Five minutes too short for passing periods

Fayezon Dowd 

Opinions Reporter

Crete-Monee High School executes a five-minute pass rule that states that you have five minutes to be in the hallway if given a pass. This rule takes place to ensure that staff keeps up with students' attendance and their well-being while out in the hallways but also delays many students daily who need hallway passes.

Amiyah Rice tries to enter the restroom, but it's locked. It's one of the consequences of a five-minute passing period. Photo by Laron Mccollum.

“I say schools only give us five-minute passes to use the restroom to make sure you're not missing out on class/learning time and to be sure that you use your time wisely and actually use the restroom, also to make sure there is time for other students to use the restroom,” Samara Johnson said.

This could be a possible reason the five-minute pass rule was enacted in the first place, according to a hallway security guard. 

While staff may feel that this rule implements a positive outcome for both students and teachers, the students feel otherwise because a lot of difficulties amongst the school and staff often stunt their time and leave them with only a few minutes left on their passes. 

Samara seems to be one of the many students who is affected by this, as she also exclaims her frustrations.

“Sometimes students feel that these 5-minute limits can be delayed in some situations because some classes are further than the restroom and maximize most of their time to actually relieve themselves,” Johnson said.

Many other students also have concerns about this issue.

“Students who need hallway passes for the restroom usually go out to certain bathrooms, and because the bathrooms are either locked or, even for security reasons, the students might have to travel to a further restroom, and that maximizes most of the 5 minutes,” Jhianna Bufford said, insisting that five minutes is a short amount of time because these negligent situations can postpone your pass time and usually lead to further consequences.

These consequences can range from being dismissed from your current class due to being late and even can cause students to get written up, and because of these rather harsh punishments, a lot of students suffer during extracurricular activities and sometimes receive phone calls home, leading to more severe consequences from these minor mishap instances.