pencil as everyone else, but that’s about it.”

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, reiterated this same sentiment stating, “Personally I don’t really like it because of the limited time we get. I think it’s ridiculous because it takes me about a minute to walk to and to walk from places.” It is quite clear through these interviews that many students displayed strong aversions to using the system, but each of these interviews was taken within the first week of using E-Hallpass, which begs the question: Has anyone’s opinion changed?

Flash Forward

It has now been months since the E-Hallpass has come into use, so we decided to gauge how students are feeling now that they have had time to adjust to the system. Students were asked the question, “After using this E-Hallpass system for a while, has your opinion on it changed at all, and if so what is that opinion?”

In response to this, students responded similarly to freshman Maddie Czaja, who stated, “I genuinely think it’s a waste of time. No teacher in the hall is actually gonna know you’re not in class cause there’s no note on you. It’s very inconvenient—you have to stop class each time and some teachers forget to log you back in and when subs are there, sometimes they are not logged into the teacher's account.”

Another student included, “My opinion hasn’t changed because it disrupts your class whereas with the handwriting hall passes you could just write it down and have [teachers] sign them, but with the E-hallpass you have to completely stop and disrupt the class to get them to approve it. Teachers always say they want us to stop using technology and start using books, yet they want us to use this, which relies on technology.”

In addition, freshman Siya Patel added, “After using the E-Hallpass system, my opinion has not changed. I still very much dislike it due to its inconvenience. I understand that the school needs it to figure out where students are during class and to figure out the vandalism of the bathrooms. But even after the use of E-Hall, there are still people wandering in the halls and there are still closed bathrooms. Honestly, it’s an inconvenience for not only the students, but teachers as well. No one wants to be that student that interrupts the teacher to start or end their pass in the middle of class. I once had a pass running for 5 hours! I might not understand why we truly need it, but I don’t think my opinion will change.”

Chloe Dong, another freshman, was frank and stated simply put, “I just don’t like it, it’s a huge waste of time.”

Final Thoughts

It was pretty explicit that many students are adamant about why they believe the E-Hallpass system is ineffective, and many make a valid point. Yes, the E-Hallpass can be helpful in tracking suspicious activity in some cases, but in many other cases, it negates that idea as several students mentioned. Not only this, but students also expressed concerns about the inconveniences the system brings, be it with class interruptions, lack of time, etc. , many students believe that the bad outweighs the good. So, final verdict: At the end of the day E-Hallpass system can be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the perspective you look at it from. That being said, what do you think— E-Hall Pass: E-ffective or a waste of time?