Many students are aware that Pasco High has had an issue with attendance. It had become common to see students coming to class over 20 minutes late or just skipping altogether. The school has started introducing new rules and now the use of the ‘Minga’ app for hall passes and to earn the ability to go off campus for lunches.  

The idea was that students would have an incentive to be on time for classes in order to earn a pass to leave for lunches. This, combined with the new rule of the school only having one exit/entrance was hoped to make it harder for students to skip. When these rules were first told to us, many students were upset or unhappy with this.  

I spoke with some students at Pasco High about how they feel about off campus lunches now being an earned privilege. One said, “I don’t think it’s fair. I think all students should have the choice to leave for lunch, because that’s the one part of the day that we actually get a break from school,” she said, “I feel like it’s not going to help with skipping, because now the only way some students can leave school to get a break is if they skip a class.” 

Another change I’ve noticed at the school is that when we walk through the halls in passing time, there is staff and security around every corner hurrying kids to their classes. It is not uncommon to be stopped and asked for your ID number by one or more of the staff members, so they can check to make sure you’re going to the correct class. 

This goes for bathrooms as well. Once the bell rings there is often security or admin coming in to rush students out of the bathroom, even waiting in the bathrooms until everyone has left the stalls. Many students feel like this is invasive, “If students are in the bathroom they should not have security coming in and telling them to hurry up when they’re in a stall. We should have privacy in the bathrooms, and right now I don’t feel like we have that,” said another student. 

Pasco High has also installed alarms on almost every exit of the school, as well as having security stand watch at the doors almost all day.  

Is all of this really necessary though?  

I’ve noticed in most of my classes, students get to class on time. There will be a few who are consistently late or absent, but is that really enough for the school to go through all this trouble? This is my fourth year at Pasco High, and even with all these new rules I haven’t noticed a significant change in attendance.  

I spoke with a freshman who said, “The school is even more strict than my middle school was. Everyone always told us we would have more freedom once we got to high school, but we have less.” 

With students always being watched, hovered over, and unable to make their own decisions about things like leaving for lunch, how are they supposed to build self-sufficiency? In the real world, people will not have someone constantly watching and keeping them in check, that’s something we will have to learn to do ourselves. 

I understand that the school is trying their best to help all of us be successful, but in the end, I think the students who don’t care about their grades or attendance are not going to be changed no matter how strict the school gets. The only person who can make them care is themselves. These new policies are only going to be affecting the students who already do care and already do try their best. These policies will just make school more stressful for them.