Students at Owatonna High School have previously used a sign out sheet in order to leave
class. This has been protocol since 2015. For the most part, the sign out sheets seemed to be doing their job of keeping students in class, rather than in the hallways. Teachers are able to know where the student signs out to go and how long they have been gone. Assistant Principal Ms. Hollie Jeska said, “That part is working well. It gives the teachers an idea of when a student leaves their class and when they return. However, if I encounter that student, I don’t have any way of knowing where that student’s from, how long they’ve been out or if they have a pass or not.” Close to the end of first quarter, Owatonna High School administration has implemented a new policy for their students. Starting on Oct. 27, OHS students now need to have a blue bathroom pass or a green locker pass with them to leave class.

Students are given five minutes to go to the bathroom or to go to their locker. This is shorter than the seven minute passing time to get from one class to the next. However, this is may be ample time for students to do what they need and get back to class. Ms. Jeska said, “We are just trying to streamline [the process of leaving class] so kids are accounted for and are going where they are supposed to be.” She also said, “It is not meant to punish anybody. It’s simply for accountability.” So, the goal for this process is to allow administration to know that students, when seen out of class, are signed out and are not leaving class longer than necessary.

There is a small number of bathroom passes in the school. With the number of estimated passes, there would be 20 students per pass. This has brought legitimate concerns about the sanitation of the passes. Ms. Jeska said, “That’s why we put them on a lanyard, so you can put them around your neck. When taken to the bathroom, don’t take it off your neck. Don’t touch it and just wash your hands.” Administration is not planning on removing this procedure anytime soon, or the near future, regardless of these concerns. Ms. Jeska said, “We are hoping to see improvements, but it’s going to make things better, so we wouldn’t change things that are improving our school.” So, in the future, OHS will see if there are improvements or not.

Teacher reaction has been mixed. Half of those surveyed said they like this new pass system, but the other half said they do not. Since the new policy was enforced, students have also been divided between their feelings about the system. Senior Ryley Glynn said, “I like them because it causes less students to skip class.” Some students, on the other hand, disagree. Kory Adams said, “This new policy is unnecessary and will be ineffective.” This thought comes from the lack of an objective method to judge the success of the passes. Aside from the disagreement on the effectiveness, senior Taylor Velzke said, “It’s like the student body is treated like little kids.”

Numerous people have questioned this solution, and they are curious to see if there is a better solution, like having teachers turn in their sign out sheets and then administration seeing who is not. But, Ms. Jeska said, “Well, without having a pass in the hallway, I don’t know what other solution there could have been. We also didn’t want to make teachers write passes every time because it would interrupt their teaching.”

In spite of the student body not necessarily agreeing with the new implemented system, OHS administration will continue to bring about new implications to further better our education and safety for all.