The new 5-Star bathroom pass policy was implemented so administration can know who is leaving class to use the restroom and how often they go, Assistant Principal Sean Anglon said. Students must sign in to 5-star, create their pass, and then go to the restroom, he added.
Students have eight minutes to go to the bathroom, Anglon said. The policy is currently required in every classroom, he added.
“I think historically at MHS, we’ve had difficulty with the number of students congregating in the restrooms in lieu of being in class and getting their education,” Anglon said. “ This (The 5-star bathroom pass policy) was to help us know who was going out in the restrooms, so that way, we could have conversations with those kids because we didn’t always know exactly who was always out.”
If the administration learns about a student who has a medical issue, then they give them an extended amount of time, Anglon said. Eight minutes is an ample amount of time to go to the restroom, especially since the restroom isn’t too far for most students, he said. If students exceed the time limit, there are conversations that administration has with those students, Anglon said.
“So, first we’ll begin with a conversation,” Anglon said. “(Student) A, be careful not to do X, Y and Z. And then, after that, Student A, you did X, Y, and Z too many times. Now you might have a detention. Then it progresses from that.”
The 5-Star system allows administration to create groups of students who should not be out of the classroom at the same time, Anglon said. Within a group, only one student at a time can get a pass to use the bathroom, he added.
“We’re not stressing the teachers out about this,” he said. “It’s more admin taking a peek. We can then have conversations. And then, if we notice some patterns, we let teachers know: ‘Oh, you might want to check.’ Some teachers are monitoring of their own accord. It’s up to them.”
Students will soon be using 5-star for passes to the counselor and to the Wellness Center, Anglon said. They started with the bathroom passes to test the system, because that was the main issue, but also to see how it worked and how well students were able to use it, he added.
“From there, we can slowly expand,” he said. “Hopefully by next year, this time, we’ll be using 5-star for all our paper passes.”
Junior Ethan Vilaphonphakdy does not like the new bathroom pass system since he usually needs more than eight minutes to use the restroom, he said.
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “You can make it 10 minutes because there are some kids I know that go in there and they vape and all that. But some kids – like one of my friends, she’s a girl, she had a period – she came back in 14 minutes, and got yelled at by the teacher.”
Senior Crystal Cao dislikes the bathroom policy because it doesn’t guarantee that students are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, she said. She also does not like that the policy only allows one person to go to the bathroom at a time, despite your gender, and it ends up just locking everyone out, Cao added.
“I think it’s (the 5-star system) just awkward,” Cao said. “I think there are issues with the Chromebooks too, where it glitches out or locks people out of it, and then no one can go pee because it’s locked out.”
Cao thinks the time limit’s fairness depends on what room you’re in, she said.
“Obviously, if you’re in the L Building you’re way more fortunate, but for classrooms that are further away (from the bathroom), it’s so awkward,” she said. “I take Ceramics (and) the bathrooms are too far,”
Freshman Ada Zheng doesn’t really go to the bathroom because it’s annoying to have to sign in and out every single time, she said.
“The kids who just leave won’t sign their name at all,” she said. “They’ll probably just continue doing the same thing.”
Junior Vera Loui thinks that the passes are mostly the same (as the new 5-star bathroom pass system), she said. The new system’s a little better if you don’t want to raise your hand to ask if you can go to the bathroom, since now you can just go, she added.
“I think it’s okay, to be honest,” Loui said. “It’s not that much of a hassle. At first, it kind of was because you had to type in your entire email, but they kind of fixed it, so now I just have to type in my id. So they fixed it two, three weeks ago.”
English teacher and Digital Business Academy (DBA) Lead Ahryun Han said for the first few weeks, the 5-star system took some getting used to, because teachers were told how to do it differently, and they were all trying to adjust differently.
“At first, students were just like, ‘Why do we have to do this?’” she said. “Because they were used to me having them sign out on a physical paper and then take a physical hall pass.”
The bathroom pass policy has been around for a month, Anglon said at the time of the interview. Now, administration can start to see some patterns, and with those patterns, they can start to address it, he added.
“I think the main problem is a couple of kids act like they’re signing out,” Anglon said. “They don’t actually sign out, but pretend like they are. Our campus safety supervisors noticed that because they have the app too. So, I can see who should be out, and if they’re not there, then we can have a conversation with those students.”
Overall, most people welcomed the new bathroom pass system because the average student knows that they’re in school to learn, and they use the restroom and just go back to class, Anglon said. Teachers were happy to see that there was a system that was being implemented that could actually help to possibly curtail the number of students who chose not to return to class when they went to the restroom, he added.
“A lot of teachers right now, after this first month, are saying kids are in class more,” Anglon said. “That’s the biggest thing, and that’s what we (administration) wanted.”
Zheng thinks the policy can stay since it does not really affect her in any way, she said.
“It’s just there and it works,” Zheng said. It’s a good system, and I guess it helps teachers keep track of who’s going to the bathroom or not.”
Cao noticed that it stops students from touching their phone, but it’s not stopping students from vaping, she said. Students also don’t know the consequences of reaching the time limit, she added.
“If it’s really making an impact, we can keep it (the policy),” Cao said. “But teachers already had a sign-in and sign-out (system). I don’t see the reason why we just had to put in a whole electronic system.”
In terms of her class, it hasn’t really had a negative or positive effect, Han said.
“I set my norms up for the class, and I expect my students to act that way, and then they follow it,” Han said. “I can see (the 5-star bathroom policy’s) its helpfulness and usefulness for campus supervisors and people who are out of classrooms.”
