![]() The company did not respond by press time. The Epoch Times requested comment from SmartPass. “I just think that people have got to give it a chance and understand what it means,” Curry said. If the maximum number of students are already in the hall, the app tells students who requested a pass when it is their turn.Ĭurry emphasized that no child has been, nor would be, denied use of the bathroom. SmartPass limits the number of students allowed in the hallway at once by creating a digital waiting list. Plus, kids who ended up walking out with another class can check in and provide their location. They would have to compare 90 papers and find out where the students were last seen.īut with SmartPass, Curry said, all the information is in one place and the school can more quickly account for everyone. With 90 teachers in Stroudsburg High School, imagine if each one had written a hall pass before the fire drill, he said. And in case of emergency, students with an app on the phone could check in.įor example, in a fire drill, when administrators are counting students to make sure everyone is out of the school, with the paper system, there could be many hall passes issued by many teachers. He explained that students can set a meeting with a teacher in another classroom later in the week without leaving their current room to arrange a hall pass. “There’s no big deal here,” Curry told The Epoch Times. They’re data mining on our children, whether it’s in the form of surveys, whether it’s in the form of this.” School Says ‘Give It a Chance’Ĭosmas Curry, superintendent of Stroudsburg Area School District, says the app is more efficient than using paper, cuts down on classroom interruptions, and has safety benefits. “They’re gathering all this data on our kids, and then those companies are using it for profit. Schools are basically letting a third party track your child,” Grady told The Epoch Times. ![]() “It’s just another example where a third party has our children’s data. Shannon Grady, chair of the local “ Moms for Liberty” chapter in Chester County, Pennsylvania, calls the app an invasion of privacy and says her group is preparing non-consent forms for parents to tell schools they will opt-out of using such technology. “Children should not be tracked to go to the bathroom,” Grana said. In response to the decision to use SmartPass, which she called the straw that broke the camel’s back, Grana has removed her children, including a high school senior, from the school. Grana said she believes teachers should be better trained in managing classrooms and children with behavioral needs, instead of looking to technology devices to aid in disciplinary actions. “You’re literally checking on underage students using a natural, private environment. “I said I’m upset about the lack of privacy involved, and with the data going into private corporate hands, and how their education is being outsourced to tech companies,” Grana told The Epoch Times about her comments to the school board. Parent Michelle Grana spoke to the board before the decision. The board of the Stroudsburg Area School District in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, voted last week to start using SmartPass in its schools. While SmartPass doesn’t track every step a student takes, it does capture every time a student signs in and out of a classroom and generates reports from the data it captures. That is, how many times students were prevented from having a pass at the same time.įewer students in hallways and bathrooms at one time means fewer chances for fights or vandalism. The weekly report also shows administrators how many total hall passes were generated, a list of student names and profiles ranking students from the highest number of passes used, how many teachers approved passes and how many encounters were prevented. For example, the data may show that two students from different classrooms asked to go to the water fountain five times last week, and their hall pass time overlapped for a few minutes each time.
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