Interview students and teachers.

Montclair High School has recently switched over to digital hall passes where students must download the e-hallpass app to get a pass. This new form of hall passes was implemented to ensure that students do not wander the campus during class while also making it easier to keep track of who goes in and out of the class.

Students must add their teachers to the top section where it says departing from. You may click add favorite teacher/room, search your teacher’s name, and then add them. Once this is done students can search for their destination as another teacher’s name if they are visiting another class or a specific bathroom/room. Bathrooms are listed by building and may be chosen accordingly to the nearest one to the student’s class.

Denise, a student here at Montclair says that she has not downloaded the app because “it scares me and the reviews are concerning.” The app has a one-star rating with many “concerning” reviews including fictional stories. She also said “I don’t have any storage to download the app,” this is a problem for many people as they already have all of their personal apps and other data saved on their phones. Why must they download another app for school?

Another student, Arleth, said, “It’s too complicated and it won’t keep students from hanging around during class.” This is true as the students who usually skip class do not care and will continue to do as they please.

On the other hand, it may affect the likelihood of teachers letting them leave if they see that they have already had too many passes that day or week. Mrs.Pineda shares her thoughts as she says, “It is necessary because it’s probably just a few kids who are creating the undesirable situation for everyone so if I see that some kids have gone too many times to the bathroom I know that they are just trying to leave class.” The app can help teachers keep track of how long students take outside of class. Students who spend longer than a certain amount of time will receive a yellow flag indicating that they have been out for too long. As for finding their different destinations Mrs. Pineda also says, “Once they set their favorites it will be easier to figure out.” Students will be able to have all of their most used locations and simply click on them when they need to go somewhere instead of having to search every time. Additionally, students can ask the teacher to step outside of the class if it is for a personal reason without needing to walk up there and draw attention. Once the teacher approves the pass then the student may just walk out without disrupting the class. It may take a while for people to get used to this new system as there are still many questions pertaining to how this will work. What if a teacher does not allow us to use our phones? What if the bathrooms are closed and I have to go to another? Why do teachers have a record for each student and how many passes they have had? Is this too much monitoring? As with any new system the problems will be dealt with as we continue to use this app determining if it is in fact helpful or if it changes nothing.