Have you heard of pressure passes?
They’re slips of red or yellow paper that allow difficult students to leave your classroom anytime they like. Yep, they just flash you the pass and then walk out.
They’re all the rage among counselors and administrators, who can then pat themselves on the back for doing something without actually holding anyone accountable. Yay! Win-win.
Oh, yes, that’s the other thing. You, dear teacher, don’t have a say. They just tell you what they’re going to start doing with Layla or Anthony. “Here are your passes. Enjoy!”
In some schools, the students don’t even have to show a pass. They can simply leave whenever they feel like it. A mental break, they call it.
Here’s why it’s a ridiculous idea.
1. They’ll miss class.
Obvious, right? Our students are supposed to be learning, which they can’t do if they’re not there. This begs the question? Are you now responsible to get them up to speed?
What if they leave in the middle of a test or essay or while you’re teaching a critical lesson? This also sends the message that the real purpose of school is unimportant.
2. They’ll take advantage of it.
Well, of course. Students who have a proclivity to misbehave aren’t going to use a pressure pass earnestly. It’s naive to think otherwise.
They’re going to skip out on the writing assignment. They’re going to wander the halls. They’re going to disrupt other classes. They’re going to cause trouble, which then you have to deal with.
3. They’ll be unsupervised.
Just ask them to stay right outside your classroom. That’ll work. You can just peek out every once in awhile while also supervising 24 or 32 students. Easy as pie.
This is obviously absurd. It’s also dangerous. Students can never, ever be left unsupervised. Picture yourself on the witness stand. “Well, I just assumed he’d stay right there.”
4. They’ll further disrupt your class.
Pressure passes will empower your most challenging students to cause more trouble. Reality always wins. Where there is zero or weak accountability behavior gets worse.
Go ahead and try to send them to time-out now. They’ll just walk out of your classroom. And make no mistake: When some students aren’t held accountable, others will expect the same treatment.
5. They’ll have an excuse.
By allowing a student to leave when they feel the need, you’re very effectively telling them that they can’t control themselves. They’re not like others. There is something very wrong with them.
Which will follow them for life. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that is difficult to reverse and can only happen when they hit rock bottom and realize they’ve been lied to.
Students Lose, As Usual
I had a student one year who suffered from panic attacks. They were rare but did happen. Of course, I would let him stand just outside the classroom and take the time he needed.
We prepared for it ahead of time and he knew the protocol—brown paper bags, focus on breathing, a mantra of “I’m okay.”
This isn’t what we’re talking about.
We’re talking about giving up on students who desperately need fair, consistent, and tough-loved accountability. To improve—actually improve—students who misbehave need to be repeatedly put in position to face their problems and failures head on.
They need to reflect and begin to see the illogic of their self-sabotage and how their behavior tramples on others.
Remove this healthy reflection and inner struggle, which is what the current educational winds are conspiring to do, and the whole shebang spins ever lower into the cosmic toilet bowl.
We must reject it. If a student is misbehaving in your classroom, you handle it—most effectively and easily with the SCM approach. Only refer them to administration if they fight, threaten violence, or otherwise behave dangerously.
If someone suggests pressure passes or everyone’s favorite behavior contracts, stand your ground. It’s your classroom. Explain your reasoning if you wish but clearly and emphatically protect the student and learning in your classroom by saying no.
If you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
This truly is a reality and a big problem in our schools. Thank you Micheal for bringing this up!
We use this strategy at our school. I totally agree with your article. Thank you for the “voice of reason”! It helps me realize I’m not crazy!!
You are completely wrong. You do not know every child situation and are completely generalizing how you think these passes should be used. My son was supposed to have a pass like this because of an ongoing custody situation with his bio father and he was having a hard time with regulating his emotions. Fast forward 2 months when he was supposed to get it, hadn’t received it, and an incident occurred where he was kicked out of school. An incident that could have been avoided had the school done their job. My son is a straight A student, kind, caring, and has a bright future ahead of him. And all he needed was the ability to remove himself from a situation and he couldn’t. Mental health is a real topic and if we are promoting adults to take care of their mental health, then why are you writing an article denigrating the need for children and teens to do the same?
Not every situation is the same, and honestly, I think it’s asinine for you to group all students together to promote your agenda and further your Journaling career.
Did you not read the whole article?
Linsin is not completely wrong or even remotely wrong. Many students absolutely take advantage of these opportunities and cause more learning loss for themselves and disruption of instruction for others. The promotion of Smart Classroom Management will benefit far more students and teachers than it will Linsin’s journaling career.
You are generalizing as well. We all know every student is different. It’s even stated in the article. Your son was going through an obvious hard time and someone failed to follow through and give him some assistance. This article is speaking on the over saturation of the use of the break cards as an answer for all with no follow up of data tracking and monitoring of all these students. Teachers can’t monitor outside and inside while teaching. Not every student will take advantage but a lot will. Especially when they can easily coordinate with friends and text each other to leave class and then skip out for whatever they want. If they get caught then they flash their cards. This is coming from a veteran sped teacher that had worked in a behavioral school with lots of experience.
I am a big Linsin follower – as a homeroom teacher and as a substitute teacher. I have been that substitute teacher that has entered classrooms filled with students “just like your son” – and when I took over for the week or two weeks or month, and showed them that I expected from them exactly the same work ethic, behavior and joy-filled learning like everybody else – for the first time in their life, they were privileged to let go of their baggage and really let themself be a student like everyone else. Fascinatingly, I was the toughest teacher with them (obviously, in a loving manner) and they hold on to the weeks I’m with them like a lifesaver. Pressure passes, although they may seem tempting to your son, may not be offering him the best quality of life.
No need to insult Michael even if you disagree with him!
Just the tip of the iceberg
The lack of teacher support from administrators and always siding with families and students and verbal abuse accusations and no accountability to students
I loved teaching and ms y students but the punitive treatment towards teachers drive me out of the educational system with emotional scars
100%. Students who need structure the most are given the permission to reject what they need most. I have a student struggling with serious mental issues. They never display behavior in my class because I run a structured classroom with specific expectations (thank you SCM). We deal with individual incidents when they arise. However, they are often given permission to not finish work, to take breaks, to leave to take a nap in other classrooms. I show care and concern but tell them that the expectation to make it through 52 minutes still stands.
Any student at our school is allowed to ask for a break and we have to give it to them. We also have to stop teaching and call the office so they know the student is on the way for their break. 🙁 When they come back, they stroll in, grinning, and use the opportunity to walk back to their seat to mess with students along the way. 🙁
This year, I moved from teaching elementary at a school with strong classroom management to teaching middle at a school with (mostly) poor classroom management. These “pressure passes” are unnecessary at my new school because while there is nominally a rule that a student must ask permission before leaving the room, many teachers let students leave the room for any reason at any time — especially the kids who misbehave most, the ones who most need consistent limits.
I think I have managed this well in my own classes, through detailed teaching of exactly why, when, and how students may ask to leave the room, including the way I expect them to noiselessly shut the door upon re-entry. I find deep joy in this aspect of the work. It allows challenging students to simply be like everyone else in the class – an individual who is valued for their ideas.
I think what is missing from this article is the effect that such passes/special treatment and lowered expectations have on the rest of the class. They lose respect for and trust in the teacher. Kids aren’t dumb – they know as soon as the “challenging” kid leaves the classroom, he or she is misbehaving, unsupervised, probably disrupting some other class elsewhere in the school. And they think you – the teacher – are, frankly, an idiot, for allowing this to happen.
This is my first time ever hearing of this behavior strategy. I am sure I would not feel comfortable to even try it unless there an assigned officer in each end of the hall way where the students could not escape. The Substitute Teacher is responsible for keeping eyes on every student at all times. Right now I am required to used timed passes every time a student is absent from the classroom once marked present for the period or the day. However, should it be introduced in the school district I work in I am sure I will be required to use it.
I haven’t heard of these but have long term subbed in classes where students with ASD and ADHD told me they “didn’t have to” do an assignment or stay in their seat. One ASD student missed so much work because a behavior specialist frequently removed him from the class. I was able to implement SCM rules for all of the students except for this child and the challenge, as you noted, was that the other students noticed this unfair difference (especially since the ASD child was very charismatic and encouraged misbehavior in other students).
Yes, and then the classroom teacher is held accountable for that student’s lack of academic progress. I endured this situation and decided to document the missing time and content missed during that time. CMA, but the stress and excessive amount of time it took to do that was overwhelming.
We are educators, not counselors, and certainly are not paid to be counselors. If a student legitimately needs a break (not an ongoing pass), they should go directly to the counselor’s office where they can be counseled and supervised. There needs to be specifics that they follow in order to be released from class. And yes, most students take advantage of this. The “A word” (anxiety) is used by our students because they know it gets attention. After social media and violent video games are taken away, I will then listen to your concern about true anxiety. There is a reason they call administration “the dark side.” Once they go there, they fail to see things that are truly important. If you are lucky, you will have on amazing administrator in your career that has not gone to the dark side. Thank you, Michael.
Some students with disabilities (SWD) require a “take a break” card to take a break when they’re overwhelmed or overstimulated so that they can regulate their emotions and get back to learning. However, as I teach elementary school special ed, most of these breaks are taken in a calm space in the classroom so the student is still seeing the instruction. It’s a fine balance for sure.
I did relief teaching in a school where this was de rigeur – it certainly did nothing to increase engagement but most teachers saw it as an opportunity to be able to get on with teaching the non-trouble makers.
To Bethany I suggest you reread the whole article: there are always exceptions and if it is a real problem you will find most of the teachers and students will be properly on board to help as much as they possibly can. I had a child in my class a few years back who had a complex syndrome and was also ASD – we managed in the situation classroom most of the time and she responded to the alterations I made to the curriculum to be able to include her. It was a win-win all around.
Hello,
This is a reality in the district that I worked in. One of my student’s had concerning behavior and was granted this type of pass and was allowed to leave without even telling me. This student was one that I had concerns about leaving the school or possibly hurting herself. I questioned the counselors about this because I thought it was a safety issue that no one would know where this student was. I was told that I had to allow her to leave because it is in her 504 plan and legally binding. Do you have any advise as far as how to respond to that?
Where are the parents’ responsibility in their child’s learning? Do they not know how many times the student leaves the classroom? Are are students running the schools?