Emily Willhite

A student washes their hands in one of souths recently renovated bathrooms.

South administrators announced Aug. 9 in a family newsletter that all SMSD schools are implementing new “digital hall passes” for the 2024-2025 academic year.

The district will begin to use the software program “Securly Pass,” developed by California-based software company Securly, Inc., to monitor student activity outside the classroom.

Per the newsletter, the district states that their goal is “for students to maximize the amount of instructional time in the classroom. Securely Pass will be a tool to help our students and staff reach that goal.”

This comes as school districts across the country have increasingly begun to implement digital solutions that attempt to facilitate better learning environments. 

All students will be required to use either their personal or school-issued device to request a hall pass from their teacher in order to leave the classroom for any reason. Students will also be required to carry their student ID on them at all times.

According to Securly’s official blog, in order to receive a pass, students must specify the location they’re going to. The location, along with the time the hall pass was taken, is then shared with every teacher accessing the program. Hall passes can be denied, either manually by the student’s teacher, or automatically based on the number of passes taken, time of day, and location.

Concerns have already been raised within districts implementing similar programs.

A class action lawsuit was filed in San Jose, Calif. against Securly, alleging that the company unlawfully collected and sold students’ private information to third parties without student consent. 

The Patriot will continue to cover the district’s implementation of Securly Pass as the school year proceeds.