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For more than 50 years, “smoking in the boys’ room” has been a spirit of student rebellion, and in the age of vaping and social media-fueled shenanigans, out-of-control students remain a major concern for school administrators.
In the year In 2021-22, schools in Delaware County saw fires and vandalism in student bathrooms due to social media trends like the TikTok challenge and youth contamination concerns.
With the new school year, Strath Haven High School has deployed high-tech solutions to monitor students who leave class or other activities outside of the classroom when nature calls.
Lindsey Norward, communications and community relations liaison for the Wallingford Swarthmore School District, said the district does not have a new policy, but is transitioning from a contactless QR code hall system to a new platform, e-hall passes, during the outbreak.
Norward said the students previously used their cellphones to scan QR codes, but now use their Chromebooks. It is used not only for toilet but also for all hall passing activities.
Rose Tree Media, Springfield, Unionville Chadds Ford and Marple Newtown school districts already use the system, she said.
In the e-Hall Pass video created by a company called Eduspire Solutions Developers, a digital hall pass is created by the student and then submitted to approve the pass.
Norward said the request goes to the teacher or counselor and is an amendment to the traditional hall pass.
According to the video, the system checks three criteria: first, is the student allowed to write the pass, is there a limit on the number of passes due to abuse, or does the teacher approve that position?
The second requirement is to ensure that the requested location is available.
A third requirement is that administrators prevent unsupervised students from meeting in the hall at the same time.
“Some schools don’t have no-contact contracts or contracts that say kids must stay separated. Our system can help support that,” the video says.
The app’s developers tout the system’s contactless aspect: its ability to reduce hall traffic and its ability to prevent meetings where students might plan trouble.
“Hall monitors love our live dashboard of hall passes,” the video says.
He also noted that when an incident occurs, officials can immediately identify who has a hall pass.
The video also claims that digital passes improve the ability to reduce vaping and other passive activities.
Range of comments
Such close monitoring of students using technology has upset some parents, who worry about a spying society that likens the school to a prison.
“I pay special high school taxes to live in one of the best counties in Pa. and live in one of the safest neighborhoods, and one of the reasons is that my son doesn’t feel like he’s in a prison at school,” Rhoda Johnson said. Expressing her displeasure with the system. “I pay every day for a quiet walk in a peaceful garden and the laughter of teenagers. Why should they monitor my child’s bowel movements in this peaceful garden? Who pays for that? I hope that’s not why the school board raised our taxes this year.
While many parents are hesitant to speak publicly, the topic elicited several responses when asked on a Wallingford community forum on Facebook.
“The email from the school suggested simply digitizing the check-in/check-out process. The app does not track the child’s physical location. He seems to be in a rush to get upset about what is actually happening (and what isn’t). A non-story,” said one parent.
“Why not keep an eye on the kids, if there’s a problem you can protect them from being blamed or identified, as well as prevent kids who you see as opportunities to wander off or gently remind them of the fastest way,” wrote another.
One father compares the system to George Orwell’s “1984,” while another woman goes back to her day and what she did in high school bathrooms and thinks a digital pass is a good idea.
“They literally ripped the soap/paper towel dispensers off the walls. Fireball (alcohol) bottles were found in the dumpsters, with women’s products plastered all over them. This is middle and high… my elementary school likes to paint (poop emoji) on the toilet handles,” one mom wrote.
One mother of a high school student said it was stressful because of how much time the student was out of the classroom during the program.
“Every time I go to the bathroom, I have to rush,” the mother said.
She said she found out about the new system from her daughter and said vaping is a problem in bathrooms, but the digital pass won’t fix the problem because of easy breathing.
Norward, who is new to the district, said she is not aware of any cases of vandalism or vandalism at the high school.
Eduspire Solution states on their website that data privacy is a serious concern and they work with schools to keep school district-owned data safe and secure.
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