At the start of the 2025-2026 school year at Lakeland High School (LHS), a new form of hall passes was introduced to both the staff and students.
Each classroom would get exactly one (and no more than one) mandatory pass, ensuring that no more than one student would leave the classroom at a time to minimize students loitering in the hallways.
Though the idea of having only one of these passes per class seems like a good strategy to keep students in class and manage their time better, the opinion on them is controversial from both staff and students.
Avah Clark, a junior at LHS claims that the new passes have only brought issues for her. Clark has the recurring issue that whenever she needs to leave the class, the pass is almost never available because it is already being used and students are not allowed out of the class without that specific hall pass.
“I think they are annoying and unfair for especially the girls,” Clark said.
Like students having issues with the passes, the staff are also not pleased. Colleen Bevacqua, A teacher at LHS has had to give up her special hall pass for the new one. Bevacqua has been using a Pixar Cars potty training toilet seat as her hall pass for the past 15 years of her teaching career and any student who has had her class knows how iconic it is.
Unfortunately, the iconic hall pass has been a privilege taken away from her and her students with little notice. Even having the specific new hall pass attached to the toilet seat was simply not allowed by administration.
“I’m just having a hard time adjusting since I’ve had that pass for at least 15 years that I’ve been teaching,” Bevacqua said.
These new passes at LHS seem to have brought in more negative feedback than positive. If the student body and staff is lucky enough, we may be able to have our hall passes that we know and love by next school year.