New Hall Pass System Sparks Debate at Galena High School
On Monday, September 3, 2024, GHS students and staff started using a new hall pass system called Securlypass. In this system, students send a pass to go anywhere in the school, and then the teacher approves the pass. Here is one teacher’s reaction to the hall pass system: Mr. Levit said, “I think it will emerge as a handy system for homeroom exchanges when all teachers get used to it.”
The students had different reactions. Here is one student’s response to the hall pass system: senior Beckett Simpson: “I think that it’s pointless because it adds an unnecessary element to going to do anything in our school.”
The GHS students have strong emotions about the hall pass system. Sophomore Kendra Bauer said, “I think it’s a waste of time and pointless, I do not like it.” Cons are sometimes teachers don’t want their students on their computers and teachers don’t see the pass right away. One of the pros for the students was that you could create the pass and go without having to ask the teacher or interrupt the class but it doesn’t always seem to work that way and often students have to wait and eventually tell the teacher to get their pass approved and in that amount of time they could have gone and gotten back already.
The GHS staff has other opinions about the hall pass system.
Cons: Some teachers get a bunch of passes in one class block. Pros: in case of an emergency, teachers can easily see which students are out of the classroom instead of trying to remember where everybody went. One thing that could help the teachers is if students can start and end their passes so they can just say to their teacher, “I made a pass.”
The pub asked Mrs. Hawkins several questions about the hall pass system.
When asked why she implemented the hall pass system, she replied, “A few of our teachers learned about it from a teacher leadership conference and asked me to look into it. The rationale for it is that it gets rid of paper passes and allows for a measure of safety as we know where kids are in the building in case of an emergency,”
The question then came up:
How did Mrs. Hawkins develop a secure pass at the site we use? She reasoned that “This is the system that Pecatonica and Eastland both use and it came highly recommended by their staff and students
In conclusion, the hall pass system is a good way to ensure students are safe in an emergency. This hall pass system is something new at GHS therefore it might have some problems to figure out to make it a successful thing for both teachers and students. As a student at GHS, I understand why we have the hall pass system but I definitely think we need to make some changes to make it successful. One major change to improve the hall pass system is letting students start their passes and coming up to the teacher and telling them where they’re going. on the teachers and they can let your pass running and let you go to where you need to go or they can veto the pass on their side.
