The rumor roaming the halls of Hingham High School have it that students will now be asked to wear designated “hall pass” lanyards whenever they wish to leave the class. Each classroom has been given three white plastic hooks on the wall to hold three lanyards with a laminated notecard on it, stating the class room number and location of where the student can be in the hallways. However, the many reasons for why there should and should not be a hall pass system at the high school has led to many heated arguments from both teachers and students.

Senior Maiya Nielsen shared that “I feel like it is an over complicated solution.”

The purposes of the lanyards are to help eradicate mindless wandering around the school and to minimize negative student behavior, such as skipping class, vaping, and theft. However, since this is a relatively small number of students at the high school who partake in these activities, students opposed to the lanyard system suggest the new pass system targets the whole student body rather than the minority of students who engage in this behavior.

Vice Principal Mr. Shattuck furthered the stance of the high school, saying its “Primary goal every single day of the school year to ensure students’ safety. We hope that the Hall Pass system holds students more accountable for their choices and serves as more of a preventative measure against some of the troubling behaviors being witnessed and reported.”

The school already has hall monitors to watch out for frequent wandering students and to help limit it, study teachers should be ever aware their students comings and goings, noting when students vacate class for longer than ten minutes, which is technically then an absence or skip.

However, since teachers’ classroom practices are not necessarily consistent school-wide, the proposed implementation of lanyards may cause more disruptions than warranted. A sophomore, who asked to be anonymous, said “I think that it will be annoying. Teachers will forget about it. There will be too many passes to keep track of: library, bathroom, water fountain, cafeteria, locker…You could get in trouble for not having it, but a teacher might not have given it to you. So it is impractical.”

The anticipated lanyards have instigated some questions- Why now? What brought about this new system? And why might it be important? Music teacher Mr. Cincotta said that “just being mindful as a student or any person in the building of the time spent here and especially in the classroom, are valid reasons to help with the safety and ensuring education of the school.”

True, the increasing time taken out from the classroom to pointlessly walk around is a lost academic opportunity, but the clamping down on individual freedom and responsibility feels contrary to any high school goal of fostering young adult behavior. As Spanish teacher Mr. Griffin stated, “Students should take responsibility for their own learning. We should do what is best for the school and come to figure out what is best for our school community as a whole.”

Unsurprisingly, the mention of hall passes has systematically brought out the separate divisions that exist within the high school. It seems no shock that these exist, as Junior Ali Henderson puts it, “I don’t think they will work. It is just a lot of things needed to keep track of and the kids who do not usually wander around will more often get in trouble.”

Clearly, there is a need to implement disciplinary actions against frequent wanders and those who wander without a pass.

Furthermore, the recent disruptive behavior around school has increased pressure to maintain high school students’ security. A senior, who asked to remain anonymous, said “it’s the dilemma. It is a matter of security, when you have kids drawing swastikas on the bathroom, you’re going to have a bit more restricted freedom for security.”

The controversy of the hall passes will continue as the student body, teachers, and faculty work together to find an adequate solution that satisfies both sides to the argument. For now, people anticipate what the student reaction will be once the system is in place.