Tired of bringing an obnoxiously large, half-falling-apart bathroom pass with you into the restroom? If that isn’t unsanitary, then what is? Well since May, Millikan has been testing out another system for using the bathroom during class, Minga. 

In the new age of technological innovation and advancement, humans are trying to find solutions for every possible problem using the only thing we know how to manipulate: technology and its endless possibilities. And while I agree that technology can be changed and created to serve just about any purpose, its proposed solution is not always the best solution for everyone.

Minga, a company specializing in technology for school environments has used their platform to initiate the Minga Hall Passes, and as of May 1st, 2024, Millikan High School has implemented these passes. They are primarily used to go to the restrooms during class using the Minga App on a cellphone or Chromebook. 

Without a phone, a student has to use a Chromebook to create a pass which makes it all the more difficult if the student is not already using a Chromebook. The Minga Hall Passes aren’t practical and they’re just unnecessary but they may prove to be a step forward in innovation for Millikan. All students I have interviewed have had no idea about the system and/or their teachers have not used them or even mentioned them before. 

In regard to Minga Hall Passes, The Millikan Corydon interviewed Grant Robinson, the activities director and ASB teacher, he stated, “We have less than 5% of our students without phones but we do know this is an area we need to work on,” says Robinson.

Students follow these steps to create a bathroom pass: 

1. Open the Minga app on a cellphone or Chromebook
2. Click student tools and create a hall pass
3. Select the nearest restroom in a building that is available
4. Wait for teacher approval.

Once a pass is created and approved, a timer will start on the Minga app. Students have 10 minutes to use the restroom just like before. If a bathroom is closed or at the capacity of students (depending on the restroom), you cannot make a pass for that specific restroom and you’re to make a pass for the next closest restroom

Staff and faculty will use this new technology introduced by Minga, which already houses student IDs, not to track but to locate a student when out

side during class time. 

“We aren’t tracking students. We are simply trying to create a system that limits the number of students out at one time and limits the number of students in one restroom at the same time,” says Robinson.

This measure is meant to prevent unwanted bathroom hang-out sessions and assumingly the excessive amount of vaping in bathrooms during class. Vaping in bathrooms has been a prominent issue for Millikan for a while now, during class and during lunch. While the Minga Hall passes may help the vaping situations during class, the real problems occur before a student even enters the bathroom, it starts when they are bringing them into school and sharing them with others. 

Although technology is a growing factor in classrooms, the beginning stages of piloting this new system have brought challenges and complications that frustrate those who don’t agree with using technology as a solution for everything. In the future, if more and more teachers implement this system, there are bound to be more technical difficulties arising because technology is not always reliable and requires a strong internet connection.

In attempts to understand the reason behind implementing these online passes, Robinson answered a question about whether it is because of excessive vaping in bathrooms by replying that, “The Minga hall pass is being piloted due to several factors but some of the ones you mentioned are areas of concern.”

According to the Minga.com website, the main objective of this system is, “…admins can issue strategic and automated hall pass restrictions and consequences to frequent flyers and key bathroom offenders,” but Robinson has said that this is not applicable to Millikan.

Although this new system proves to be unusual and out of the ordinary now, over time I believe that we will get used to it just like we got used to the physical passes which can be overall beneficial for the development of our school. Even substitute teachers are getting trained for this process, making it seem as though it is here to stay for the long run. Although, this is just a test run and it’s unsure whether or not this new digital pass system will be used in the future. It’s just a matter of time before the rest of the teachers say goodbye to the physical passes and say hello to technology.