Ah, the hallpass. When you think of schools, you think of the barnyard school house, chalkboards, and… wait, is that E-hallpass? 

It seems that we are becoming an ever technological society as we replace tools with cyber clones of their former selves. This applies to education especially, with the addition of e-learning, virtual textbooks, and videos to replace educational lectures. Here approaches a new challenger. Who is it, you might ask? E-hallpass!! 

How is an E-hallpass different from a normal pass?

E-hallpass tracks who is in the bathroom, how long it takes a student to use the bathroom, and how often they do so. According to school administrators, it was implemented to prevent kids from messing around and reducing the “baby-sitting” responsibility of teachers. Now, kids can just log in on those nifty devices, such as computers and phones, and head off to do the deed.

Like a cowboy in New York, this may seem pretty unnecessary. But, contrary to popular belief, some of these features are pretty reasonable. Given unruly bathroom behavior such the TikTok “devious lick” challenge, E-Hallpass lets teachers and deans know where a student is without having to put a hold on the classroom. If E-hallpass works, it could be extremely successful at what it does and better the school. If it works. YEP. *cough *cough.

Does it work?

The thing is, E-hallpass is extremely inconvenient.  Teachers and students are frustrated daily having to operate the system. Of course, there is the getting adjusted to new things and people wanting back the old hall pass out of convenience, but the issue is far greater than that. Anger will eventually settle. That is the LEAST of its problems.

Before starting the timer, the complicated process has the potential for a million problems. The timer might not start, you could accidentally set it to the wrong bathroom, the pass might not automatically be allowed by the teacher, etc. Even if you chalk this all up to “user error” it still doesn’t erase the fact that it is a complex process compared to the traditional hall pass. Instead of asking the teacher for a pass, now you have to pull out your chromebook, sign in, ask the teacher, get confirmation, and then start the timer. This in turn creates a disruption in the class flow. No more simple hand raises, deemed E-hallpass.

Furthermore, it makes kids feel like babies. I’ve personally heard this sentiment quite a lot from my peers, which is ironic because E-hallpass was supposed to stop teachers from having to be overly responsible for their students. 

E-hallpass tracks how long you take, where you go, and how frequently. So basically, are students being stalked? The time thing seems an invasion of privacy as sometimes kids just need to take a long time. This feeling gets rid of the whole idea of high school being more mature and grown-up. This especially applies to juniors and seniors, as they are almost off to college. It’s understandable that kids have to take the fall for other kids doing bad things. It’s like the old saying “A rotten apple spoils the bunch,” but also feels degrading for a lot of kids. And do you know what that leads to?

People no longer go to the bathroom. E- hallpass discourages kids from using the bathroom entirely, and many find it purely embarrassing. Do you really think that a kid who’s shy would want to go through the hassle? Or a student could just find it embarrassing in general. I’ve even seen kids protest it because, like I said, it makes the student body feel like babies. When you make someone feel embarrassed, watched, and like a child, don’t expect them to like your system. 

E-hallpass already has a feature that limits the number of people in a bathroom at one time, limiting misuse. This, however, could stop students from using the bathroom altogether, simply because someone forgot to end their timer from a previous trip.

E-hallpass definitely has benefits that can actually improve school life! To do that, it definitely has to be refined more. It needs to be less complicated of a process, not as degrading, and more user friendly. I see this as a small child of e-learning. When e-learning first appeared, it was universally hated because it stole those precious snow days from our children. Over time it became better, even helping students and teachers alike get through a pandemic. We realized it would never be beloved, but rather would serve as a functional backup plan. Better than nothing, right? 

E-hallpass faces the problem of being a mainstay in our schools. If it wants to be in the kitchen, it needs to be able to handle the heat. Only then will we know if it is truly our hallpass.