Love them or hate them, it seems e-hallpasses might be the new ticket to bathroom trips for students. The new e-hallpass system this year makes it so students must receive permission and sign out via an online system.
The system notifies teachers, security guards, and administration in the building of every student’s hallway whereabouts. Students get three passes a day and are able to be gone from their classes for 10 minutes before the security desk is notified of a student absence.
“To know if it’s [e-hall pass program] been successful is how many minutes students are out of the classroom,” said Dean of Students, Lynn Hill. “Knowing that students are in the classroom means that they’re successful,” she said.
Data given by Lynn Hill shows that the busiest bathroom on an all-day timeline is the 200s bathroom, closely followed by the 100s bathroom. The average time recorded on a bathroom visit is 6 minutes and 38 seconds.
New advancements in the e-hallpass system might be coming soon as well, following other Millard high schools.
“They [other Millard high schools] actually approached it a little differently. There are a lot of bells and whistles that we actually aren’t using yet,” Hill said. “We can also have passes for a nurse visit, counseling visits, passes for library visits, passes for main office visits.” The administration has decided they ‘just wanted to start with restroom passes’. Hill says that the other two [Millard] high schools “went all in with all passes” and that Millard South might “ease into that in the future.”
Teacher accommodation is a factor too. Hill says teachers think the process is “slick” and the e-hall pass system has “worked out smoother than they originally thought it would.” “I don’t know if it’s [e-hall passes] easier but it is more efficient,” history teacher Donald Osborne says. “The best benefit would be if something happens in one of the restrooms and you [students] can prove if you were in there or not.”
Students, being the most affected by the new system, have some thoughts on the new change.
“It takes more time to get out your computer, have the wifi working than to actually just use the bathroom,” junior Susanna Kastl said. “I feel like the idea behind it is good… it’s more organized,” she adds. Kastl also said that she believes that the ehallpass would be successful by saying that if only one person is allowed to leave class then the time limit could be lower to make a better “flow” to and from the bathrooms.
“I think 10 [minutes] is probably way more time than what you need to just go to the bathroom and then come back.”