With the kickoff of the 2024-2025 school year at LEE, campus administration decided to implement a new hallway pass policy in an effort to crack down on students skipping class.
The system, called SmartPass, is a digital pass network used across the campus to track the movements and time of students who are leaving class for various reasons. From restrooms to counselors to nurses offices, the SmartPass has a pass for everything.
When students leave the class, they make a digital pass by typing in their ID number or name, and selecting the location they will be traveling to. This can create some issues though, as it raises concerns about privacy.
ISA student Ikaika Smith (12), shared that the system was “to easy to trick.” His concern was that “you can type in other random student ID’s and peoples names will show up […] you can log in to emails and devices using others student ID’s.” This creates a problem with security as it makes accessing others accounts and information much easier.
Additionally, he commented that students “can sign other people out.” He says that “if the teachers are teaching and doing their jobs, and not focusing on smartpass, [a student] can easily just sign out someone else and then go somewhere.” This flags the issue that an unknowing student could face disciplinary repercussions for the dishonest actions of one of their peers.
Another student, Rachel Sherman (12), highlighted the difficulties and distraction that SmartPass posed for teachers in how they distribute their attention.
“SmartPass is not designed for teachers to be teaching us. You’re telling me that teachers have to be paying attention to this computer screen watching a timer every moment of the class period when a kid leaves?” says Sherman.
“It’s incredibly disruptive to my peers who are tying to learn, and it’s unrealistic to expect teachers to stop what they’re doing for the sake of one student repeatedly throughout class.” she notes.
All in all, while SmartPass may have an organized and positive intent, students are students. It can be seen as a frustration from the students about the control of authority. Buy in large, students are innovative if nothing else, and will most likely find workarounds to the system. A very similar thing happened last year with the failure of the color coded pass system, which didn’t actually prevent students from leaving their designated area, and failed to help administration identify students in the “wrong” areas of the building. SmartPass faces a similar sentence, and probably won’t last. It will most likely be back to the drawing board the next year.