For multiple years, Canyon Hills has been finding alternative ways for students to sign out and sign into class for hallway passes
, which range from enforcing limited bathroom passes for students each semester, to receiving a signature from our teachers into our planners. Starting off the 2023-2024 school year, Canyon Hills introduced the 5-Star Students app to serve as this year’s pass system. The app can be downloaded either through the App Store or Google Play and is currently rated a 1.3 star rating on both platforms. Students believe this rating is harsh but not entirely false either.
The app allows students to pull out their ID’s Virtually to be scanned to sign in and out of class, alongside a plethora of other features that may or may not be used throughout the year. Compared to last year’s system where teachers would sign our planners and allow students to leave, many believe that last year’s system may have been quicker than our current system.
Senior Jayden Todacheeny said ¨ Last year was so much better, like it´d take like 2 seconds and then we could leave but now we have to do a whole system,¨. Todacheeny added ¨ So many of the teachers I have are struggling with keeping track of who’s leaving and so I´d go to ask if I can use the bathroom and they would forget to sign in someone from last period and so I´d have to wait,¨.
Other difficulties that were expressed other than forgetting to sign someone in were with how many people are allowed to be out at once. Having only 20 spots open for students to have a pass is very little for the entire campus, and with teachers forgetting to sign people back in, limit that amount even more, which weren’t issues with the planner system.
The old planner pass system was a very quick way for students to use the restroom, however it had its own faults which may have resulted in the app’s usage. Senior Eduardo Morales-Najera stated ¨ It was always the same kids that were always using the bathroom, they would lose their planner or run out of passes and go around asking for passes,¨. Najera would go on to say that it was the same students who would be out of class after signing out who would have staff skeptical about having a pass on them. ¨ We can’t have nothing, we get punished for the things they do,¨ Najera added.
One of the major selling points of this app is its AI features that can track who you interact with and time spent outside of class. With this ability, the app can see if someone interacts with the same person multiple times and make it so those students cannot use the pass at the same time. While not being put in effect just yet, Todacheeny voiced his concerns on having this AI used on campus. He stated ¨ They´re dehumanizing us with this, to what extent does this stop surveillance, like do they not trust us using the bathroom on our own?,¨.
Overall, no major issues have really started to be created with 5-Star Students just yet, but by the end of the year will anything have changed that justified this change.
