Gabby Bussanmas

Sophomore Brayden Plourde fills out an E-Hallpass to leave the classroom in Journalism class in October. The new passes are something that students at Norwalk High School have mixed opinions about, and is a program that’s still new to students and staff members at NHS.

E-Hallpasses are a new program that was introduced to staff and students at the start of the school year on Aug. 23 at Norwalk High School.

In previous years, students were asked to take a lanyard to bathrooms but overall were just sent to the desired locations without a way to track their time out of class.

Students are asked to fill out an online hall pass indicating where they came from and where they’re going, which can be started by the student or their teacher and is used by the school to track where students are and the amount of time spent out of the classrooms officially.

This is the first year that E-Hallpasses have been instituted at NHS and student opinions on them vary from person to person.

“I’m not a fan because I don’t think they were really a problem needing to be fixed,” said junior Keegan Johnson.

Although not all students at NHS shared this view. Freshman Evelyn Rooney-Kozak said that she thought the new passes were beneficial and a way to improve safety in emergency situations.

“You know where everyone [staff and students] is and [people] can be held accountable,” Rooney-Kozak said. “I think once we get used to it, it’s going to be very beneficial for the community.”

Sophomore Brayden Plourde said that the new E-Hallpasses made it more difficult to leave classrooms.

“I don’t really use them a lot because it makes using the bathroom more difficult,” said Plourde.

Other students at NHS indicated that the new passes seemed to be more complicated than necessary.

Senior Taylor Stanley said that she thought passes were necessary but to a point.

“Hallpasses can be helpful but they don’t need to be as extreme,” said Stanley.

While some students at NHS disagreed with the new passes, some also  agreed that they could prevent other students from being out of class unnecessarily.

“It helps stop skipping classes and staying in the bathrooms for long periods of time,” said Plourde.

The new E-Hallpass program is something that is new to students and teachers this year and Rooney-Kozak talked about the varying opinions from those at NHS.

“I think it depends on who you ask because I feel like the teachers appreciate it, but for students, I feel like it’s a little more tricky.”