Students have used passes to get out of class for a variety of different reasons for ages, but this year hall passes look a little different. In order to remain in the online format as much as possible, E-Hallpass was introduced to students at the beginning of the year. When high school students first log onto their computers, one of the pre-programmed tabs that open up is the E-Hallpass site. The site shows many options that students can choose from and acknowledge, whether it be a sports absence or just a bathroom pass.

The process of creating a pass is not that complicated for students and teachers to figure out. Students can easily log into E-Hallpass with their Google Chrome account and are ready to roam the building. Each student is given 10 slots to ‘favorite’ their everyday teachers, below those slots are an additional set of slots that show different options to choose from for one’s destination. Students can see all their active passes through a tab called ‘active pass.’ The whole process typically takes less than a minute to navigate. The website also includes different color-coded elements in order to dictate what day the appointment is and/or if the appointment has ended or been canceled. 

After a student makes a pass their teachers are automatically sent a notification. These notifications can be checked whenever the teacher is free, upon the sound of the notification or by student request. While students are away from the classroom, using their passes, teachers can easily see which students are in the hallways. When students come back from their destination, they must notify their teacher so their pass can be ended. Online passes help people avoid contact during the pandemic and help teachers to be more organized.

During emergency situations or dills, E-Hallpasses have shown to be very beneficial for student safety. Since teachers can easily see where their students are, in case of an emergency, guardians can be contacted very quickly. If an ALICE drill or situation comes into play, teachers can notify the office in a swift manner about the whereabouts of any students with a simple look at the homepage of E-Hallpass. 

Last year, agendas were used to keep track of how many passes students had taken in any given week. If students were to lose their agenda they were required to purchase a new one. Students would often use their friends’ agenda if they had lost or forgotten their own. This in turn does not hold students accountable for their actions. In previous years, students were often told that they were not allowed to go to the bathroom without their agenda. Not only does using online passes save paper and money but it also saves time and arguments from instigating between students and staff. 

“[E-Hallpass has] cut down the need for students to purchase agendas and/or stealing or sharing them,” history teacher Elizabeth Gunn said.

Roughly 14% of students say they have skipped at least one class once a week according to The Brown Daily Herald. E-Hallpass reduces this percent at NHS in that passes must have an adequate reason for a student to leave. Therefore, making it harder for students to meet up during their bathroom break or skip class. 

“First, we are able to see the pass history for students,” Vice Principal Blake Smith said. “If a student is not being successful in a certain class, and we see they are asking for 10 passes a week from that teacher, we can show the student the correlation between being in class and success.  Also, this system allows us to know which kids should and should not be in the hallway at a given time.”

In my opinion, online hall passes are more beneficial than paper hall passes. As you can see, there are many different ways that E-Hallpass has contributed to helping NHS to be more productive as a whole. I think that the school should continue to use E-Hallpass in years to come, even after the pandemic.