Pass policy changes for 2022-2023 classes

Holt High School changes its pass policy, citing student hall pass overruse

Taylor Crosslan STAFF WRITER

In the 2022 to 2023 school year, Holt High School has restricted the amount of time students have to use a pass to go to the restroom or get something from their locker.

The administration established a new rule prohibiting students from using the restroom in the beginning ten minutes of class, the last ten minutes of class, and during the lunch period that the student is not in. For some students, lunch goes through the middle of their class and that leaves them with only 25-30 min to use the restroom if needed.

All teachers have different ways of dealing with passes in their classrooms. Some teachers have restrictions on the number of passes a student can use in a week’s time, or even in a semester. Ohers give students a number of passes per semester and, if they don’t use any of them, they get one point of extra credit.

Chemistry teacher Joshua Abatie has seen other teachers’ pass policies and by mixing those together, he has found what works best for him and his classroom. He has a place to sign out, but doesn’t have any restrictions on how many passes each student is able to use.

English teacher Jessica Kauffold has a different approach.

“I don’t have a pass restriction. I like to think that by this stage, students know what their body needs, and if they need to use the restroom, they need to use the restroom,” Kauffold said.

English and social studies teacher Matt Trunk follows the school policy, which is one person out at a time, and, when they need to go to another teacher, he writes out a pass for them.

“I use the required pass according to school rules for the bathroom. I use a library pass for students to get books.”

Many teachers have different pass policies that work best for their classroom and might not work for other teachers classes believe that students should spend the break on their phone, either. The my class are, in case someone from home needs to find them or there’s an students don’t drive themselves and therefore are not in control of what time they get to school. I think we should just be aware there are a multitude of reasons someone may be late and extend some grace, especially in the mornings,” said Rozycki. emergency of some kind. While students are in my classroom, they are my responsibility and I need to know where they are” said Kauffold.

Junior Kaelyn Rozycki has teachers with all different types of pass policies and shared her thoughts on the new restrictions.

Teachers could be more understanding with the amount of time needed to use the restroom, or being tardy to classes because of all of the different reasons that there could be for being late to class.

School policy says that once a student has three or more tardies, they will need to be assigned a detention and not be able to go to school events until they serve them.

Abatie is usually pretty lenient about tardies, but there might be

“Last semester, [I gave] no detentions, and I think that became abused and was a disservice to some of my students. This semester, I am chatting with those flirting with the edge of a detention, and then assigning one on every third tardy”

Talking to students to see why they would be late and finding ways to combat those issues can help with the amount of tardies a student gets.

“I start with a conversation and go from there. The conversation would generally happen around tardy number two to figure out what’s going on or if there’s additional support I can offer. After that, if I’m seeing a pattern continue, I’ll write it up and that will lead to another discussion,”

Having a conversation about it and also trying to help out with the situation that the student is in will

“Honestly, I usually am not paying attention to the number unless it is occuring often,” says Trunk. If a student is tardy and it keeps happening over and over, then he would talk to the student about it.

Rozycki knows that students have different ways of getting to school and many different reasons to be late to class. “Most of my teachers are pretty good about being understanding, but I think it’s especially important for first hour teachers to be forgiving. Some