EHHS has many procedures and protocols throughout the school, but one of the most common is the School Pass Modification Protocol. This modification tries to ensure that students use passes effectively. The normal bathroom and water fountain pass procedure is: first students fill out a pass on Securly Pass, addressing the pass to a staff member. Then the staff member accepts the pass. Then, when the student comes back, the teacher ends the pass. EHHS adopted this system several years ago as a way tracking of all students’ hallway activity to make sure students are safe and administration knows their location.
Students on pass modification are still able create passes, so students are not fully restricted from going to the bathroom, water fountain, or nurse. The first step of pass modification is that the student will first make a pass on Securly Pass, then the teacher will call security to pick up the student and escort them to the bathroom. Before putting students on pass modification, EHHS Assistant Principal Mr. Anthony Russell looks at students’ pass data, grades, and teacher recommendations. But he also keeps an open mind that, “ some people have medical conditions, or they have things written into their 504 [or] IEP, where they get movement breaks because of their diagnosis. So, we want to make sure that we honor that as well. [W]e try to look at it as compassionately as possible.”
A 504 plan is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. It makes sure that students with disabilities receive equal access to education by providing accommodations, services, and modifications to the learning environment to help them succeed. The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a legally binding document that outlines a specialized education plan for a student with a disability.
The main idea of pass modification is to account for the students and ensure that they are getting full instructional time mostly because students pass usage plays a damaging role in their grades. According to Mr. Russell, if students are not able to go to the bathroom or get water and come back right away it is stripping them of 15-20 minutes of valuable instructional time in the classroom, which leads to grades dropping. Also, pass modification plays an important role in the safety of students as well. Mr. Vincent DeNuzzo says,“We have pass modifications for all students’ safety to ensure the security of the entire building. We want to make sure students are only in authorized areas.” Basically, a big part of why students are being put on pass restriction is because administration won’t know where a student is in case of an emergency. Also the school administration and staff are responsible for protecting and keeping track of students when they are at school and it raises a lot of safety concerns from parents when admin is unable to find the location of a student.
Overall, pass modification has several uses and it’s a temporary fix for a bigger problem. Even though administrators are trying their best to manage the abuse of passes, the only way pass modification can be reduced from 65 to lower is if students are more intentional with passes and use it for the right reasons.
