A significant number of students are now using the 5-minute pass, but are we giving them out wisely?   

According to The Center for strengthening the teaching profession “The Power of the 5 Minute Break,” instead of leaving class early, they had class breaks. Which is about a 5–20-minute brain break in class for students to decompress and relax. “During the brain breaks, they can decompress and relax. Some students see it as the time to talk with friends, other students draw, the studious students organize their belongings in preparations for their next subject, while others just lay their heads down and close their eyes.” In a random survey of 56 Morton East students, 40 said that they think the pass was for anxiety reasons or injuries. 

Students who do not have passes notice that their peers who do have them, are arriving late to class regardless of these passes. 

“When I go to gym, there is a person that owns the 5-minute pass. However, they always come late to class,” Anonymous senior said.  

Along with tardiness, peers also notice that some students pretend to have an issue receiving the 5-minute passes.  

“I’ve overheard many students in my classrooms talk about how they’ll pretend to have anxiety or a sickness of some kind just to get a 5-minute pass for who knows what, when they don’t even need it,” Anonymous sophomore said. 

Teachers are the ones to also deal with these students’ early dismissal.  

“I once substituted a class in supervision and majority of the students in the class left because they had a 5-minute pass,” Journalism teacher, Mr. Kent Frankfother said. 

Mr. Kent Frankfother had counted a total of 7 students total with these 5-minute passes from 5 of his classes. 

”One of the students in my fifth hour told me he got his 5 minute pass simply by telling his counselor he ‘didn’t like to be around people’ because it makes him anxious. I reminded him that he was actually a performer: someone who plays in a band and loves the adoration of the crowd. We laughed about that,” Mr. Kent Frankfother said.  

Even after having a brief questionnaire with one of the school nurses, there are still certain scenarios that are unclear about these passes. 

“5-minute passes are issued for medical reasons. Medical documentation provided from a physician or referrals from a mental health provider.” Nurse Hernandez said.  

However, in our survey, some students who have had the 5-minute pass have said that the nurses did not ask them for any sort of document. While other students stated that they were required to provide some sort of documentation. 

“5-minute passes are documented in our nurse’s notebook and we run a report to track how many passes are issued this year. They are issued due to medical reasons, we do not limit the amount of passes and they have expiration dates. The most common reason for a 5-minute pass are also due to injuries.” continued Nurse Hernandez. 

The use of 5-minute passes will be continuous, but will they be properly used continuously?