Preventing Bullying in Schools with Digital Hall Passes

September 14, 2023
Blog

Listen to this blog

4 minutes

Bullying has long been a pervasive issue in schools, affecting countless students and impacting their mental and physical wellbeing. The repercussions of bullying are profound. Victims often experience depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, and a decline in academic performance. The need for effective prevention and intervention strategies has never been more critical.

According to the CDC, nearly 14% of public schools report that bullying is a discipline problem occurring daily or at least once a week—and the CDC’s Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles suggests schools consider improving their natural surveillance capabilities. While this more specifically refers to the placement of physical features that improve visibility, it underscores the importance of improving school personnel’s monitoring of student movements about the school.

Further, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey for 2021 indicates 15% of high school students were bullied on school property—and 23% of LGBTQ+ students were bullied at school versus 12% of their heterosexual peers.

“At a time when there is such focus on how to prevent and stop cyberbullying, it is critical for schools to not forget that in-person bullying continues to happen in schools. For a school to fully address bullying, they must find ways to not only support students who have been bullied, but also find ways to limit opportunities for the behavior to occur during the school day.” Dr. Amy Grosso, Director, Resident Expert at Raptor Technologies

When it comes to student behavior and accountability outside of the classroom, manual hall passes have proven inadequate in addressing this challenge. Further, staffing shortages and budget restrictions have created gaps in schools’ ability to monitor student movement.

Digital hall passes offer a promising solution to reduce opportunities for bullying incidents.

The limitations of traditional hall pass monitoring

Traditional hall passes, while a staple in many institutions, come with their own set of limitations. They lack real-time tracking, often leading to misuse and a lack of accountability.

This creates opportunities for:

Students planning to meet up with peers,
Code of conduct violations like vaping or bullying,
Frequent and untracked absences from the classroom going unnoticed.

Digital hall passes, in contrast, enhance visibility and accountability for students once they leave the classroom. With a simple scan or digital check-out, students can indicate their destination, allowing for real-time supervision of students outside of the classroom.

Improving student supervision with digital hall passes

With real-time insight into hall pass use, schools can prevent potential issues like coordinated meet-ups, which can be breeding grounds for bullying. In the event of suspicious activity, repeated visits to specific locations, or emergencies, having real-time student location information can be invaluable.

For administrators and teachers, the advantage is clear. By reviewing the frequency with which students scan out, you can:

See patterns of students who may be abusing the privilege
Gain clarity into how students are spending time outside the classroom
Identify patterns and create a plan for intervening or stopping mischief

Beyond bullying prevention, digital hall passes also streamline the process of hall pass use—saving teachers instructional time—and provides up-to-date documentation of student locations during emergencies. Having accurate data on students’ locations during a crisis is critical when coordinating an emergency response.

Raptor can help you prevent bullying

Bullying is a critical issue that schools must address proactively. With Raptor SchoolPass Hall Pass Management, your school can improve student accountability—and reduce the opportunities for bullying incidents.

See how Raptor SchoolPass can modernize your hall pass management.

Request a demo.