June 10, 2002

Dinah Finkelstein and Rachel Cohen
freshmen

The halls of JDS, until this past week, have always been always been an open and safe place for students. This essentially ended when the administration implemented its new hall pass policy. The students have now given up a big piece of the freedom we are all privileged to as high school students. One of the steps to independence after graduating to the Upper School was no longer having to account for our location at all times. There was a level of trust between teachers and students, almost an understanding, that we would not abuse our hallway privileges, a contract that the vast majority of students adhere to.

There are a number of other solutions that the administration could have implemented. Our school has a complex computer network capable of recording the movement of students who will sign in and out as they leave and enter the classroom, without disturbing the lesson to have a teacher waste class time to write out a hall pass for every student who wishes to leave the classroom.

Rather than taking the initiative to teach its students morals and help them make ethical decisions, they increase security measures and treat us like children, instead of the responsible adults we will soon become. Big Brother is watching, and the hall passes are his eyes.