“Teachers please lock your doors, we are conducting a hall sweep.” All of a sudden, students are seen sprinting to their classes. No matter the reason, they all are in the same predicament: if they don’t get to class in the next few seconds they will receive lunch detention. During a hall sweep, students caught in the hallway must report to the commons to pick up a hall sweep pass. This pass allows students to enter the class they were late for but also guarantees a detention.

“The hallway sweeps stress me out, but they also push me to get to class on time,” said Groves Senior, Spencer Goldberg.

Goldberg’s feelings towards the hall sweeps are most likely shared by many other students in the school. It is understandable that randomly locking tardy students out from class and dealing them a detention can be stressful. However, the stress of getting detention and making that walk of shame back to class will motivate students to get to class on time.

The hallway sweeps are not the first action taken by Groves to keep their students on time. Groves High School issues lunch passes to upperclassmen. This pass allows students to go off campus during lunch. In recent years, Groves has been taking the lunch passes of students who were late coming from lunch. The purpose of taking lunch passes is similar to the purpose of hall sweeps: incentivise students to get to class on time.

The Groves administrative staff have been battling with their students over getting to class on time for years. Hallway sweeps are just the newest way Groves is pushing their students to get to class on time. While some students may think receiving detention after being late is harsh, hall sweeps will definitely motivate students to get to class on time.