As the ‘devious lick’ challenge becomes more and more prominent, schools around the country are becoming more strict with laws of conduct for their students. For us at State High, we have our bright orange hall passes and astonishingly yellow signout sheets. But how strict should the school really be with the hall passes? And why? 

With the complicated nature of the passes themselves, and security enforcing students to get back to their classes, the school may be a bit aggressive with their solution to fixing this issue. Even so, their reasoning is valid. With the bathroom closed in the hall of D zero, and with soap dispensers and even urinals being stolen, they have every right to be as paranoid and upset as they are. Though our beliefs don’t align exactly, it is fair to require students to have hall passes and for hall monitors to make sure that kids got back to the right class in a reasonable amount of time, to avoid any more stealing from the school.

“I definitely think due to the circumstances that have been happening, bathrooms getting vandalized and the fighting, students need to, if they’re going to be out in the halls, need to have a hall pass,” said Ms. Christina Kohl, a teacher at State High. “That way, security and people out in the hall know that that particular student had permission from the teacher to be leaving the classroom.”

Kohl makes a good point, and so does Kara Lin, a sophomore at State High.

“It’s good to sign out and sign back in,” Lin said, “[but] they should up the time a little from five minutes, because for more people, it takes longer.”  

What Lin and Kohl state is inherently true, especially the part where Lin states that they should increase the time from five minutes. For people traveling to the snack bar, to the library, and to gender-inclusive restrooms, it takes more than five minutes to get there and back. Though hall passes are a necessary precaution, they should allow students to have more time to visit the places they need to go during class hours. 

“It’s annoying because it’s taking away from what I can do, because they’re making harsher rules and regulations,” said Lin, when asked about the ‘devious lick’ challenge. 

Lin also said that because of other students stealing things from restrooms, her teacher won’t allow her to eat or work outside the chemistry rooms. Working outside the classroom could be beneficial to many students, as the environment could be considered a more comfortable and quieter place to work in comparison to the classroom.  

Most people think that the ‘devious lick’ challenge is hurtful and annoying. Not only does it take away students’ rights, but it is also an inconvenience to everyone, including the teachers who have to write the hall passes and the hall monitors that have to check the passes. The passes are a necessary hassle that are an inconvenience, though needed.