Benilde-St. Margaret’s has introduced a new sign-out system for hallway passes. Administration implemented sign-out sheets in each classroom, where students fill in their name, where they’re going, and the time left. This was designed to keep track of who’s out of class, where, and for how long. Students have mixed feelings about the strict and unnecessary rules for using the hallway passes.

The sign-out sheet seems to be another annoying and tedious task that students aren’t fond of doing. Many just want to use the bathroom quickly, without having to go through what feels like a “security check” preceding using the pass. “If I’m trying to get out quickly to go grab something that I need for class, I typically don’t sign out,” senior Piper Roos said.

While teachers are supposed to be mandating this new policy in the classroom, it hasn’t been as enforced as expected. To do this, it would create a distraction for teachers to regulate students’ proper use of the sign-out sheet while they are actively teaching. It’s the student’s role to consistently use the sheet when leaving and returning from using the pass. “None of my teachers has really been strict on it,” Roos said.

Each classroom is limited to one pass, which makes it difficult for students who need to use the bathroom while the pass is gone. This creates a new tension where students are claiming their spots in an imaginary line, so that they can quickly grab the pass when a student comes back from using the bathroom or locker. A suitable solution for this would be to have two passes, one for the boys and the other for the girls. “It’s really distracting to my learning, because when people are waiting to go to the bathroom, it creates a lot of distractions when there’s a line, especially when people are getting up to sign out,” junior Megan Lamers said.

The shared explanation as to why the sign-out sheets were initially instigated was that teachers and administration could have a record of students leaving the classroom. Now, whether this is being looked at or reviewed is unclear as of right now. “I can see how it’d be helpful for teachers to see if, like, a student is, like, doing [it] or not. But half the time, I feel like they’re not even checking,” Roos said.