Before the big push by the school for hall passes, most teachers had paper hall passes or wrote them out for students. However, after the policy became more strict, teachers have started using strange items as hall passes. While there are still some made of paper, there are quite a few notable non-paper objects that stand out.
The least distinct but still very conspicuous items are from economics and social studies teacher Donald Bierschbach and math teacher Corey Klein. Bierschbach has a giant white board, and Klein uses a clipboard with a piece of scratch paper on it. Both have the teacher and room number, so that hall monitors know that their students have a pass. Yet, students find the boards bulky and annoying to go take to the bathroom.
“It gets in the way quite often and plus, I do not like bathroom passes that much. It is very germy and I’m a germaphobe, so I do not like germs,” senior Christian Fielding said.
Similarly, the students of English teacher Christopher McIntosh use a dry board eraser on a lanyard. While this might not be the strangest hall pass in the school, some students clearly do not enjoy having objects that draw attention to them while they are heading to the bathroom.
“It is really weird. I have had a lot of questions about it,” sophomore Jade Northover said.
Now things start to get more out of the ordinary. American Sign Language teacher Elayne Fife provides an orange cone to her students, with tape on the sides stating the teacher and room number in case students need to prove to a hall monitor that they have a pass and are not planning to direct hallway traffic. She used to have a regular paper hall pass, but it got lost. It seems that she just happened to use the cone because it was a random object lying around that she could use.
The runner-up for the strangest pass would have to be Latin teacher Jake Shilling, who uses and black and white polka dotted flower for his pass. Although the flower is quite eye-catching, there is someone that has him beat.
English and yearbook teacher Millie Solomon has the most unique passes in the school, providing a lei and straw hat to students.
“Rather than writing out a pass all the time, I have something that is stationary that [the students] know what it is. They can take either the lei or the hat,” Solomon said.
The students in the class seemed to like them, and some voiced that the new, stricter enforcement for passes is more ridiculous than the lei or hat.
Although Solomon has the most distinguished items, English teacher Jeffrey Bunting has the most interesting story about one of his passes. While other teachers just use whatever is lying around and is convenient, he has a more interesting origins story. Bunting had a bird nest that a friend had given him, and he decided to use it as a pass. Over the years, the nest lost many branches and all that was left was a ring with a paper pass hanging off of it. One day, it went missing after third period. He later got pictures of his pass hanging out in Disney World in Orlando, Florida taken by a student on a band trip. Now, he just uses a pocket sized Nancy Drew book as a pass.
The results of a tireless day of scouring bathrooms for students with interesting passes has produced the winner of most interesting hall pass to be Solomon’s. They are large, and the lei is especially flamboyant with its array of bright colors. While there are mixed feelings about having a conspicuous pass as it will draw more attention to students, hers are simply fun.
