NEW KENSINGTON, Pennsylvania (KDKA-TV) – Call it a modern twist on an old concept. In the past, an auditorium pass was nothing more than a piece of paper. However, Pennsylvania’s New Kensington-Arnold School District says it will use some form of “E-Hall Pass” in the future. The steps are designed to improve student accountability and prevent student vandalism due to a social media challenge.
One of the latest TikTok challenges is asking kids to completely demolish school or public toilets and bring them online. The hope is that this new E-Hall pass will keep kids from trying the same thing as their teachers will know where they are at all times as soon as they leave the classroom.
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So what exactly do the students do?
“Tear paper towel dispensers off the wall, plug the sink, run the water, make funnels for water, tear sensors off the sink and take the toilet, throw it around and dispose of the trash,” said New Kensington School District Manager for Arnold, Chris Sefcheck.
Sefcheck says they saw it mostly in high school. The students have so far torn out and destroyed about 15 paper towel dispensers, which are now set up in an area open to the hallway.
In order to counteract the socially unacceptable behavior caused by social media, the school district will use an e-hall pass system. “If you want to use the toilet, you apply for a passport, the teacher has a PIN code to approve or reject it. If they want to go to a teacher, the teacher must approve it in advance, ”he said.
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Sefcheck says the system can be used to prevent students who have a history with each other from meeting, and it also limits the number of hall passes that can be issued across the school at the same time.
“We can set the program or the administration can set the program that you and I are not allowed to get a pass at the same time so that we can not meet in the hallways,” said Sefcheck. The school says the E-Hall Pass, along with the use of cameras, will actually help find children who are doing nothing good or needing help.
“Let’s say there’s a fire in the building. You take the role and your child is not here, we can jump right on and see where the child was and look in the general area, ”said Sefcheck.
The district says e-Hall Pass programs are used across the country and region and it just makes sense. “Our thing is to provide levels of student accountability,” said Sefcheck.
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The district plans to have the system fully operational by mid-January. Sefcheck says anyone caught destroying school property will be charged, as some have already done.
