Gone are the days when students can leisurely stride through the hallways, skipping their 8^th period class. The administration is cracking down on students who skip. During any period of the day, you can spot students skipping. However, now all hall passes during 8^th period are void. What does this mean? Students can’t use a hall pass to leave class anymore.

Supposedly, the lack of 8^th period passes will reduce the amount of skipping in classes. The rule was announced in recent student huddles. Yet this is not a new rule. One of our assistant principals, Mr. Young, states that “it’s always been this way, we’ve just been lax.” Mr. Young is one of the ringleaders of the new rule. He isn’t trying to do this to limit the students, sharing that the rule is “for the good of the students.” The AP’s office is complete with access to live security footage. Mr. Young has his eye on students skipping, we know him for running up flights of stairs to maintain security in the school. “It’s just not acceptable,” he says, “—a safety issue, no one is supervising”.

Even though 8^th period is a hub for skipping students, so are other periods. Despite this, it’s the only period where the new rule is effective. The reason being- buses. Students are skipping class and heading down to the bus ramp. According to administration, students wait at the ramp prematurely. In this scenario, the students are no longer being monitored by a teacher or staff member and are putting themselves at risk.

Surely, come 8^th period- students can be seen on the bus ramp. They arrive at around 2:55. Although the students aren’t a disturbance, their safety is at risk. Even without a teacher’s supervision, Blake is still liable for anything that happens on campus. So if a fight breaks out, or someone gets injured, there’s no one around to help and Blake is at fault.

Yet, even though this rule has been in effect for the entirety of this school year, students still skip. The new rule can’t definably stop students from skipping. Although this rule heightens the consequences for those who do skip,

It also constricts students who haven’t done anything wrong. Blake has an undeniably large campus. Students are given six minutes between periods to walk to class, use the restroom, stop at their locker, or anything else they may need to do before the next class. Taking the shortest route, the walk from the third floor of the C building to the D building takes about three minutes and thirty seconds. However, this does not account for other people walking in the halls, locker time, and using the restroom. This data also assumes that the person is standing right at the door when the bell rings, but students often take a few moments to turn in work, pack their bags, etc. When these other variables are taken into account, there is no way that a student can make it to class on time. If they can’t even get a hall pass in 8th period, it’s impossible for them to accomplish everything without sacrifice. Whether they jeopardize their attendance or their own needs is up to them. Mr. Young says that, “if you can’t handle your business in six minutes- I’m sorry.”

Students who do obtain a hall pass from their eighth period teacher will still receive consequences, which won’t be as strict as a student caught without a pass. Even the teacher who gives the hall pass to the student risks punishment. Mr. Young cites that there have even been incidents regarding students faking hall passes.

In a school setting, skipping is definitely a problem. Yet every Yellow Jacket seems to get punished with the new rules. If a student is going to skip, they will skip. Even without hall passes during 8^th period, on Tuesday, March 27 at 2:33pm, eleven people were skipping in the B building. Despite the administration claiming that they will be tougher on skippers- no one was disciplined. This means that a majority of Blake students are being punished for something that they don’t do, and people who do skip aren’t getting punished either- making the lack of hall passes in 8^th period as ineffective as they sound.