E-Hallpass, now known as just Pass, allows students and staff to create hall passes and was implemented by the City of Virginia Beach in 2021. Whether it is more effective than paper passes is still up for debate.
Pass has been controversial amongst both students and staff members since it was adopted by the school system. Senior Jia Chi Lin has concerns about technical errors she encounters when using Pass.
“I feel like the structure of the app is pretty bad,” said senior Jia Chi Lin. “I’ve had a couple of times where I had [difficulty] adding a teacher.”
“It takes teacher time away from students, and students lose focus as they deal with the program [when it is glitching],” said English Teacher Mrs. Robin Lusk-Stancil.
One benefit is that some teachers set up Pass so students can create, approve, and end their own passes without disrupting the classroom. This allows instruction to continue uninterrupted when a student needs to go to the restroom, but it is important to remember every teacher’s Pass policy.
“Bathroom [Pass creation policies tend] to be different for every teacher, so a lot of the time I don’t know if I’m allowed to set up the pass and go, or if I do need to say something,” said Lin.
Ultimately, Pass is intended to prevent students from being out of the classroom too regularly or for too long, and it is an element of school safety because staff/security is able to identify where a student is. The general opinion seems to be that Pass is effective in terms of school safety.
“Yes [I think it’s effective], because teachers can see how long you’ve been gone throughout the day, so the app holds people accountable,” said Lin.
Senior Density Cochran agrees.
“I think it helps reduce [skipping] and I think someone who does skip would have a higher likelihood of being caught and [be caught] quicker,” said Cochran.
Nearly four years after starting to use Pass, there are still some issues with the technology. Overall, however, students and staff seem to think it is a positive step towards increased school safety.
