New safety vest bathroom passes strike controversy within San Juan Hills. Students are concerned with the cleanliness of the vest, alongside insecurities about wearing it. Staff however find the passes to be a better solution because of color coordination for safety purposes, expense reduction, and machine washability.
“It’s kind of annoying just because I don’t think anyone’s going to wear it and it’s gonna be contaminated from the bathrooms. I think a lanyard or something would be easier. The vests are just really obnoxious,” says student Kate Presser.
Students find the vests to be extremely unsanitary compared to the clipboards. Students believe there are better solutions to the hall pass issues.
“We all were aware that there was no perfect hall pass. Just innately because hands go on it. So no one hall pass is going to be completely clean…. Inherently, when you have a clipboard where do you set that when you go to the restroom? More than likely where you set a clipboard down is on the floor, on a sink, maybe the back of the toilet,” said Assistant Principal Katie Wegner.
A factor that inspired the change had to do with cost efficiency.
“Clipboards are expensive, they’re a little bit more pricey [to replace], so those were some of the motivating factors for us to consider looking at something else… We actually noticed that some teachers had a vest to identify their students when they would be doing different things as a class. They’re noticeable, they are identifiable, and that’s kind of how that process started,” said Wegner. The bathroom passes are a cheaper alternative that helps staff identify the students more effectively.
“In the event that we happen to have a student or someone else who shouldn’t be on our campus, we would be able to identify them. We do have a system where a color is designated to certain buildings … It helps us help students to kind of navigate the campus in an appropriate manner so they’re not wasting instructional time, which is disrespectful to their teacher but more importantly could be contributing to loss of instruction,” said Wegner. Passes now help indicate who should and shouldn’t be on our campus. They also are a form of bettering the students here, so class time is not wasted.
Students fear that the new vests may be unsanitary. Rumors have been spread about them being left on the floor, or coming back from the bathroom wet. “They can be washed… A cleanliness factor, mentioning the clipboards before, yeah you can maybe wipe them down with a lysol wipe or something, but the vests, we have sanitizer sprays and they’re machine washable, so that’s another advantage,” said Wegner.
The unified vest hall pass avoids annoyances with bulky or heavy hallpasses that have no place to go in a restroom.
“I remember a long time ago, teachers at San Juan Hills had their own unique hall passes like sombreros or plastic bottles filled with sand, just anything that was different. Campus supervisors knew whose hall passes they were,” said Bill Kaiser.
“What’s nice about this, is that if students want to hold it in their hands, they can hang it on the hooks or over the stall. So again it’s decreasing the odds of this is going to be something that lands on the floor in the restroom. That’s what we’re hoping for,” said Wegner.
The new hall pass might be a little unsettling for some, but is a cheaper and safer alternative for our school. If students try to handle them with respect they can stay sanitary and usable for everyone.
