SmartPass: A Genius Solution or a Student’s Nightmare?

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the new hall pass system at Hillcrest. Last year, the district introduced SmartPass, a digital hall pass that monitors where students go and how long they’re gone. This year, students are required to fill out a SmartPass every time they leave the classroom. Students are allowed 3 passes per day, and each bathroom pass has a 5-minute timer. Additionally, teachers and administrators can now see every student with an active pass using the hall monitor feature. This new system is a significant change from the previous hall pass system, leaving many students wondering why we’ve made this drastic change.

Mr. Drango, the administrator in charge of SmartPass, provided some insight into the reasoning behind the change. From an administrative standpoint, physical hall passes for every teacher are very expensive to create. Paper passes were often littered around the school, and the laminated passes sometimes got lost. He also pointed out that SmartPass is helpful for safety concerns like identifying who’s in the hallways and who is in the bathrooms during fire drills or lock downs. It appears that the main objective of SmartPass is to ensure that students aren’t skipping class and to monitor who’s in the building. In Mr. Drango’s opinion, SmartPass works reasonably well because students and teachers have been cooperative.

Most teachers seem to be in favor of this new system. Mr. Barker, a social studies teacher, has found that using SmartPass is much easier than writing individual passes. He agrees that it has cut down on the number of students skipping class but thinks it would run smoother if all the teachers were on the same page. Overall, he believes that SmartPass is a significant improvement to the old system with a few fixable flaws.

But what do the students think? Overheard conversations suggest that students are not fond of SmartPass or the rules that come with it. Seniors Jenna Kosanke, Samantha Warren, and Gracie Raymond expressed many concerns about this new technology. In an interview, Mr. Drango stated that the 5-minute time limit is fair because that is how long students are allowed between class changes. However, the interviewees pointed out that some classrooms, like Theater and Band, are extremely far away from the restrooms, making it nearly impossible to make it to and from the bathrooms within the 5-minute time limit without sprinting down the hall. This situation is worsened because half of the bathrooms are open for students and fails to consider students with medical conditions or those on their periods who may need extra time in the restrooms and feel rushed by the time limit.

Another student concern is that the system is not being executed properly. When asked, the three seniors revealed that there are hardly ever teachers monitoring the hallways or the bathrooms, even though half of the bathrooms are closed to make them easier for teachers to watch.

The general consensus amongst the three interviewees is that SmartPass is a good concept with a flawed execution. They suggested that raising the time limit back to the original 7 minutes and opening all the bathrooms would benefit the entire student body and might change how many students feel about the new system.