Change in Policy: Off-Campus Passes

The 2025-2026 school year has come with many changes, one of them being the reintroduction of off-campus passes at Sam Barlow. This had previously been a rule prior to COVID-19, though it has not been enforced in recent years. Seniors and juniors have the privilege to leave campus during lunch, but only if they had an 85% or higher attendance rate in their last semester, a GPA of 2.0 or better, and if they filled out a form, as stated in an email sent to students and parents. To make sure they are upholding this rule, “We are monitoring the gates during lunches, and also we are monitoring tardies and absences for those that have the passes. If there is high volume and incidents of tardy during lunches or with a specific student, their off-campus passes may be revoked,” states Mr. Bhear.

This pass comes with a lot of responsibilities; the main one is that you have to try your hardest not to be tardy to your next class. Barlow has seen a dramatic change in the number of tardies from students to their 5th or 6th class periods because underclassmen haven’t been able to leave with the upperclassmen. With more people staying on campus, they can get to their next class on time and don’t have to hurry in from lunch. Another responsibility is driving, as Mr. Bhear said, “We also want to make sure students are driving responsibly, and oftentimes when the volume would leave campus, the driving was a concern, so this is an effort to curb that erratic driving and shuttling of all sorts of students on and off campus over the lunches.” 

 The way students have been responding can be predictable. Upperclassmen have mixed feelings about this privilege, while underclassmen and those who didn’t qualify are upset. As said by Hayden Crocker, a senior, “I feel neutral about the off-campus passes; they’re intended for good, which I understand, but comparing it to the past, I don’t feel like checking people’s IDs at the gate will last very long.” No matter what your opinions on this are, it seems the new rule is here to stay because they are planning on making this the new normal procedure due to its positive outcomes. 

Even with this policy existing before, it still comes with its challenges. It has been so long since this rule was put in place that there are still things student management and Mr. Bhear have to figure out. One struggle they are facing is that students with parking passes are going to their cars but staying in the school parking lot. This is a problem for Barlow because, oftentimes, the parking lot and students´ cars become a spot for skipping and simply hanging out. “We have seen instances where a student who drives will give their keys to another student who will then go to the parking lot to hang out in the other student´s vehicle,” says Mr. Bhear. They also worry about not knowing where students are if there were an emergency or if they would need to contact that student. Another main concern from Mr. Bhear is that with all the attention being on the parking lot, it takes away eyes from other issues the school is facing, mostly with the bathrooms and vaping. Although they are keeping up with it with of our campus monitors, Barlow doesn’t have enough staff; there aren’t enough eyes to watch certain areas, which is why the stadium and baseball fields are off-limits. As Barlow continues to enforce this rule, they will figure out the positives and negatives of the system to determine what will work not only for the school but for the students and staff.