This year at Lincoln Southwest High School students will be required to wear hall passes each time they leave the classroom. According to staff at LSW, this change is being made to allow for administration to free up some of their time giving them more availability for other, higher priority tasks. 

“ We’ve always had an expectation that students should have passes when they’re in the hallways,” Principal John Matzen said. “Traditionally we’ve had paper passes which has led to inconvenience for a teacher, that led to students leaving without a pass and getting stopped in the hallway about why they weren’t in class.” 

There will now be two additional kinds of passes for students to use in the hallways. One is a blue colored pass which is used specifically for those who need to leave class to use the restroom. There is also a red hall pass which is used for emergencies or other incidents when students need to leave the classroom. These two newer additions coincide with the already existing call passes which are used for students leaving early or students that need to be in another place in the building at a specific time. 

Anytime a student leaves class they should be in possession of one of the three types of hall passes. Students without a hall pass will be asked why they are not in class or be told to return to their scheduled class. 

“I’m not a big fan of them because usually in a class there is only one or two so it limits the amount of people who can be in the hallway,” senior Maathir Basi said. “For us seniors it’s just a waste of time.”

These new tactics will ensure that fewer students need to be stopped in the halls which leave security personnel spending less time around the school bathrooms and more time where they are needed. There will also be less unnecessary traffic in the hallways during allotted learning times. This is a simple, minor adjustment that students and staff can make to create a safer and more positive environment.