What are the new Bathroom Passes?
With a new school year comes many changes. Here at Cresskill High School, a new bathroom pass has been in effect, replacing the lanyards of the previous year.
Last year, the bathroom passes utilized a lanyard with a card attached allowing one to unlock the bathroom doors. With students limited to one per classroom, crowds of students in the bathroom were decreased.
However, this year, the pass consists of a metal clip which attaches to students’ ID cards. Now, student IDs can unlock the bathroom door and are tracked directly to the student’s genesis. Staff members and parents can see when and how often a student is using the restroom.
Pros
The new bathroom passes come with many benefits. For instance, the bathroom passes can be useful to prevent the same students from consistently using the bathroom as an excuse to skip class. With the new ID system, students bathroom usage is shown on genesis and staff members can know how often a student uses the bathroom. Another advantage towards the new pass system is that students will face more pressure to keep their IDs. Now, without an ID, students can no longer access the bathroom with class passes.
Cons
Although the bathroom clips can definitely be a useful asset, they can also be a hassle at times. For one, they are much easier to lose than the old passes. While the old passes were lost quite often, a metal clip seems even more likely to fall and be lost. Another downside to this is that the clip does not ensure that students do not have access to the bathroom, but only serves as a hall pass. This means that even if a student is in the hallway to go to the nurse, they can still access the bathroom through their personal ID.
Staff & Student Feedback
Freshman Student Ambassador Ryan Chung believes that the new bathroom passes are no better than the passes of last year. This sentiment is shared by freshman Gabriel Kim, who thinks that the new bathroom passes are a waste of money. He argues, “With little to no benefits, why waste money installing new scanners? I think that the old ones worked just fine, so there is no point in replacing them.”
Possible Solutions
While the new bathroom passes can be effective, they are certainly not perfect. If we take some of the benefits of this pass and combine them with those of the old pass, we can get a better result. For example,the new pass has the ability to track the student use of the restroom. This prevents students from regularly using the bathroom as a way to get out of class. However, the clip is extremely easy to lose, which has already proved a problem . Therefore, it would be beneficial to use a pass that tucks into the student’s ID or attaches magnetically. This would ensure that students do not lose the pass, as it would be less prone to falling off.
