Why is My School Tracking Me When I Use the Bathroom?

Maria is a student at an NYC high school and member of the NYCLU’s Teen Activist Project, a statewide youth organizing program.

At my high school, and more than 150 other schools across New York City, students are being digitally tracked when they go to the bathroom, visit a counselor, or leave the classroom for pretty much any reason.

New York City is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on SmartPass digital hall passes that keep track of how long students like me are in the bathroom. It makes me feel controlled and it makes it seem like my teachers and the other adults in my school don’t trust me.

I get filled with anxiety every time I need to use the bathroom in class. The teacher sets the timer on the pass for seven minutes, or sometimes less. I know the clock is ticking. Sometimes my classroom is a long walk from the nearest bathroom. Sometimes the bathroom stalls are full, and I have to wait as the seconds tick down. It’s a stressful situation that doesn’t help me, my fellow students, or anyone else at the school.

We’re only allowed to leave the classroom three times a day at most when class is in session. SmartPass keeps track of that, and it also monitors how much time students spend out of class. But sometimes I can’t help needing to leave class. I don’t like the feeling that my teachers might suspect me of doing something wrong when I haven’t done anything.

SmartPass even created drama between me and my mom when someone from the school called and told her I had been in the hall too much. This scared my mom. But all I did was use the bathroom. I didn’t do anything that anyone should be mad about.

The idea behind SmartPass is that it keeps a digital record of missed class time and supposedly makes it easier to prevent too many kids from being in the halls at once. But SmartPass creates a bunch of new problems beyond making me and others feel anxious. For example, students can use other kids’ IDs to sign themselves out of class. That happened to me, so I got in trouble for leaving class when I hadn’t actually gone anywhere.

I know technology can be useful for lots of things. But hall passes just aren’t one of them. New York City should spend its money on things that actually help us learn instead of wasting it on a creepy device that tracks us in the bathroom.