Students complain about Smart Pass system

By Faith T.

This school year Airport has purchased a digital pass system called SmartPass. Instead of the old blue passes we used last year, all passes will be written through the SmartPass system. Mr.Schilit appears to be in charge of the transition although Dr. Boatwright seems to be the most strict about right now. .

This news is important because it affects literally every student. Mr.Schilit feels the smart pass system has truly helped improve the school and keeping the school  organized and keeping the hallways clear and in order, the only challenge they have run into with the smart pass system is called the “no fly zone” meaning the first half of class the students aren’t supposed to use the pass before the first twenty minutes of class and the last twenty minutes of class, students aren’t supposed to be able to activate a pass , teacher’s have to override the passes and it takes a little more time and causes interruptions during the lessons, but he says he is working on that problem. 

Mr. Schilit says in his four years of teaching, the hallway traffic and the hallway travel during class time is the best it’s been in those four years of him being here. He also said all the administrators are able to see who is out and how many are out. Also, if the passes are past the time, he said the administrators can go searching for the students missing from class. They can also track it by student and teacher to see who is using the Smart Pass system the most , how many students are out , if students run pass the time that’s given. Hall monitors can also see who is supposed to be in the restroom and who is not. 

Dr. Boatwright says the negative feedback from the smart pass system was mostly from those not using the system and getting in trouble and adjusting from using the blue passes like last year to the digital system this year.   ”So you mean students aren’t going to have a pass in there hand?” he was asked.  He said they countered it with having the hall monitors with an ipad so they can see who’s in the hallway or if they have a pass or not. He says there've been times that there've been students that have been in the hallways and their name wasn’t on the ipad, so the system helps know who’s skipping class or not supposed to be in the hallway at all. 

Two airport students , Keira J and Kayah C.  feel the passes are a waste of time. They feel airport-high school should go back to the normal blue passes. 

Students feel as if the staff are doing too much regarding the smart pass system. 

The Smart Passes are making a change in the school from my perspective the halls have been clear and the students have been in class more often and not in the halls like usual. The smart passes have an good impact on Airport Highschool.