- By Anne Kehl, Managing Editor
A frightening rumor passed through the school the week before Friday, March 10th. The infamous word previously only heard on movie screens had manifested in the hallowed halls of the school.
Hall Pass.
I was talking to my SMART teacher that Wednesday when he informed me that hall passes would be implemented on that following Friday, and you can probably guess my reaction.
I knew the struggles the administration had been having with a very specific, limited group of students — several of which rarely show up to school, let alone their classes.
I knew that there had been a fight in the hall very recently because of this very specific, limited group of students, which my mother, science teacher Dr. Kehl, had to break up.
And I knew that the rest of the students at the school are extremely different from this very specific, limited group of students: respectable, credible and trustworthy.
Which is why I was frustrated by the hall pass system being put into practice after this incident because I noticed the clear cause and effect: these students had been out of their classes, caused a commotion and stole freedom from the entire rest of the school.
I have also noticed that since the hall passes have been put into use, these same students are the ones out in the hall without passes.
These hall passes don’t stop the kids they were created for from wandering the halls; they simply impede the people who are honestly just trying to use the restroom.
Now, as the daily sufferer of an itty-bitty bladder, this really does affect my day. I have to use the restroom probably once a period — not because I want to wander the halls or chat with my friends or participate in any fights — but because I genuinely need to go.
Before this policy was implemented, I could slip out without disrupting the class. Now, I have to find the pass, ask to take it, and only then can I relieve myself.
Not only is this a nuisance for students in class, but it creates issues for students out of class who are a part of Running Start or have a free period.
Junior Running Start student Presley Roggenbuck experienced this firsthand.
“I was waiting in the lunchroom [to drive some girls to lacrosse practice],” Roggenbuck said, “and the vice principal said I couldn’t wait there because I ‘wasn’t a student’ at the high school. That confused me because I am registered as a student there and play sports for the school.”
The vice principal then asked her to leave and told her that she was required to sign in at the office and wait in the library.
Roggenbuck wasn’t sure if this was directly related to the employment of hall passes, but she had never been approached before this incident.
Similarly, students with free periods are forced to hide in the library, rather than seeking assistance from teachers or utilizing the coveted dens.
“It discourages students from using the dens or access to teachers for homework or extra help,” senior Abbie Fiano, who plays tennis and has a free period, said. “Some teachers are available that period to either work in their room or ask questions, but it’s difficult if a student can’t go and ask a question, then be able to study in the den.”
Students with free periods who choose not to go to the library are forced to leave campus, where they are not under adult supervision and have the potential to do far worse things than distract other students.
“It … is pushing students off campus,” Fiano said. “A lot of students with free periods use it for sports … [or to] do homework. But now we can’t be in the school during [our free period] unless we’re in the library, so many students have to leave. It’s hard to leave in that short [amount] of time and use it productively.”
Fiano also noticed that a specific group of students are the problem.
“I find it frustrating how strict the rule is supposed to be,” Fiano said, “but the same students still seem to not go to class and roam the halls.”
Not only students are irked by this, but teachers too. One of my teachers put quite a bit of effort into personalizing his hall pass, placing pictures and emojis on it to make the drudgery a little less drab.
However, he was not allowed to use it for his classes because it was not the same as the others.
Enforcing uniformity is something that Vashon as a community has always discouraged. Young people are urged to be individuals and not conform to regularity.
These hall passes do exactly the opposite. They turn every student into a number, a has-a-hall-pass or a doesn’t-have-a-hall-pass.
Instead, staff should have a conversation with someone in the hallway who looks like they’re dilly-dallying back to class. Ask why they’re out of class and encourage them to head back, rather than scolding them for not having a large, loud-yellow, laminated piece of paper around their neck.
If it has not already been made clear, I am against the newly-formed hall pass policy. But more importantly, I am against the overall categorization and uniformity this policy has created.