Starting after fall break, our hallways implemented a new unique aspect. All bathrooms now have color-coded names and lanyards assigned to them.
This new hallway management system is meant to help out the faculty and hold students accountable for where they’re going. Faculty can see a student with a certain color lanyard heading in the right direction for the corresponding bathroom.
This system is only being piloted by some school teachers, but it will likely continue being used into the 2025 school year. For now, if you don’t have a lanyard, you won’t be stopped. It won’t be a set program until the second semester, but when it is, if you don’t have a pass, you’ll most likely be stopped. Some staff have already used it and thought this pass system was very beneficial.
“The idea for this trial is that it just kind of helps security guards and other staff who are in the hallways,” assistant principal Casey Lundgren said. “It’s just an easy visual that if they see a student they will be able to know if they are in the right place or not, which will also help with students not feeling like they are being questioned all the time.”
This is supposed to be a way of decreasing the interrogation of students that teachers need to go through, and the staff is taking this seriously. As it has already been tested during the summer, the school faculty knows it’s something that works.
“We used it in summer school because we didn’t have E-hall pass, and It actually worked out quite well,” security guard Steve Haw said. “It was very easy to keep students where they needed to be and when we had the addition of being able to see where certain students were coming from, it was helpful.”
Students will now see a huge difference in our hallways as staff will be watching more than ever to see if they are going to the right places. Along with that, the few classrooms that are piloting it have been trying to use it as much as they can.
“We’re pretty adamant about using it and very consistent,” science teacher Parker Lowe said. “There are little printer passes and the only thing I can think that we should add is a nurses pass or a counseling pass.”
The staff testing this have opinions on how to change this system and add more, but some students think adding it isn’t even necessary and their strong opinions are heard. For example, how it could be changed, what’s good about it, why we should take it away, etc.
“Honestly I think it’s gross,” junior Charlee Arneson said. “People take it into the bathrooms with them, and then they have to go wash their hands with it and I just think it’s disgusting.”
Even though this system isn’t fully in place, there are already some mixed reviews. With it being another way to help staff and faculty, this is likely going to be a set thing next semester, and will likely stay here for a while.
