To increase the safety of South and keep students from roaming the halls, a new  school-wide hall pass policy was implemented for the school year by Assistant Principal Cindy Parravano along with South’s administration.

“It (the policy) is to keep more order and to keep people more safe,” Parravano said.

According to Parravano, a main reason the policy was put into effect is because of the new hall monitors and assistant principals.

“I’m not aware of any other building that is going through the current situation that we are,” Parravano said. “The policy is just helping them get settled into what their responsibility is as well.”

Parravano said the hall pass teachers give out to students need to have the date, the time the student leaves class, where they are going, what room they are from and the teacher’s signature. However, the number of passes a student can have is up to the teacher.

“This is what we need to have done for safety and security and I think that we can work that out with teachers,” Parravano said.

There will be a punishment for students found in the hall without a pass, according to Parravano.

“There’s consequences for ditching and if you’re not in an area where you’re supposed to be, you’re essentially ditching class,” Parravano said.

However, Parravano stated that as of now, students caught in the halls without a pass will just be escorted back to their classroom until everyone gets more familiar with the policy.

“We’re not going to hammer down on it right away, we just need to make sure that people understand what the policy is and then ask people to follow it,” Parravano said.

Additionally, South history and government teacher Elizabeth Triden is hopeful about the policy.

“I think we should give the policy time to see if it will work,” Triden said. “If students are roaming the halls less, then that’s probably a good trade-off.”

Triden said the new policy doesn’t bother her, as she gave out paper hall passes to her students last year as well.

“It was a pretty easy switch for me, so I’m happy with it so far,” Triden said.

Triden said that she did have some frustrated students in her tutorial not wanting to write out a pass every time they need to leave. Enya Nguyen ’20 shares the same thoughts.

“I think it takes too much time to write out where you want to go and then for the teacher to have to pause class and his or her teaching to sign it,” Nguyen said.

Nevertheless, Parravano is hoping the policy is successful because of the new people on South’s staff who need to be able to do their job more efficiently.

“A policy is only as successful as those who are supposed to implement it,” Parravano said. “We’re only doing it to make sure the school is safe, that students are where they’re supposed to be, and it’s done in an efficient manner.”