Westhampton Beach High School is making more efforts to put a stop to bathroom catastrophes by bringing back the hall passes. They have created many mixed emotions, with the most popular opinion being a negative one.   

The Hurricane Eye got feedback from the student body about their feelings on the new pass system.  Senior Val Finke said, “I think that a hall pass really isn’t going to change much and from my perspective being in the bathroom it doesn’t affect what other students are doing.”

Junior Janelle Franks said, “Having to wait to go to the bathroom is stupid. They’re a waste of time. You have to get a hall pass, put the pass down, sign in, pick up the hall pass and then finally be able to go to the bathroom.” On top of the hall passes being unnecessary, they are also time consuming. 

Another junior Chris Nardi shared, “I don’t think they are going to help at all.  I’ve seen them things in the toilets.” This also brings rising concerns on the sanitation of these new passes. 

Junior Quinn McCormack joked, “It does add swagger to my hallway stroll, though.”

The sophomores and freshman also had very strong opinions. Sophomore Will Drake said, “I think they’re terrible, they’re so bad, they’re so dirty.” Following that, freshman Aidan Arrasate said, “ Oh it’s horrible, I’m not allowed to use the bathroom immediately when I have to go. I have to wait for someone else to come back.” 

Along with the student body’s opinion, teachers and administrators spoke of the positives of the hall passes. AP World 2 teacher Mr. Rupertus said, “While the bathroom passes aren’t ideal, they have become necessary due to the destruction of some bathrooms. I know that between signing in to the bathroom and the passes it seems like an extra burden on students but if that small group of people could follow the rules, we wouldn’t need these rules.” 

Assistant principal Mr. Bookamer explained the purpose of these new passes and how they came about.  He responded, “The high school administration and representatives from the teachers association met and decided to bring back hall passes.  We had used them in years past and agreed that re-implementing the practice of using passes would limit the number of students in the hallways.”

He also responded with, “Students should be leaving the pass next to the clipboard where they sign into each restroom.  By doing so the pass never needs to enter the restroom.” This can help with the sanitary issue with not bringing the passes into the bathroom. 

To our fellow WHB students: we know this is annoying to have to do, but if we follow these rules, we can have these passes taken away again and go back to normal bathroom situations.