The E-Hall Passes can be viewed two ways. The truth is, the program was enforced to help the environment around Klein Collins and to help the students. 

     “We wanted to make sure we were doing a good job of keeping the hallways as clean as possible, limiting some availability,” Assistant Principal                                                                                           

Matthew Ebner said. “It was born out of an effort to keep our hallways a lot cleaner, more efficient, continuing to create a much safer environment here on campus.”

     Programs such as E-Hall pass are created to help administrators with control over certain situations that occur within a high school. 

     “I like it,” Ebner said. “I think it’s done a tremendous job. I can tell our hallways are a lot cleaner during class time, but I think we’re really maximizing our instructional time. Keeping kids in class and I think it’s been great. So far.”

     The data accumulated from the way the program works seems to be overwhelmingly positive for the leaders of the school.

 “I feel like it’s been pretty good,” Assistant Principal Tyler Smith said. “I think it’s a very effective system. It minimizes how many students are in the hallway. Which is good not just for administration, but I think for students as well. It minimizes distractions for students and minimizes any kind of things that go on that are not school-appropriate, for example, and I think it’s been successful so far.”

     Administrators see a modification in the culture of the school based on last year as  compared to this year. The change is positive for increasing educational time in the classroom. 

      “I have seen a noticeable change,” Smith said. “Maybe that’s what it comes down to, right? It comes down to making sure staff and students are implementing the system with fidelity, but when that system is used correctly and used appropriately. I think there has been a large decrease in the amount of activity in the hallways between passing periods. So during class time, I think that’s really helped cut down on some discipline issues as well.”

 What about the teachers? The E-Hall passes change the way teachers have to do things. There are different steps with this new system.

     “I like the E-Hall Passes,” English teacher Rebecca Lloyd said. “It is a good way to check on who’s not in the room and it’s easy to function.” 

     Students now have to give a reason why they’re leaving the classroom. This is beneficial for teachers. Because of that, some students leave the classroom less often because they don’t want to go through all the steps to get an E-Hall pass submitted and wait for the teacher to accept it.

      “It’s easy to use and the kids know how to use it,” Lloyd said. “The kids are the ones requesting to go to the bathroom so I’m not having to do it for them. They’re doing the work. I’m just selecting ‘yes, you can go to the bathroom’.”

     Tiger Den passes used to be just paper passes. Now teachers have to go through E-Hall passes and submit a pass to a student’s fourth-period teacher to have them come to their class.  

     “I don’t like how you have to do the Tiger Den passes through there,” Lloyd said. “I like the paper copy of the Tiger Den passes because you’re not always at your computer when kids are asking, ‘Hey, I need help with something.’ And it’s just too many steps.”

      According to freshman Sophia Casanova, some teachers struggle with the E-Hall passes more than students have. Students and staff weren’t properly taught how to use the E-Hall passes. It was more of a mess with it and a “figure it out as it goes” situation.

     “I think it makes things more complicated to go to the restroom,” Casanova said. “I also think it’s for the better because you see fewer people hanging out in groups in the restroom, but you can still see it in passing periods and stuff.”

     It’s important to have less students in the hallway during instructional time. There’s been past issues with students meeting up in groups in the bathroom during class time, but the E-Hall passes have partly helped keep less students from meeting up.

  “The E-Hall passes make it more complicated to go because there’s only a certain amount of people that can go,” Casanova said. “And you only have a certain amount of passes that you can use a day.”

     Students remain cautious on their opinion of the new hall pass program. Having to keep over 3,000 students from using the passes when they feel it is an emergency does not help when they feel it is not fair they are not able to use passes as needed. 

     “Overall, I think they’re helpful, but there are things that should be changed,” sophomore Brayden Larsen said. “For example, maybe adding an emergency, and having to provide the emergency as to why it can’t wait.”                       

Following the rules of E-Hall pass makes it hard to agree to when the emergency is now and it takes more time to get out of class with permission. 

     “If there’s an emergency, then they have to submit a request first, but there might be too many people in the hallway,” Larsen said. “So for emergencies, it’s not as helpful.”

     Passes from another teacher when a student travels from classroom to classroom have to be accepted by teachers or students will be penalized. 

     “I’m not the biggest fan whenever it comes to you having to wait on your teacher to accept your E-Hall pass,” junior Mikayla Hale said. “Because some teachers don’t even look at it.”

    The E-Hall passes have helped the bathrooms being less crowded and there isn’t really a need to worry about lines anymore. But it’s not so fun waiting on the teacher to accept the bathroom request. It can even be slightly frustrating when your teacher forgets to stop the timer, according to Hale. 

     “I think it’s a very unnecessary system,” senior Fernando Martinez said. “I understand that it is meant to be beneficial, but I don’t think so at all. For example, we were just given it but were never taught exactly how to use it. I feel like it takes more time away from class than it does helping people.”

     If the new system works better than what was used before, then it will become the norm and it just takes time for everyone to adjust. Change in anything is hard to take for some. 

     “Many students have indeed stopped going to the restroom as the E-Hall pass has become more of a hassle,” Martinez said. “And I understand that’s probably the goal of the E-Hall pass. It does help monitor the students where they’re all at. It also cuts down on those who have ill intent to go to the bathroom so it stops the total of that.”