On the daily, many paper passes are written for students to go places during their academic times, whether it be to visit a teacher or to the library. The school is now transitioning to a digital pass system, Securly Flex, for Academic Support Time that will go into effect on Oct. 13. The intention of this online system is to make it easier for teachers and students. However, I am not excited for this to start.

My main issue with Flex is everyone will be required to stay in one spot for the entire 30 minute period. This is a big issue for me as I typically like to do multiple things during AST. If I, for example, have a club meeting but it only lasts for 10 minutes, I will then have to stay there for the rest of the time. Similarly, if someone has to take a test that will take a short amount of time, they will then have to spend their entire period there.

While the new system may be annoying at times, there are good things that will come from it. I know from speaking with teachers about how many passes they have to write a day; this will make it so much easier for them, as it will all be online. In this system, students still need to go see their teachers to request passes, but now they need to do it at least a day before. This will require many students to start growing their time management skills.

Flex will also display what clubs or activities a student has going on during each AST and will group them based on their priority. This will make it much easier for students to be able to see the activities they have going on and will help give them the opportunity to select which they should attend. That way, both the student and their teachers will know where they are going during AST. However, with this, students will have to select where they will go before 9:10 a.m. on said day, which definitely won’t be ideal on Even days, since AST starts so much later.

Overall, I am interested to see how this will go, and I hope it succeeds. It does have its pros and cons that will make AST very different from what students have now. Hopefully, Flex will make getting passes easier.