Early one morning last month, while everyone was in 2nd period and still trying to wake up, Ms. San Martin, the principal of Renton High School, got on the intercom and made a shocking announcement.

There would be a new hall pass policy for the whole school.

This comes after the fact that many students have been roaming the halls during class with ease, hoping to skip class and meet up with friends doing the same thing, with no organized punishment set in place. While many students who didn’t take advantage of the last set of rules may be shocked, those who have done the opposite won’t be too surprised to find that there are serious consequences set in place for the students who break these rules.

So what are the rules? First and foremost, students must have a hall pass with them while in the halls during class time, and must head to their desired destination and back in a timely manner. No students are allowed in the halls during the first and last ten minutes of class as well. If a student is caught without a pass or is out during the ten minute periods without permission, then s/he will be given the consequences that the policy includes. The policy is structured in a way so that there is a new level of punishment for the more offences that an individual student commits. The policy states, “Students without passes walking in the halls during instructional time will receive consequences in this order:

1st Offense: Students will be dropped by Admin, Dean/ IB Coordinator, Security/SRO back to classes.

2nd Offense: Students will be dropped by Admin, Dean/ IB Coordinator, Security/back to classes with a Wednesday detention.

3rd Offense: Students will be dropped by Admin, Dean/ IB Coordinator, Security/back to classes with two Wednesday detentions.

4th Offense: Students will lose exit privileges from all classes for the trimester. A referral will be made for the student to attend the Attendance Support Intervention groups with CIS Coordinators. This referral is mandatory.”

Concerns such as, how will teachers be able to prevent this? or how will staff make sure that the students who break the rules always get caught? have been addressed. In the policy, there is also a section that covers how adults/staff should respond in case such situations occur. Such actions include the AP, Dean/ IB Coordinator, SRO, AACs, and Security monitoring the halls thoroughly in order to catch and question students who are seen without some variation of a hall pass.

Overall this hall pass is clearly intended to coax students out of getting into the bad habit of leaving class for their own enjoyment. Though it is too early to see whether it is having that much of an impact, one thing is quite clear, the staff who made this policy care for the students enough to make this for them to be in class and learn in a better environment.

Sources:

• https://www.rentonschools.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=6291