Hallway e-passes: good or bad?

Everybody has been there before: you’re in the middle of a class period that feels far longer than an hour, and the urgency hits; you have to find a bathroom. In the medical world, this is called urgency incontinence, but at the high school, this is called an inconvenience.

An electronic hall pass system may sound simple, but there is far more going on under the hood of this idea.

To further understand what an electronic hall pass entails, let’s take a look at the leading electronic hall pass company: e-Hallpass. e-Hallpass’ system contains all of the features previously mentioned for how a student requests to go use the restroom, but it doesn’t end there. e-Hallpass logs student behavior in the halls and what other students are in the halls at the time of a student’s request. Through this system, it assigns each student a sort of social-credit score profile, and it is up to the teacher that receives the request to look at all of these factors and determine whether to approve or deny the request.

When asked if electronic hall passes are a good idea, science teacher Mr. Nelson said, “I think they are a good idea. They could be better than physical ones.” Several other teachers hold this position as well.

In general, most students and teachers take opposite sides, but there are a few exceptions. Senior Leo Waloch said, “Kids have too much freedom in the restrooms nowadays, with nuisance items and drug paraphernalia. I think we should try to prevent the bathroom chainsmoking meetups. I am anti-vape,” Waloch said.

Although there are two sides to this issue, some students have mixed thoughts. “I think purely for behavioral purposes it’s a good idea because behavior in the bathroom is definitely a problem,” junior Ethan Lieb said, “But on other aspects like privacy or emergency situations, it goes too far. Overall, I think we should keep the system we have now but think about a more thought-out solution that doesn’t come at the expense of students.”

There are many opinions and facts to consider when looking at this new system. What do you think? Are electronic hall passes the future of New Ulm High School?