One of HB’s most controversial topics: hall passes. Hall passes are small paper cards that students are asked to fill out before leaving the classroom. The only issue is that it is time-consuming and can interrupt classes to fill them out, making it a burden for both teachers and students. However, for the hall monitors, it simplifies things because they always know where someone is going. That leads to the debatable question: should HBHS require hall passes?
Most students think that hall passes just came back this year; however, shockingly, they have been available for years, and they were used much less frequently. “We made a new push to make sure students were having them, and teachers were signing them off before they left,” said Yolanda Flamino, Assistant Principal.
Hall passes used to be the standard when you left or entered a room, however during the pandemic, particularly in 2022-2023, they were frowned upon because paper-to-paper contact spread germs. This led to the expectation of having a hall pass less realistic, so students opted not to fill them out and risk germs.
One of the major problems that the school ran into was that students were taking suspiciously long bathroom trips. However, this is difficult to give consequences for because they may have needed to go somewhere, leading to some false blame and frustration. “If they want to, they will, and there’s honestly nothing that can change that,” said Colin Bender ‘26.
One of the biggest problems with hall passes is how time-consuming they can be. This can be especially frustrating for teachers if they are trying to teach a lesson and students ask to have a pass signed since that is required to prove authenticity. Bender estimates that he spends about five minutes per day filling out a sign-out sheet along with hall passes.
One extra consideration with hall passes is the fact that not all teachers are actually going to take the time to sign them, and sometimes students might just leave without actually getting their pass signed. Ollie Damon ‘26 estimates that about 70 percent of the time that he leaves the room he has a pass signed by a teacher, while the other 30 percent of the time he is unable to get a signature.
As for the future, regarding HBHS, it is expected that we will continue using paper passes for the foreseeable future. Some schools have transitioned to online apps that track where you are going and how long you have been gone. However, it is much simpler just to hand over a hall pass, so that is what HB will continue to do for the time being.
No matter whether you’re for or against them, hall passes for HBHS have come back and are here to stay.
