During the week of September 8th, 2025, Sahuaro High School students were informed of the upcoming requirement for the use of digital hall passes for the remainder of the school year. All students are required to have a valid student ID and manage their time wisely when leaving the class. Hall monitors have iPads that scan a student’s ID when they are in the hall, which informs them of where the student should be going, what class they are coming from, and when they left said class.
The system can even go so far as to blocking two specific students in the whole school from being out of class at the same time. For instance, if administrators know two students are dating, they can block them from being out at the same time to prevent them from meeting up and wasting class time. The use of these hall passes may also keep lots of students safe. If two students have fought before or had any conflict, they may not be let out of class at the same time. Even if an incident does happen, there will be hardcore proof of who was out of class during the time of the incident, to narrow down the suspect list.
The Vail School District has been using the digital hall pass since the 2022-23 school year. In an article with News 4 Tucson, Cienega Student, Chalyn Anderson, said that with the use of the digital hall pass, the congestion in the bathrooms decreased immensely.
Upon hearing this information, many Sahuaro students expressed irritation to the point of giving up on going to the bathroom completely. In fact, some teachers have even stated that they will not be issuing passes or allowing their students to use the bathroom during class. Sahuaro juniors, Naomi Porter and Lynnea Montgomery, had similar thoughts on the new addition to our school. Lynnea stating, “The use of the digital hall pass is so useless, because some teachers are just opting to not allow any students to use the bathroom. Even some students are using their old IDs to bypass successfully getting scanned by a security guard.” Naomi seconded the fact that some teachers are not allowing their students to use the bathroom during the period.
Ms. Lange, who has been teaching at Sahuaro for the past 23 years, says, “I’m not a fan. As department chair, we piloted the program last year, and I had no problem with it because the pass would run our after five minutes. My students would return and quietly go back to their seats to do their work. Now I have to stop teaching, walk back to my desk, and close the pass every time a student walks back in. I see the benefits, but it’s a waste of classroom time for me. I’m one of the teachers who is telling students, “Emergencies only.”
