After the pilot of E-hall passes last spring, it’s now Northwest’s permanent passing system, with a few updates. Last year, Northwest had introduced the E-hall pass, students returning back from spring break were confused on how this new passing system worked, along with some of the teachers. The new updates to how the system would work this year left everyone questioning how realistic the standards are. 

“After we piloted last spring, we noticed that it was actually helping. We were having way too many students in the hall at once and it gives teachers a way to see how many students are out there,” said Assistant Principal,Charlotte Bartsch.

Over the summer there have been some changes to E-hall pass. The most important changes have been the time being cut down, for instance how long you’re allowed to be in the hall. Last year’s time limit was 7 minutes before you had been flagged down by an administrator or teacher. The new standards say that you must be back to class within a 5 minute period. Another additional change being instead of four passes a day, there are now three given to each student. You also could lose another pass if you end up being tardy to a class. Bartsch said there were good reasons for the changes. 

“There are too many students that have overused the time and they would be gone for like 20 minutes or 15 minutes, and we need you guys to be in class that’s why we cut down the time,” said Bartsch. 

There is also a negative side to the E-hall pass. When students are filling out a pass and they get to the selection of the restroom they want to go to, it tells them that it is full. Or they are denied a pass because there are too many people in the hall. Students feel like it is unfair that they are denied a pass, when they know that some people still abuse the time.  Senior Hayden Munro said he’s struggled with the new system. 

“This has happened to me three times where I have desperately needed to go to the bathroom, and there have been too many people in the hallway. I have to wait for a pass because too many people are in the bathroom,” Munro said. 

Munro also noted that there an issue where teachers have forgotten to end the passes so it goes past the 5 minute mark. This can look bad on the student because it goes overtime and makes it seem like they’re wandering around wasting time. 

“I can understand it from a teacher’s point of view, it’s hard to clock everyone in each time they come back into the classroom. But I also think that there should be a way to adjust when you clock in so you could clock out later, and adjust the time for it because that ruins your time that you’re allowed out for the rest of the day,” he said.