Starting the second semester of the school year at Ipswich High School, administration announced a set of new rules. They did this in order to tighten up students’ engagement in the classroom. Students and teachers seem to have strong opinions, specifically about hall passes being implemented to the rule book. This article explores the impact hall passes play on daily life at Ipswich. Do hall passes benefit us, or are they an inconvenience for staff and students overall?
On Monday morning, High School students were brought together for an announcement from the administration. The Assistant Principal informed everybody that they will be implementing color coded hall passes. The color of the pass tells staff what part of the building you’re meant to be in. The content of the pass includes, your destination (where you’re going), your name, time you left the room, time you returned to your classroom, your teacher’s signature, and notes. While yes, the passes do help staff keep track of students, an argument can be made that the costs outweigh the benefits.
To find out how staff and students really feel about the hall passes, I interviewed a 12th grade student at IHS, Isaiah Gonzalez. Gonzalez felt passionately that, “The hall passes are unnecessary and disrupt the flow of class.” His reasoning behind the statement is, pausing class multiple times a period to sign a hall pass wastes time. “I should be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need to,” says Gonzalez. “I get the urge to go on walks, or go to the bathroom when I get stressed or fidgety.” Generally speaking, students at IHS have a negative opinion on hall passes being implemented into their school life. Overall, students believe hall passes are unreasonable, and add unneeded stress to the school day.
In order to understand the opposing side of the argument, I asked the Principal, Jonathan Mitchell, for the feedback he has received from staff. Mitchell says, “Students haven’t been asking to use the bathroom as much, there’s been less people in the hallways, and from what I’ve heard from staff, the passes seem to be working.” Students are unaware of the specific reason for implementing hall passes. “Students should treat R-Block as a time to be productive, not a free period to wander the building and hangout,” says Mitchell. A popular topic amongst students, and even teachers, is that paper hall passes are outdated; and there should be a better alternative. “We are open to feedback and will modify it and make changes as we go to make it more efficient, but so far it seems to be accomplishing the goal of minimizing unnecessary hallway traffic.” Administration has explored E-Hall pass before in the past, but Mitchell says, “We don’t need to spend the money on that.”-
Though feedback from staff seems to be mostly positive surrounding the hall passes, one concern about them is wasting too much paper. Teachers are running out of the passes fast and constantly need to print more. Also writing passes out to students, multiple times, can be irritating to some teachers too. For the most part teachers have a positive attitude towards them so far, but I can see the passes getting irritating overtime.
It looks like hall passes will be sticking around for a while. However, many wonder if they are enough of a nuisance for students and teachers to push for a change? In your opinion, do hall passes benefit or worsen your day in IHS? If you were to vote, would you be in favor or against an alternative solution? There are pros and cons to both sides. Which side of the argument are you in favor of?
