Ever since the start of the 2023-2024 school year multiple students have openly complained and expressed their dislike and even hate toward Pasco High’s new entrance procedure. Students can no longer use the old entrance located at the back of the school and instead must use what is known as the first original entrance located at the front of the school next to the gym.
Minga is the new application students use to view their IDs, create hall passes, and receive notifications of school information. Recently for students to enter the school they must show their school IDs at the front entrance of Pasco High School to verify that they are students of Pasco High. Usually, students use the app on their phone but if they don’t show it through their phone, they’ll have to use the app on their computer to verify themselves which has been demonstrated and proven to be slower than just pulling out your phone.
Students at Pasco High say that they want things to change they refer to the entrance procedure and the Minga app, they want to go back to the old entrance procedure which consisted of having all entrances open. They don’t want to use the Minga app but instead stick to PowerSchool and email for school notifications because students say that its more convenient and it’s what they’re used to.
Some students at Pasco High have these things to say about the new entrance procedure and the Minga app: Brandon Aguilar says, “Honestly I hate the new entrance because I have to walk around the school to enter school, and the Minga apps are whack.” he also claims, “a majority of teachers didn’t even know how to use the Minga app, you want to go use the restroom but you can’t because they have a limit as to how many students can leave to use the restroom, teachers have told me theirs a limit as to how many kids on campus can go out to use the restroom.”
Another student at Pasco High, Karina Leon, says, “Minga so far has had positive but also negative impacts on us. Minga positively impacts the school by keeping it more organized and making sure no one that doesn’t belong comes into the school, but it also has stuff that doesn’t help too much. Minga can negatively impact students in the morning when going to class because it now takes more time to get inside since they have security checking every single one of the Minga ID’s. I personally like how it was before better because it felt easier and faster to get to class.”
One final statement from s student, Keaton Ballard, at Pasco High,” Both Minga and the entrance are bad, I think that the way it was before was better, it’s too crowded early in the morning at the new entrance, and Minga is just an extra app now that people mainly use to get into the school or use the restroom, PowerSchool is still the main way that most people check their grades so instead of having most of your information on 2 apps like your email and PowerSchool all our school information is spread out on 3 apps.”
Only three students were asked for their opinion and if an entire classroom were to be asked the same questions regarding Minga and the new entrance, I think most of them would still agree that they hate or really dislike both of them for their own different reasons. Most students say that they like the way things were before mainly because they could get into the building faster. With the new entrance, it could impact students’ attendance, sleep, and overall health. When winter comes and the temperature starts dropping and students all coincidentally arrive to school at the same time, a crowd starts to form slowing down how quickly students can enter the building and causing students to get cold and potentially get sick. So in order to avoid this from happening some students take it upon themselves to wake up earlier to get to school earlier and avoid being at the back of a crowd or line. The students as a whole understand that things were changed for the school’s safety and convenience so that the security staff would only have to focus their attention on one entrance and if something were to go wrong there would only be one area that they’d need to control. But the old entrance had thick metal doors, and a gap/waiting area separating the 2 doors you had to go through before you were actually inside the school, therefore, I don’t think the newer entrance is as secure as the old one but they both have their pros and cons.
