Eli Hoffman

HC hall pass in Ms. Isenhour’s room hangs by door.

A new rule change for the 2023 school year is that students may not use the bathrooms during 1st, 6th, lunch, and advisory periods. This change has not been popular amongst the student body. Sophie Hoffman, a freshman at HC, feels that the new rules are too restrictive, especially given other restrictions teachers may have on hall passes.

“[The new rules are] annoying,” Hoffman said. “Especially at the end of the day because I can’t go in orchestra.”

The orchestra class limits its students to four hall passes per semester.

Another freshman at HC, Lucian Dearborn, feels that the new rules fail to prevent other students from skipping class; which is a big part of why these rules were instituted in the first place.

“People skip the rest of the classes,” Dearborn said.

Dearborn feels that an adequate solution would be to remove the ban on going to the bathroom during specific classes, but to expand on an older rule.

“Take off the 6th hour thing,” Dearborn said. “Just keep the 10-10 rule, extend that just a little more for the first and last hours of school.” 

However, teachers seem to have a more positive outlook on the new restrictions. HC Social Studies teacher Colonel Scott Brown feels that the new rules help to keep kids in class.

“It seems to be working well,” Brown said. “Kids are in class. They know not to ask for hall passes. Trying to keep kids in class is meeting the standard.”

Additionally, Brown feels that it does have a positive effect on student attendance. Students skipping class is a really big problem at HC, which makes the effectiveness of these new rules all the more important.

“I’ve had a decrease in kids skipping class,” Brown said, “so that is a success.” 

HC English teacher Jessica Andrews feels that the new rules are needed, but not necessarily forever. Andrews also feels that the hall pass situation is not the big problem here, but instead what goes on in the bathrooms.

“I think once everyone starts using the EOS system with fidelity and all classes have that expectation that teachers will be checking EOS to verify, I think we can back off some of these [new rules],” Andrews said. “The big problem isn’t the hall passes, it’s the people in the bathroom smoking and vaping.”

Andrews also feels that there is a decrease in kids skipping class, especially during 1st hour. Andrews notes that many students simply walk into first hour and immediately ask to go to the bathroom.

“Before [the rule change] I had kids coming in [and] they’d be like ‘I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” Andrews said, “and I’d think ‘you’re kidding me, right? You’ve just been in the hall.’ So I think [the rule has] especially [helped] 1st hour, yes. And I think advisory, definitely; the hallway is much less [crowded].”