Returned to class? End your SmartPass!

By Mariyah Gonzalez, '26

At WHS, there was a rule implemented where kids have to do a Smartpass for wherever they want to go using the website Smartpass. 

This rule was implemented for the 2024-2025 school year. As some students have noticed,  the real issue is that kids aren't ending passes when they get back to class. 

I interviewed Olivia Kablik, a senior at WHS, and she was very frustrated with the Smartpass system. She said, “When I make a pass to go to the bathroom, I always have to wait in lines, it's probably because people don't end their passes.” 

With people either forgetting to end their pass or trying to see how long they can keep their pass on, it is wasting many student’s time. The teachers who are on hall duty spend time trying to find the “missing” students while students are waiting in line to go to the bathroom. 

This is where ending your passes comes in, when you don't end your pass it can end up causing a bathroom “pileup.”

When people are waiting in the lines for the bathroom, it can get frustrating because in years prior we were able to just ask and go, but now we have to ask, make a pass and wait. 

There are many reasons for this, such as when you make a pass you have to wait for an opening spot for that area and if there isn't then you have to wait, and most of the time there is a long line for the bathrooms and when you get a pass it's only a certain amount of time.

While we all understand why this rule was implemented, it was implemented to track the students in case of a fire drill or a lockdown or to just keep an eye on who is out at what times and how long they are missing classes, it can be very difficult to maneuver around. 
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When people are waiting in the lines for the bathroom it can get frustrating because in years prior we were able to just ask and go, but now we have to ask, make a pass and wait for the pass to tell us we can go.

So all in all, end your passes, WHS students!

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