As a way to identify students who may be in the halls during class, new orange reflective safety vests with the teacher’s name on them are now the new required hall pass.

     “The goal is actually to give our students more freedom,” Principal Robert White said. “When the administration see students with the orange vests, we are trusting that the students have earned that trust from their teachers to leave the room.”

     The vests was an idea that White also used at his old school to identify his students in the hallway that was successful.

     “It was not a major change or issue for the students at my previous school,” White said. “At first, some students elected to wear the vests, but that was completely up to the students.”

     That same freedom to wear or hold the vest is given to us here.

     “Students never have to wear the vests,” White said. “They just need the vests in their possession if the teacher is giving them approval to leave the room.”

     For the students, there are those that do not agree with the vests as passes. One of the concerns is that the vests are unsanitary.

     “They end up on the ground, in the sink and by the toilets,” junior Trevor Johnstone said. “Upstairs there is no door stalls so people just throw them on the ground. It’s really unsanitary.”

     When asked what solution to the unsanitary vests could be used, senior Cade Hilgenberg said that they should make a different common hall pass that wouldn’t have to lay on the ground while they were in the bathroom.

     “Normal, handwritten hall passes aren’t shared between students,” Hilgenberg said. “A new one is written every time when a new student leaves.  They wouldn’t be sharing the germs and bacteria that everyone else has.”