Can I[t] Be Excused?

Starting at the beginning of this school year, students are now required to carry around a color-coded hall pass that designates which area of the school they are allowed to go to. Many students feel that the new policy is invasive and too restricting. Riley Petersen, who is a student at B-CC stated, “I’m 17 and I think that we are over the age where teachers should be able to control when I can go to the bathroom.”

A big part of high school is being told you have to start maturing and taking responsibility for your workload and actions so you can prepare for the “real world”. Many students see this as counterintuitive to the new hall pass policy, as you are not even allowed to choose when and where you go to the bathroom throughout the school day.
However, last year many students learned that their three-minute water breaks could turn into 15 to 20-minute walks around the school and meeting friends in the bathroom. While there were rules in place which stated you need a hall pass to leave class, they were rarely followed so it wasn’t odd to see someone without one. This posed many concerns for staff and students regarding safety and flow of instruction in the classroom. Mr. Hendy, a B-CC forensics teacher commented on what the hall pass system used to be like, “It was a mess, students felt like they could leave whenever they wanted and stay out for however long they wanted.” This would often leave teachers powerless and cause many students to fall behind in class. Additionally, teachers found it impossible to keep track of students in the case of an emergency.
While it is still early in the school year, students wonder whether this policy will die out like others before or remain intact. B-CC is clearly working towards creating a safer, more productive space inside its walls this year as seen with the PMD Policy and it will be interesting to see if these changes have a positive or negative effect on students and staff.