Bathroom passes are wildly unpopular among students, and while they have some pros, their cons outweigh them.   

The passes were changed from online QR codes back to big plastic passes. For us, the bathroom passes are unhygienic. They are too big to put anywhere in the bathroom except the floor (yuck), so even after you wash your hands (and some of you don’t), you have to pick up the dirty pass again. Ew, especially after a world-wide pandemic. Even if teachers try to get students to wipe down their passes when they come back, they’re still gross. 

”I know that teachers need to know where students are for safety reasons, but using a pass that everyone touches and brings to the bathroom and puts who knows where is just unsanitary,” junior Julia Freshour said. “In middle school we took our agenda to the bathroom. It was our own item but still unsanitary.”  

There are alternatives to this problem such as the recently given school agendas, or a more hands free option compared to the main issue of having to carry around a giant pass, such as a smaller pass that fits on a lanyard. This way students wouldn’t have to put the pass down anywhere. 

“They’re stupid, it’s inconsistent for big classes,” senior Petra Kuna-Kresic said. 

In large classes, you can’t coordinate when you have to go, so when multiple students need to leave at once, only one will be allowed to leave. When the school brought this system, they gave each class two passes, one specifically for bathrooms and the other for going anywhere else. If each class is given multiple passes, then why not make an extra for each in case (1) one of the passes breaks or gets ruined, or (2) multiple people need to leave at once. While a secondary bathroom pass does not seem like a whole lot, it’ll move students where they need a little more faster. Plus it’ll really help in bigger classes.

Along with students talking about their thoughts, teachers also have their own thoughts and opinions on the new passes.

“It’s a rehash,” history teacher Billy Hammond said. “I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now They carry around germs and pathogens.”

Even though they are one step toward a safer way of moving around school premises, giving security a physical way of making sure passes are at use, students and teachers in general believe there are more efficient alternatives for bathroom passes that will help security while still being sanitary.