Echoing through the halls, the bell rings and passing period begins (but of course, ‘your teacher dismisses you’). Some students rush to their classes, some try to get a short talk in before the two minute warning, but others don’t even bother to try and go faster. The shortening of the passing period to an unreasonable five minutes is unrealistic for such a large campus, and only results in stressed students, unnecessary tardies, and teachers who would rather ignore the late students so they can get on with their class.

In response to late arrivals at Ben Barber from Timberview and Mansfield, the passing periods at all four high schools were shortened to five minutes to allow students traveling to Ben Barber extra time. Catering to Ben Barber at the expense of the main campuses makes no sense. It puts the majority of students in MISD at a disadvantage for negligible gains.

Anyone traveling from the third floor to the first, from the PAC area to the gyms, or from one of the field houses to anywhere else will be hard pressed to make it to class on time. Traversing one of the largest schools in the state during the most crowded moments of the day in only five minutes can be nearly impossible.

As if taking time out of class to walk across the school and wait in line for a pass from an AP wasn’t already flawed enough; now so many students can’t get to class on time that the lines take even more time out of class. Some teachers would rather just let students be a few minutes late than send them for a pass knowing they may not be back for five to fifteen minutes depending on how far they need to walk. For students unfortunate enough to have a strict teacher, it causes them unnecessary punishment, and for the others it causes disregard for school policies. No one wins with the new bell schedule.

District administrators should change the bell schedule back to the original seven minutes.