E-Hallpass Receives Mixed Reviews

Written by Cheney Yao
Photo by Shridula Arun

East Ridge High School is currently trialing a virtual version of hall passes to replace paper ones, but reactions have been mixed among students and teachers.

With the new system, students must request a pass through a website accessible on their Chromebook or phone and the teacher must approve it. Passes can be set to be automatically approved, along with limits on how many passes may be issued at a time. Teachers have the ability to schedule passes, see how many active passes there are, and see flags on passes that exceed the time limit.

Mr. Stofer, an AP math teacher teaching juniors and seniors, says that the passes are in part intended to help keep track of how long students are gone and to help minimize vandalism by tracking where students are when not in class. Mr. Stofer adds, “We’ve also seen a large number of students when they’re out, they’re just meeting up with their friends and just talking and hanging out.”

Students are doubtful that the E-Hallpass system will do much good. Junior Dev Patel pointed out that “people who were misbehaving aren’t exactly going to follow it to a T, and for those who are, it just makes the system more convoluted.” In addition, there were concerns raised about the money that would be spent on the system in light of recent budget cuts that have affected staffing.