This semester, our school has started to implement new hall pass policies. The new hall pass policies include a bigger and more visible hall pass and an E-pass. The purpose of these new procedures are to know who is out in the hallways at all times. Everyone on campus feels differently about these new policies being put into effect, since this is a big change to our school.

Aurielle Whitehead’s Thoughts

I personally think the new policies are a little much. I think the E-pass is a great idea but I do not like how you still have to take the big pass. What is the purpose of filling out a separate pass, if you still have to take another pass? I do not mind the bigger and visible pass, but I do think it can lead to sanitary and bacterial issues.

I asked two seniors how they felt about the new hall pass policies and if they think that this will help control who is out in the hallways at all times. Senior Alezha Baladya stated, “I think the new hall pass policies are doing a good job of discouraging students to go to the bathroom. I think the E-Pass is a waste of time because by the time you scan it and fill it out, you could have already been to the bathroom and back. I don’t like how there is only one pass per class. If someone has an emergency, they should be able to go wherever they need to without a pass.” She also stated, “I think it could help control who is out but at the same time, people are still going to go wherever they want to go. I think it is a step towards the right direction of where they want the school to be.” Another senior Cade Meza, replied, “I think its stupid because we are seniors and we shouldn’t have to do all of this extra work just to use the bathroom. If I have to go, it shouldn’t have to be a 10 minute process just to use the bathroom.” He also said, “No I do not think it will make a difference. If kids don’t care then they don’t care, there is nothing the school can do.”

Rylie West’s Thoughts

On the other hand, I personally think the larger hall pass and the digital passes are necessary advancements for this semester. Most students don’t know, but the 2019 semester was the worst disciplinary semester ERHS has ever had. There were more suspensions and referrals in just the first couple months than any other entire school year. Some of these suspensions were regarding disrespect towards teachers and even vaping in the school bathrooms. Our staff and faculty needed to get to the bottom of these issues and one of the ways they decided to improve the issues our campus was facing was to create a more organized system of hall passes. Students in my classes for the past for years have noticeably left the class for long periods of time to”use the restroom” “talk to another teacher” or even “go to the front office”. It is very evident that most students do not take 30 minutes or more to use the restroom or talk to teachers. Students took advantage of the previous system of hall passes and like most of us learned in elementary school, when given more trust, one student can take advantage and ruin it for the entire class. That is exactly the case for our school. A small group of students constantly took advantage of the flexibility of a hall pass and ruined the easy accessibility for the rest of the school. Senior Alyssa Argomaniz doesn’t like the fact that the hall pass is so large but, ” For example, worst case scenario if there was an earthquake or something and someone was outside the classroom we would have the people written down that were outside the classroom. You could find them if they weren’t in the bathroom or something.” Alyssa Argomaniz is very right, with the other policies there was no way to 100% know who was out the classroom unless the teacher personally wrote it down. Another Senior Madison Thompson agreed with Argomaniz and said, ” I agree to put our names in the system to double check who is out when problems are going on, on campus.”

The message that I have for our school is that I think the staff made the right decision to set rules and regulations for hall passes because from experience they have been taken advantage of. Although the opposing side may disagree and have a strong dislike for the passes, the students who use the pass correctly and efficiently shouldn’t be upset because when you take the pass you should be going to the place you signed out to and back. The pass is only inconvenient if used inappropriately.