“May I use the restroom?”
“Sure, make a pass.”
For students at GC, this is a familiar phrase.
Since this school year has begun, freshmen have had to deal with many new policies regarding high school, most notably the introduction of SmartPass. If you haven’t had to use it yet, you’ve surely heard all about it from fellow teachers and classmates. It is a controversial program for many reasons, all of which I will divulge into in this article.
What Is SmartPass?
According to their official website, SmartPass is a modern solution to physical passes. It is a digital pass system that allows for more control from the teacher’s part. Now, in order to exit class for any reason, you’re required to create a pass on SmartPass, which gives a maximum and minimum time limit. Teachers and principals can use the program to check where students are, and how much time (if any) they have left on their pass.
Why Is SmartPass?
SmartPass is supposed to monitor hallway traffic and help with keeping students in class for longer. It allows teachers to know when students are coming to their class as well. However, regardless of how this may sound to people not in the know, students have created a clear message. This pass system clearly isn’t as great as it seems.
Why SmartPass is a No-Go for Our Students
Here’s the bottom line: SmartPass creates time constraints on us. When making a pass, you can choose how much time you need. But what’s the point of choosing when your maximum time limit to use the bathroom is 5 minutes?
I’ve found myself sprinting to the bathroom on a five minute pass only to see it stuffed with gossiping girls. Then I have to turn around and wait an hour or more for time between classes (which is also 5 minutes counting the time it takes to get me to the next class).
Also, you can be prevented from going because the hallway is “too full”.
What does “too full” even mean? What if someone needs to go do business in the bathroom and the hall is “full”? It’s not like they’re going to start a fight in the hallways.
In many classes, iPads are not used. It becomes an inconvenience when you have to exit the classroom, because you have to pull it out, sign into SmartPass, and create a pass. It takes up a lot of time, especially when you really need to go then.
Female students and kids with medical conditions especially suffer because of this pass system. Asking to go to the bathroom (while on your period) as always been difficult for girls because many male teachers couldn’t understand. Now it’s even worse for them with this new time limit. This span of only five minutes is barely any time in the grand scheme of things, and I don’t understand why the time limit can’t go up to at least seven minutes. Seven minutes won’t take away from important time in a hour and thirty minute (or even a two hour) class.
What’s more, if you accidentally go over time on your pass, the system flags your name and alerts admin. Since all students were made aware of this at the beginning of the year, now a level of anxiety comes with a simple task like going to the bathroom, or drinking from the water fountain.
Teachers themselves are even upset about SmartPass. I have overheard teachers complaining about SmartPass many times, going on about how it’s way more complicated than the systems from years before, like sign-in sheets and physical passes. If teachers and students equally dislike it, then why is it still a thing in our school system? It’s a burden on Gordon Central kids in so many ways that it really outweighs the positives.
Lastly, GC is not known for bad student behavior. I have never seen a fellow student skip class, vape, or even fight in this school system. SmartPass being implemented makes us feel like animals in a zoo.
A student, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated, “…with SmartPass, I feel like I’m under a dictator or something..I feel like Katniss from The Hunger Games.”
TL;DR
To sum this up, SmartPass is a new program that I and the student body don’t agree with. I argue that it polices students and creates impossible time frames to do their business in the bathrooms and other places as well. There was really no reason to implement SmartPass in my opinion, and I’d like it better if we just went back to lanyard passes and sign in sheets.