“We have a lot of students who view hall passes as just a reason to walk the halls and get a break from class,” said AP United States History teacher Matthew Porco.
In order to prevent this, and to make halls quieter during testing, including SAT, make-up SAT and AP tests, Loy Norrix administration has begun to enforce a policy called quiet halls where students need a security escort if they want to use the bathroom during a class period. Although it does help quiet the halls, many students feel that the policy makes it harder for the students who were not abusing the use of the bathrooms.
For some, the new policy has made finding time to use the bathroom a difficult and embarrassing process.
Sophomore Mia May explains, “I hate [quiet halls] because I can’t use the bathroom during class, and there is not enough time during passing time.”
With all the crowding in the hallways, students do not have time to get to a bathroom, use it, and make it to class in under five minutes.
“I don’t think it changes anything other than making it harder on students who are actually quiet,” said senior Jillian Lynk.
While the policy does make it harder to get out of class, students do feel there are some solid reasons for it.
“We’re only in quiet halls because people are being stupid, and I think that is stupid that a group of people can ruin it for everybody,” said freshman Kim Chheu.
Government teacher Michael Wright said, “It makes it more difficult for me to do my job, but I can understand why there is a certain percent of the student population that you would want to escort to the bathroom because they are just looking for an excuse to be out of class.”
With only a limited number of security guards, they have trouble keeping up with all the people they need to escort to classes.
“I think it does get to be difficult sometimes in getting security to come repeatedly for escorts,” said Porco.
Students also feel that the teachers are not willing to call for a security escort every time a student needs to leave the classroom.
“Teachers don’t want to have to call security for students, and it does not work,” said Lynk.
Despite the policy, the occasional straggler will be out of class without an escort.
“Security guards have favorites and they let those people roam the halls so it is not quiet halls. There are still people out there,” said junior Brianna Wieferich.
It seems that those who really don’t want to go to class will find ways around quiet halls, but in some ways it has helped bring the noise levels down.
“In my wing, it actually has been pretty quiet, at least more quite than they used to be,” said Wright.
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The Quiet in the Halls: School Disallows Leaving Classroom Without a Security Escort Indefinitely Due to Testing
May 17, 2017
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