Hall Passes: Efficient or Excessive?

Recently, SHS has integrated a new hall pass system into classrooms. This was introduced to keep an abundance of students out of restrooms and hallways without staff knowledge. Most students have reacted negatively to these passes, claiming that they’re “a waste of time”. Even teachers sometimes agree that they can serve as a distraction.

Why were these hall passes introduced in the first place? During the pandemic, SHS found itself online for most of the 2020-2021 school year. Students had a much wider range of free time. This “free time” came from lack of commuting to and from school, as well as between classes. Downtime between Zoom classes as well as the infamous mic-off video-off paradise enabled students to engage in a much more “relaxed” state of learning. Getting out of class was easy and there was virtually no penalty for it… as long as the student’s name wasn’t called while they were away. The transition to full-time in-person learning was not easy, but factors like these were overlooked. Sitting through an entire class is hard after having developed an affinity for the norms that came with online learning. Without fail, students were found roaming around the hallways or hiding in bathrooms most notably after the return to school this fall. Another factor that led to hall pass introduction was vandalism within bathrooms. A TikTok trend known as “devious licks” had students stealing anything they could from school property, the weirder the better. A common target in SHS were soap dispensers and other various properties within bathrooms. With this, it was not only necessary to watch how many people were out of class at once, but also who these people were. Administration came up with a solution, and the paper hall passes were quickly brought to SHS classrooms. However, this choice has received some backlash.

“They cause more problems than they solve,” an anonymous junior says, “teachers now have to pause their lesson anytime someone needs to go to the bathroom so they can fill out a hall pass.” A common complaint among both students and teachers has been about the time consumed from the process of filling out a hall pass. Before this, students would typically ask for permission to use the bathroom and, once given, could sign out on their own through a sign-out sheet. More lenient teachers sometimes disregarded the sign-out sheet all together, which was likely where most lingering students came from. The student continues, stating that “being monitored by an admin while [they're] in the bathroom is incredibly uncomfortable, [they] shouldn’t be punishing all of [their] students for the acts of some.” Whether it’s right outside of the bathroom or, as some have said, within the bathroom, students do not feel comfortable or safe with staff monitoring them so strictly. Another SHS student, Mary Jijon-Garcia, shares that “scared students hold it in all day to avoid confrontation.” There’s another layer of anxiety that comes with this system. For students who struggle with social anxiety, asking to use the bathroom is tough. The new hall passes add more guilt for holding up the class or another student from using the bathroom. Many downsides can be found in these hall passes, so what can we do to improve them?

Several students were surveyed to provide suggestions that could help SHS students adjust to the new hall passes as well as the expectations of full-time in-person school. One response from junior Lucy Millar suggests “each classroom having a few reusable hall passes with the room # and the teacher's name.” With this, each classroom could have 2-3 reusable hall passes that students would bring with them to their destination. Another student suggestion from Anthony Aicardi follows a similar idea, recommending to “have the slips be pre-signed.” This, combined with the previous suggestion, addresses the concern of time that the student body shares. Providing opinions is a great source of feedback, but giving suggestions for how to improve the SHS hall pass system will be the most influential moving forward. Sooner or later, SHS should hopefully find a way to make these passes and the expectations that come with them safe and comfortable for everyone while remaining an efficient way to control students outside of classrooms.