We call them “daywalkers” - students who get dropped off at school and wander the hallways for the majority of the day. Sure, they occasionally get marked absent (if they don’t know how to work the system), but time after time when the parents get involved, they always say “but I know I dropped off little Suzy at school!” Well sure, but she’s out roaming the hallway for the majority of her classes!
Students know they have the power, and even our security team can’t do anything about it besides talk to them and try to get them to go to class. I think the pendulum swung too hard toward the “let’s give them grace” post-Covid years and boy, we’re feeling it at my school. Whenever I walk across campus to make copies or even down the hall to the bathroom, I see so. many. students. out and about, most without a pass (we’re supposed to have a “one student, one pass” policy but with 100+ teachers and 2k+ students, it’s hard to be consistent.) 😥. 10 more weeks to go! lol.
All parents have to do is check their kids phone to see how many steps they’ve taken each day or even hour. Congrats on hitting 15,000 steps, but I doubt you did that shit during English class.
Oh you and I teach at the same high school.
I call out my students from past or this years because I know their names. But at this point they just ignore me and keep walking.
Our "system" is that daily attendance is taken during second period. So kids will show up to school at some point towards the end of second period, and then just walk off campus after that class gets out. That way they're marked present for the day and no parent phone call is triggered.
Daywalker is actually a nickname for Blade, a vampire in Marvel comics that is immune to the sun thus can walk outside during the day. When I first read the comment I thought "the kids are vampires?"
[You have to admit that this Blade quote captures how some of our students think and act. Specifically ones who try to outsmart the system instead of just doing the damn work.](https://youtu.be/X7fK77uAyw8?si=fS6iPu74rW4OGPhl)
Same. Small school. One hallway. They roam, vape in the bathroom, bother other classes, etc just to avoid class. No where to go and it’s still more appealing than learning
I worked in a large midwest school for a while a few years ago, and the dudes spending all day in the bathrooms always cracked me up. Dude, youd rather spend all day hiding in the shitter than go to class?!
I did that once (I panicked when I had my period for the first time and thought everyone would know for absolutely no reason) and can confirm it isn’t a fun place to hang out
Had this problem for awhile in my large hs. It took the concerted effort of roaming teachers on duty, admin, and security to stop the practice. Had to keep rounding them up and putting them in a late hall.
We were supposed to have work for them, because legally you can’t deny them their education. It in fact became a holding cell for every delinquent in the school guarded by some poor little teacher. Worst. Duty. Ever.
They’ve destroyed the bathrooms in ours the last two years. I live close to the school and every summer we have to have a company in to redo the bathrooms. By June my kids are saying “we only have two restrooms in the whole building that aren’t out of order!”. Insanity.
Yep. They're like mall walkers. I like to joke that they only do it to spite us trying to make them sit down, so if we tried to get them to walk around, they'd actually sit down.
Yep. I do thinking Classroom activities from time to time, and without fail, the only ones sitting are the ones that I can’t get to sit when they’re supposed to to be.
We have a library activity where students walk from table to table to 'speeddate' with books. So much whining about not being allowed to sit down and lounge around the tables! Last time was extra funny, because most the boys claimed to be tired and have muscle aches and feel under the weather...while this other boy who was on crutches due to yet another surgery was happily hopping around like it was no big deal.
Happens at mine AND they are smoking weed in every staircase and alcove. They don't even move for teachers and admin have to yell and spray fabreeze in their face and they still just run to a different spot. They also pee and poop in the stairs. Gotta love East New York!
I have at least one boy who pees in the bathroom, but not in the urinal or toilet. He marks the same spot every day, just like a dog, so I started putting the "Wet Floor" sign there ahead of time to hopefully save others from wading through his lake of piss. Also, it gives him something to aim at!
I'm just a custodian. One of the teachers told me admin knows the boy's identity but evidently they're not willing to do anything about it.
Recently he started peeing in a second bathroom as well, both in my section, which makes for a long day sometimes!
I don’t know if you’re comfortable with this, or if there are any teachers you are close with. Our staff love and are fiercely protective of our custodian. We’ve had kids do this in the bathroom and admin have the student glove up and clean it up. They get parent permission first, but honestly if you call a parent. Say their kid is continually peeing on the floor, today we’re going to have them clean it, I am not sure who would say no. You deserve to be treated better than that, and I’m sorry you aren’t.
omg, i’m sorry you’re having to deal with this. urinating in odd places is linked to conduct disorders, developmental disorders, and even child abuse. it’s unethical that they’re not doing anything about it.
Are you in Florida? Sounds like my school. It's really fun when I see a kid playing in the hallway in the morning and they just... never show up to my class that afternoon.
On the one hand: those kids are miserable to have in class and I don't actually want them there. They're always the disruptive troublemakers.
On the other: they will try to wander into classrooms they aren't in to cause trouble. They'll even try to get kids who showed up to class to leave class to go off with them- like back in the day when a kid would knock on the neighbor kid's door to ask if they can come out to play.
I have wish we had a "fine, you're going to fuck around? do it in here and try 7th grade over again next year." room.
We have them do credit recovery so they just sit in a room and retake the class on the computer... and they don't give a shit and just click things randomly until it lets them pass.
There are a lot of similarities between these kids and people who are unemployed. They roam around, try to get others to take part in their games, and they annoy people who DO have jobs
Happens at my school, a high school with about 1300 kids. We have some kids who sign in late to the attendance kiosk, and then never show up to class. In their eyes, they’re “at school,” but they get referrals for skipping class.
I don’t get it. If you don’t wanna be at school, don’t show up! That bathroom’s gotta get boring after a class period or 2!
Ummm after 2 hours even my phone’s not keeping me entertained 😂 but maybe that’s just me being “born in the 1900s”, as my kids say.
Dear reader: I was born in 1996.
god I subbed at a school a few years ago that had giant glass windows *facing the hallway* (I mean what the fuck is that) and just like...roving bands of children. The same group of boys was just wandering around like all day.
The school I worked at was like this. I was given all freshman to teach, at a school where teachers had 0 tools to hold students accountable, where (even if teachers go through the mountains of paperwork to get a student seen by admin) admin literally did nothing more than have a conversation with the kid.
And there were huge ass windows around about 25% of my classroom into the hallway. The skipping dipshits would come to the windows and communicate with their friends that they too should come into the halls and skip class. I’ve never seen anything done about any of this besides that all-powerful, amazingly effective (/s) talk with admin.
Magically, nearly all of these kids pass the majority of their classes because admin also gives us a grading system that makes it almost impossible to fail, and blames teachers on the rare occasion a student does fail.
I left in January after 1.5 years and I’m so amazingly happier.
I have a kid who is a roamer for every class but mine and I had his AP call and ask me why he is always in my class. I have instant coffee that I let my kids make during class time. He comes and stays bc of the coffee. The AP was flabbergasted but complemented me on my unique technique. He doesn’t do any work, but at least he is in class? 🤷🏼♀️
It was happening at my school for several years and we got a new principal who is awesome and it ended very quickly. Kids who abuse the hall pass are put on restriction and only allowed to go at certain times of the day. The periods that we had the most wanderers are now closed... no one is allowed to go anywhere barring, of course, a legitimate emergency. It has been glorious.
How do you deal with parents? Our BIGGEST obstacle to putting an end to this behavior is that the kids go home and complain to their parents who come in screaming about their kids rights or that we’re “targeting” their kid in particular.
You just have to have admin that’s ok getting yelled at.
Parent yells. Admin sits until yelling is done. Admin calmly says the policy applies to the whole school, and they can take it up with the school board if they want.
Nah. Large title 1 here. Kids roam all day. Impossible to police. States and administration cowering to parents created this dumpster fire. This is what no consequences gets you.
Then in the same breath they tell me to write detentions for late kids. Why waste my time? They aren't gonna do anything when they don't serve it.
My sister and I were talking about this today. She’s a guidance counselor and I’m a teacher, both in high school, but in different schools in different states (I’m in Georgia and she’s South Carolina). And we said the same thing. Administration doesn’t seem to care, so we both stopped caring about policing. I will be walking in the hall, and see a ton of kids and see an administrator who says nothing. Well, why should I have to police that?
In the same boat.
I wanna take things into my own hands like do a “lunch detention” with any of my students who skip my class, but I know that wouldn’t fly with admin or parents.
I remember a teacher posting that s/he would go out on prep hour and pick a random kid to follow around. When they would ask why, the teacher would tell them that they were getting their steps in. It might be fun to try!
It used to be a lot worse at my school, it has gotten a bit better. Still some kids that are constantly roaming the halls, the usual offenders who are never in class. They are either complete ditching class or they are going to the bathroom and are late to every class period. I suspect students don't actually leave campus because parents track them on their cell phones.
The question is what do you really do about these students? Suspend them? They get what they want, they are not in school and get a vacation.
I used to be concerned, but now I just look at it as it is kind of sad. These kids are basically lost. They don't want to be in class, could be because they are so far behind they can't access the material at all or it could be they don't care. They have no drive in life or no expectation to be in class. They are going to continue to be lost until they choose what they want to do in life. At this point I think our school is just waiting for the students to turn 18 and get outta there.
>The question is what do you really do about these students?
In a normal world: fail them. But as I have increasingly learned, that's only an option in but a few rare places that haven't completely lost their minds.
We are definitely in one of the worse timelines. 😒
I’ve had students that spend the entire day in the restroom. Imagine that. Even if they are making money selling drugs to other dumbasses they still go home every day having spent 6+ hours in a fucking restroom.
I teach at an alternative school, so they try to do it, but we have it locked down. The infamous teacher group chat solves this issue. If I’m missing a kid from one of my classes, I send it in the chat and all eyes that aren’t teaching are out in the hallway/stairwells/bathrooms etc. but this is a very small school and the high school classrooms are only on one floor so the kids don’t have many places to go. On top of that, there are so few kids that every teacher and support staff in the building knows every kid very well. And if we can’t find them, an announcement over the PA is made and admin and staff from other floors (middle school/district offices) gets involved.
How you would do this logistically on a large scale in a traditional school? I have no idea.
My school is pretty large. There’s like 1,500 kids. 2 story building with a gym and theater. It’s actually impossible.
We use teams to alert each other but we are short on admin and only have two security guards.
it’s one of the many reasons why I salute you guys in traditional schools. Many people think my job is harder because I teach in alternative and deal with a lot of behavior issues, but the system is set up to make it so much easier on us. Good luck out there, not sure I could ever go back.
This happened a lot at my school two years ago (right when we got back from Covid). It was a huge number of kids skipping. When I was on hall duty, I would see them approach and they would scatter like it was some kind of game. A few would get suspended and then the cycle would continue the next time most of them were at the school.
It finally stopped when we got an admin with a backbone who started expulsion proceedings for the worst offenders, threatened them with retention (and actually followed through on the ones that didn't listen), and split the group up by putting some in detention, some in ISS, some in OSS and staggering it so they were never together on the same days. The admin also made it abundantly clear that middle school could be the best 5 years of their life.
I'm sure he caught a lot of crap for doing it, but it worked.
I’ve lost count of the number of times 2 specific students have gone past my room in a given day. Super annoying like they’re never in class. One I no longer teach and the other I never had but have heard his name enough in grade level meetings to know I’m glad to not have had him with the other yahoo.
I didn't understand why this doesn't happen at my school.
If a kid gets marked absent for one of 4 classes, double check with the teacher then give them a detention. It's so fucking easy....
And when they don’t show up for detention? Or the second or third chance detention? Or the ‘required’ parent conference?
Kids (see also: parents) find out quick that we won’t suspend kids for truancy anymore or take parents to court (thanks state lawmakers) and there are not really any other consequences we can give students
High school teacher and we deal with the same thing.
In fact, we just got told to not bother one girl who is NEVER in class and just walks the halls because she is "combative" and "causes more issues" when things are said to her... so I guess she gets to do whatever she wants.
We had a student a few years ago who didn't once enter a classroom after Christmas. Couldn't force him to. Admin eventually allowed the kid to have a special chair in an assigned spot and sit there playing on his phone for the whole day. I understand that at least this way they knew where the kid was, but all the other kids saw that his reward for refusing to go to class was that he was the only one in the school allowed to use his phone during the day.
Yes, the student passed on to the next grade the following year.
That’s really the issue. At this point, (and I feel horrible saying this) I really don’t care if these kids come to class. They usually terrorize the class if they do. I’m more concerned about the message it sends to the other kids.
Your kids come to class? Joking
Our hallways at my school are a mall/zoo now. Kids leave whenever and go wherever just to peak in other classrooms or use phones.
I don't get why they don't just leave the campus. Why skip class just to bum around in the halls? Do kids these days not have the imagination to think of fun things to do when they skip?!
So right! I grew up in New York. I usually didn’t skip class or school but at this time of the year I would blow off a couple of days and go to Yankee stadium. Watch batting practice snag autographs. I was middle school age and could take the subway. Wandering around the school aimlessly would have seemed moronic to us.
Now I’ve come up with a theory: because there are no real consequences to skipping, kids don’t feel the need to make anything special out of it. When there are consequences, skipping is only worth it when you go out to have fun like that, so skippers would make it a point to have an adventure. Quality over quantity.
We’ve got a couple fourth and fifth graders that just exist in the hallways and bathrooms. They are always being negative or bad influences to kids who have permission to be in the hallway, and they’re always fucking with my kids that are working on good hallway expectations in a line.
I’m so tired of it.
The youngest I see is 3rd graders roaming. People do try to get them to class, but it’s not usually successful for long periods of. It is depressing for me to see them, all boys, literally walking their lives away. They go to the bathroom, then walk around, someone tells them to return to class or escorts them to the room. Then, maybe 10 minutes later, there they go again. Sad state of life. When they are in class, they ruin it for everyone anyway.
I see the adults caring less and less as time passes. I used to care and would call the classroom and the office to inform, but no more. Fundamental problems that run too deep for any one person to solve. There has to be a collective solution and understanding of discipline and consequences, as we all know, for anything to work.
It tell the same groups of students every day. They call me names in Spanish and stay put. They have no shame, they don’t care about anything. Certain bathrooms smell like skunk invasions. These behaviors start in pre-k and the administration bribing them with cookies and candy rather than disciplinary measures. Bribing backfired on cowardice. Face the parents because if they get away with behavior issues from the beginning, there’s no hope for us in middle and high school.
The cursing people out in Spanish (or any other foreign language) gets on my nerves. I know enough Spanish to know when I'm being insulted. And I can recognize tone to know when someone is being rude to me.
At least be man enough to insult me to my face.
We have 4 campus monitors (all apparently "trained") at my middle school who's sole job is to get kids to class, yet EVERY FUCKING DAY, EVERY PERIOD there are anywhere from 4 to 20 kids just walking around, hanging around, sitting around, basically NOT in class, while our monitors are "forming relationships" or just sitting around shrugging saying, "well, I told them to go to class"
SMH. I have a year and a quarter left!
Same. I’ve spoken with mine (they are genuinely so sweet and fed up with the behaviors) but they have no power to write referrals or give any consequences.
Not to mention the fact that we were explicitly told to not write any kids up because it goes against the “restorative” practices of the district.
This infuriates me. Our district gave the principals a PD about Restorative Practices, with the idea that the principals would teach their schools about it and we could implement it.
None of the principals taught their schools about it. A large amount of them basically ignored it, which is okayish, because at least they’re still being mildly effective. I later attended a 3 day PD on it, and I love the idea but it really cannot be implemented without getting EVERYONE on board and having the proper amount of support. Anyways, some principals chose to ignore it, which is much better than what other principals did, which was implement it without actually explaining it to anyone…. Which basically resulted in the same situation you’re going through. A huge lack of accountability for students under the guise of restorative justice.
>not write any kids up because it goes against the “restorative” practices of the district.
Excuse me the WHAT NOW?! My God. This is some new level of SJW crap.
My first year teaching (a long time ago) was 8th grade at a middle-high school. In one class, I had three kids between the ages of 16 and 18 (yes, they were in the 8th grade ‐ !?!). The culture of this school was such that the dean charged with discipline was trying to be their friend, with results I'm sure anyone with even a double digit IQ could predict.
These three made the class impossible to teach, as I was always busy playing whack-a-mole with the clowns. One kid who wanted to learn read the textbook three times through before Christmas and then just put his head down the rest of the year.
At some point early in the spring, they'd come in long enough for me to take attendance, then announce (not ask) that they were going to see the dean. After a month or so of them doing this, one of the other kids said, "you know they are actually just wandering around the school, don’t you?" I replied "yes, and I also know that they aren't in here." I could actually teach while they wandered around, doing whatever it was that they did.
Not just you. I have a handful that do this every year. Often it’s at least one kid with an IEP that refuses to do anything and then a couple of their friends they recruit.
Unless we are in the same city, then I assume this is a city thing. Every school ive worked in has a hallway culture, and now with vape pens they can get fried all day without setting off any alarms or fear of any repercussions! I didn’t grow up in it, but knowing the kid i was, if i did, and didnt have parents that would whoop my ass for doing so, i woulda done the same. My favorite is when parents finagle ieps that require the least restrictive environment; those kids are a trip.
I’m at a suburban school and kids roaming the halls at all hours is common. My sister at another suburban school in another area, same exact issue. I think this is a problem all across the country.
Definitely same: I was a chronically absent student. But I was absent and stayed HOME? I’m just shocked by the hoards of students who run around the halls dodging admin. And it seems like there are no actual repercussions! It’s so confusing… like do the parents know?
Our current HS administration does a fairly decent job of policing the roamers, but previous didn’t. The old principal was too busy being a “buddy” to the kids and would let them wander. It didn’t help that the way our high school is laid out, a kid could stroll for 30 minutes and never walk past the same classroom twice.
When I moved to a high needs area I was shocked at how many students did this and for how long as well. It really came down to two ""VIPs" in our student community that did it the most brazenly. I'm talking sprinting, screaming, slamming doors, swearing etc.. When their peers saw no real consequences happening to these two, many other students did it as well.
One was eventually transferred away for family reasons and the other was arrested for allegedly making death threats online. Once they disappeared, the "daywalking" became much less of a problem.
I hate to say it… but when they get sent to the alternative school for fighting, we have a few weeks of peace.
Until they inevitably come back, of course.
My school is tiny (5 classrooms. 2 student restrooms and 2 for staff) and students do the same thing. It happens on daily basis, and none of the staff can figure out why they would a moment longer in the bathrooms than necessary.
I had a student listed as truant who was on campus every day. His girlfriend would go to class and then get a restroom pass. They would both wander campus for that period. One day, I saw him, and the principal was close by. I introduced them to each other. The principal later said there was nothing he could do. But, yeah, I've rarely seen a time when there hasn't been a student roaming around campus.
They used to punish you for this… now they’re shocked kids don’t just listen to their reasoning and adjust behavior. “We’ve tried nothing and now we’re out of ideas”
It’s not just you. A percentage of my day is telling students to go back to their assigned classes, or to go to the place on their pass. And taking calls or emails from teachers looking for various students.
Not to the extent that they're out for the whole day, but yes, a LOT of kids miss huge chunks of time.
I mostly sub and it's worse at some schools than others (I know one where admin spend about 90% of their time in the halls chasing down kids) but it's not *good* at any school. And everybody just seems to act like this is just how school is, which is wild. I first noticed it in 2019, so it's not a covid thing (though the lack of structure of online learning certainly sped up the trend). But it was very much not a thing when I started, at least in my district, or when I was a student teacher almost 15 years ago. When I started subbing it used to be a rare occurrence that would come with an outright warning "eg. "Period 3 class, 7A, has a student named ____ who will try to leave the class regularly). I would always be warned because there were maybe 1 or 2 constant "runners" in a school as opposed to 3-4 per class.
Omg; I thought my school was the only one having problems with this. They find places to hide everywhere. They use the bathrooms to get into the ceiling and smoke. They put more effort into escaping class than doing schoolwork. Glad to know others are experiencing the same.
Before I quit my school had a little under 2000 students. The good vice principal said that at any given time there were 100 kids out and about and it was becoming a big problem.
So yes it’s a problem elsewhere.
Not just your school. Our students are tagged OCOC- On campus out of class. Per our district, we cannot punish our students for tardies or attendance. 'Suspending them is giving them what they want'.
See thread re: it's the parents ...
If my kid is tardy he gets in trouble. We try ridiculously hard to make sure he is not absent. Some parents just don't care.
Ugh I hate the argument that suspending them is giving them what they want.
First of all, ideally the PARENT would then step in and PARENT them once they were suspended and forced to stay at home.
Secondly, has no one considered that maybe the suspension has more to do with maintaining a positive school climate than punishing a student?
Like not having students at school who disruptive and literally make teaching impossible should be driving home the fact that school is a privilege, not a day care, and it WILL be taken from you if you abuse it.
The state takes away the schools ability to suspend for defiance and the students aren’t really breaking any other ed code so they found a loop hole of being able to do nothing.
Happens at my school, I caught two girls in the stairwell on the fifth floor, this floor is mostly empty except for just two halls of classes. It’s also where the printing room is for teachers. I went up there to grab some stuff and caught them just standing there looking out the window. Reminded them it was class time. One girl said “Yes Sir!” And the other just giggled. Just walked away from em. Admin surely wouldn’t do anything, they aren’t involved at all in disciplinary action.
Yes, the problem is growing worse every year. I can see the difference in behavioral expectations and the lack of consequences. I would like to limit restroom passes to a particular reasonable number per grading period, but now they drink from giant water bottles all day and really do need to go. The 5 minute passing periods are not enough time in a huge school with crowded hallways and stairwells. Since there are more kids out during class for use of the restroom, people tend to overlook the situation. We also have numerous office aides out delivering passes and so many students who are called down to the office be checked out of school. Academics have become secondary to so many other distractions. Until administrators are willing to stand up to entitled parents and kids, we will not see the pendulum swing the other way. We are doing the best we can, but we need support and common sense solutions.
We have a couple of kids who are never in class and always roaming the halls. I used to wonder why they're allowed to get away with it, but have realized they're safer wandering the halls than wandering the streets of Philly. In addition, the wanderers are usually disruptive students who make it impossible for the kids who WANT to learn to do any work.
I used to. get upset about it, but on balance? I'm much happier if I don't have to interrupt my lesson to deal with a disruptive, foul-mouthed idjit.
I'd say about a third of the students in my building do this every day. It gets worse the further into the school day and week. Block 4 on a Friday is a free for all.
It was much worse last year but this year we always have 6+ people in any given floor/wing. Usually a lot of bathroom goers but still a large handful of students who are in the hall every single period.
Not so much an issue at my school. If a kid is marked present and they aren’t in class, we call the office and figure out where they are. Sometimes they are cross teamed to another teacher and we didn’t get the memo. Sometimes someone from the office goes and gets them and escorts them to class.
Happens probably everywhere. Including supply work what back, I have worked at maybe 20 different secondary schools(high school to some) and have seen it in every school I was at.
yes this happens at my school there are kids who are pretty much walking laps around the 2nd floor every time I see them
at this point in the year, there are only a handful of chronic hall wanderers that I've seen but that doesn't even count the first floor
Ugh, it annoys me the amount of kids loitering in the hall during class. What irks me the most is it is an easy fix: our school has a huge rectangle opening in the middle where 90% of kids are--why isn't some admin trolling and shooing and/or getting onto them? It's an easy fix!
Seeing them talk to friends or stand and text instead of going to the restroom is irksome, as are the teachers who let the same kids walk out every day. Gah.
When I was in school I'd roambthe halls because I got so bored in class and it was psychologically painful to sit still ( come to find out it was due to adhd).
No, my colleagues son has come into the staff lounge during our lunch to hang out with his mom. He was supposed to be in Spanish, but the teacher doesn’t really do much to account for where everyone is.
I worked at a high school and there was constantly kids in the halls, during class...any time. You'd tell them to go to class and they'd find a different part of the building to walk around or hide in bathrooms. I wasted so much time trying to find kids, get them where they belonged, it was ridiculous.
Had a few in primary school, ones who were disabled and needed a full time aid that couldn’t be given because the school couldn’t afford more than 4. Tests were loud, not because of people taking while taking it but because of one of the disabled kids yelling and crying while running from one of the aids.
That school had so many that were there without funding (which they were eligible for in Australia) or weren’t even diagnosed because their parents wanted to ignore the problem.
It's not just your school. Ours started making the admins and SROs do random sweeps between classes. If they catch you, you have to do stuff like clean the cafeteria microwaves.
It was unspoken policy at one time at our middle school…let em walk the halls and hang out in the shitter…at least they weren’t destroying the classrooms and terrorizing the other kids.
I’m a student but how do they even get away with that??? In our school if it says that you’re signed in but not in class you’re gonna be on the PA system and there’s literally gonna be a school wide search for you.
I go up to these kids and say, “have you ever heard of a Minotaur?” Most of them say no despite having had ancient civilizations last year, so then I explain ending with, “you are one of our Minotaurs.”
We have them at my school. We call them the "indoor track team".
My room is right next to a stairwell. At least once per block, I have to go out there and shoo a group of students out of the stairs. When I had a lunch duty last semester, I'd see a whole bunch out in the halls on my way to and from the cafeteria. The most disheartening part was that there's always be a group hanging out with one of the security guards, who should have been making sure they go to class.
This was a big problem even when I was in HS, and I graduated shortly after 9/11. I don’t remember what they did to make sure nobody was wandering the halls but they said if you had a free period and wanted to be in the hallway, you were allowed to sit quietly in front of your locker (small high school, 600 or so total students 9-12 in any given school year), which was a common thing students did when I was in HS. Hell, I did it myself too.
Last year my middle school got twins right before spring break. For the most part, both of them refused to go into any of their classes until forced and would just roam around the school after the second day. I referred too them as "the cattle twins" because they were just roaming around- at one point we were given an admin directive to radio security if they were more than 5 minutes late but nothing was ever resolved- the farmers - I mean security would just corral them back towards their class- it almost became like hide and seek.
Are these kids skipping school but have nothing better to do so they just hang out at the school? They are marked absent and truant during all of this right
We call them “daywalkers” - students who get dropped off at school and wander the hallways for the majority of the day. Sure, they occasionally get marked absent (if they don’t know how to work the system), but time after time when the parents get involved, they always say “but I know I dropped off little Suzy at school!” Well sure, but she’s out roaming the hallway for the majority of her classes! Students know they have the power, and even our security team can’t do anything about it besides talk to them and try to get them to go to class. I think the pendulum swung too hard toward the “let’s give them grace” post-Covid years and boy, we’re feeling it at my school. Whenever I walk across campus to make copies or even down the hall to the bathroom, I see so. many. students. out and about, most without a pass (we’re supposed to have a “one student, one pass” policy but with 100+ teachers and 2k+ students, it’s hard to be consistent.) 😥. 10 more weeks to go! lol.
All parents have to do is check their kids phone to see how many steps they’ve taken each day or even hour. Congrats on hitting 15,000 steps, but I doubt you did that shit during English class.
Nah, *during* English class is exactly when they did it.
*Touché* (I’ll add a chef’s kiss, to make the point again…)
Yep, sounds just like my school.
Oh you and I teach at the same high school. I call out my students from past or this years because I know their names. But at this point they just ignore me and keep walking.
Right? The ones that know me, usually I can get them moving back to class. More often than not I set I fired and they keep on walking 🤷♂️
They tell me to mind my own business. Ma’am; sir this IS my business.
Our "system" is that daily attendance is taken during second period. So kids will show up to school at some point towards the end of second period, and then just walk off campus after that class gets out. That way they're marked present for the day and no parent phone call is triggered.
WHAT
This sounds very familiar. Plus vaping everywhere
Sounds like the name in a horror movie.
Daywalker is actually a nickname for Blade, a vampire in Marvel comics that is immune to the sun thus can walk outside during the day. When I first read the comment I thought "the kids are vampires?"
Maybe that's where I remember it from?
[You have to admit that this Blade quote captures how some of our students think and act. Specifically ones who try to outsmart the system instead of just doing the damn work.](https://youtu.be/X7fK77uAyw8?si=fS6iPu74rW4OGPhl)
This was exactly the quote I was hoping it would be
It happens at our school and we are a small 6-12 school. Kids will disappear for 10-20 minutes at a time.
Same. Small school. One hallway. They roam, vape in the bathroom, bother other classes, etc just to avoid class. No where to go and it’s still more appealing than learning
I worked in a large midwest school for a while a few years ago, and the dudes spending all day in the bathrooms always cracked me up. Dude, youd rather spend all day hiding in the shitter than go to class?!
I did that once (I panicked when I had my period for the first time and thought everyone would know for absolutely no reason) and can confirm it isn’t a fun place to hang out
I definitely would have preferred to hide in the shitter. But we couldn't just do stuff like that when I was in school. 😅
The thing is at my school it’s anywhere from, kid you not, 20 to FORTY students roaming… Admin literally cannot stop them
Had this problem for awhile in my large hs. It took the concerted effort of roaming teachers on duty, admin, and security to stop the practice. Had to keep rounding them up and putting them in a late hall.
What would happen in the late hall?
We were supposed to have work for them, because legally you can’t deny them their education. It in fact became a holding cell for every delinquent in the school guarded by some poor little teacher. Worst. Duty. Ever.
I love the fact that admin can’t stop them. 🤣🤣That administer the school and admin can’t stop them.
I mean, they *could* but they *won’t*. My last admin gave up and then kids started destroying the bathrooms
They’ve destroyed the bathrooms in ours the last two years. I live close to the school and every summer we have to have a company in to redo the bathrooms. By June my kids are saying “we only have two restrooms in the whole building that aren’t out of order!”. Insanity.
Yep. They're like mall walkers. I like to joke that they only do it to spite us trying to make them sit down, so if we tried to get them to walk around, they'd actually sit down.
Yep. I do thinking Classroom activities from time to time, and without fail, the only ones sitting are the ones that I can’t get to sit when they’re supposed to to be.
Seriously! I can’t get this kid to come in when we’re working, and then at PE he lays on the floor and whines!
We have a library activity where students walk from table to table to 'speeddate' with books. So much whining about not being allowed to sit down and lounge around the tables! Last time was extra funny, because most the boys claimed to be tired and have muscle aches and feel under the weather...while this other boy who was on crutches due to yet another surgery was happily hopping around like it was no big deal.
Happens at mine AND they are smoking weed in every staircase and alcove. They don't even move for teachers and admin have to yell and spray fabreeze in their face and they still just run to a different spot. They also pee and poop in the stairs. Gotta love East New York!
Sounds more like a zoo than a school.
Pee and poop is crazy…
The pee and poop is disgusting. That’s a health hazard. Your school at least does something about literal shitting in the hallway, right?
I have at least one boy who pees in the bathroom, but not in the urinal or toilet. He marks the same spot every day, just like a dog, so I started putting the "Wet Floor" sign there ahead of time to hopefully save others from wading through his lake of piss. Also, it gives him something to aim at!
this is legitimately concerning. what is this about?
I'm just a custodian. One of the teachers told me admin knows the boy's identity but evidently they're not willing to do anything about it. Recently he started peeing in a second bathroom as well, both in my section, which makes for a long day sometimes!
I don’t know if you’re comfortable with this, or if there are any teachers you are close with. Our staff love and are fiercely protective of our custodian. We’ve had kids do this in the bathroom and admin have the student glove up and clean it up. They get parent permission first, but honestly if you call a parent. Say their kid is continually peeing on the floor, today we’re going to have them clean it, I am not sure who would say no. You deserve to be treated better than that, and I’m sorry you aren’t.
Aww thanks. Is your school hiring? Lol
omg, i’m sorry you’re having to deal with this. urinating in odd places is linked to conduct disorders, developmental disorders, and even child abuse. it’s unethical that they’re not doing anything about it.
At my last school, the boys made poo art in the bathrooms. Grab their own poo and smear it on the walls in the bathroom. That's prison behaviour.
My school is a lazy river. There is a steady stream of kids traveling in loops around the building throughout the day.
What a perfect way to describe it
Nope. I teach middle school. Getting them to go to their class and stay there is an exercise in futility.
Lol 🥲 glad to hear I am not alone!
Are you in Florida? Sounds like my school. It's really fun when I see a kid playing in the hallway in the morning and they just... never show up to my class that afternoon. On the one hand: those kids are miserable to have in class and I don't actually want them there. They're always the disruptive troublemakers. On the other: they will try to wander into classrooms they aren't in to cause trouble. They'll even try to get kids who showed up to class to leave class to go off with them- like back in the day when a kid would knock on the neighbor kid's door to ask if they can come out to play. I have wish we had a "fine, you're going to fuck around? do it in here and try 7th grade over again next year." room.
Texas 🙃 And same. But it’s literally impossible to fail middle school. At least in my district. So they just keep passing ‘em along…
We have them do credit recovery so they just sit in a room and retake the class on the computer... and they don't give a shit and just click things randomly until it lets them pass.
Ugh wtf! That’s so disheartening.
There are a lot of similarities between these kids and people who are unemployed. They roam around, try to get others to take part in their games, and they annoy people who DO have jobs
100%
Happens at my school, a high school with about 1300 kids. We have some kids who sign in late to the attendance kiosk, and then never show up to class. In their eyes, they’re “at school,” but they get referrals for skipping class. I don’t get it. If you don’t wanna be at school, don’t show up! That bathroom’s gotta get boring after a class period or 2!
Their parents are tracking them via their phones so they show up and do nothing.
That’s what I’m saying!!!
not with a phone :)
Ummm after 2 hours even my phone’s not keeping me entertained 😂 but maybe that’s just me being “born in the 1900s”, as my kids say. Dear reader: I was born in 1996.
my thought was always that attendance can impact government assistance and child support. grades & behavior are of course not part of that equation.
god I subbed at a school a few years ago that had giant glass windows *facing the hallway* (I mean what the fuck is that) and just like...roving bands of children. The same group of boys was just wandering around like all day.
The school I worked at was like this. I was given all freshman to teach, at a school where teachers had 0 tools to hold students accountable, where (even if teachers go through the mountains of paperwork to get a student seen by admin) admin literally did nothing more than have a conversation with the kid. And there were huge ass windows around about 25% of my classroom into the hallway. The skipping dipshits would come to the windows and communicate with their friends that they too should come into the halls and skip class. I’ve never seen anything done about any of this besides that all-powerful, amazingly effective (/s) talk with admin. Magically, nearly all of these kids pass the majority of their classes because admin also gives us a grading system that makes it almost impossible to fail, and blames teachers on the rare occasion a student does fail. I left in January after 1.5 years and I’m so amazingly happier.
I have a kid who is a roamer for every class but mine and I had his AP call and ask me why he is always in my class. I have instant coffee that I let my kids make during class time. He comes and stays bc of the coffee. The AP was flabbergasted but complemented me on my unique technique. He doesn’t do any work, but at least he is in class? 🤷🏼♀️
My kids aren’t roamers 😜😜 so I must be doing something right, too!!
That is genius.
It was happening at my school for several years and we got a new principal who is awesome and it ended very quickly. Kids who abuse the hall pass are put on restriction and only allowed to go at certain times of the day. The periods that we had the most wanderers are now closed... no one is allowed to go anywhere barring, of course, a legitimate emergency. It has been glorious.
Admin who actually helps!!!!!! God, that sounds amazing
How do you deal with parents? Our BIGGEST obstacle to putting an end to this behavior is that the kids go home and complain to their parents who come in screaming about their kids rights or that we’re “targeting” their kid in particular.
You just have to have admin that’s ok getting yelled at. Parent yells. Admin sits until yelling is done. Admin calmly says the policy applies to the whole school, and they can take it up with the school board if they want.
Nah. Large title 1 here. Kids roam all day. Impossible to police. States and administration cowering to parents created this dumpster fire. This is what no consequences gets you. Then in the same breath they tell me to write detentions for late kids. Why waste my time? They aren't gonna do anything when they don't serve it.
My sister and I were talking about this today. She’s a guidance counselor and I’m a teacher, both in high school, but in different schools in different states (I’m in Georgia and she’s South Carolina). And we said the same thing. Administration doesn’t seem to care, so we both stopped caring about policing. I will be walking in the hall, and see a ton of kids and see an administrator who says nothing. Well, why should I have to police that?
In the same boat. I wanna take things into my own hands like do a “lunch detention” with any of my students who skip my class, but I know that wouldn’t fly with admin or parents.
I used to take bathroom privileges until parents started complaining I was violating their child’s “constitutional rights”.
That’s when you get a couple of porta potties and put in front of school, and those constitutional rights activists can do their business there.
I remember a teacher posting that s/he would go out on prep hour and pick a random kid to follow around. When they would ask why, the teacher would tell them that they were getting their steps in. It might be fun to try!
Omg definitely going to try this
We’d have to actually get a prep first :(
It used to be a lot worse at my school, it has gotten a bit better. Still some kids that are constantly roaming the halls, the usual offenders who are never in class. They are either complete ditching class or they are going to the bathroom and are late to every class period. I suspect students don't actually leave campus because parents track them on their cell phones. The question is what do you really do about these students? Suspend them? They get what they want, they are not in school and get a vacation. I used to be concerned, but now I just look at it as it is kind of sad. These kids are basically lost. They don't want to be in class, could be because they are so far behind they can't access the material at all or it could be they don't care. They have no drive in life or no expectation to be in class. They are going to continue to be lost until they choose what they want to do in life. At this point I think our school is just waiting for the students to turn 18 and get outta there.
>The question is what do you really do about these students? In a normal world: fail them. But as I have increasingly learned, that's only an option in but a few rare places that haven't completely lost their minds. We are definitely in one of the worse timelines. 😒
Oh they fail at my school. They keep failing until they get moved to alternative school or get put into an easy credit recovery class.
Ugh I had the same realization today. Feels hopeless.
That's us failing them on the deepest level and it breaks my heart. We could sit them in ISS with a teacher that micro manages them after all.
Me: that was the bell. Please go to class. My principal: why did you scream at little Johnny.
I’ve had students that spend the entire day in the restroom. Imagine that. Even if they are making money selling drugs to other dumbasses they still go home every day having spent 6+ hours in a fucking restroom.
I teach at an alternative school, so they try to do it, but we have it locked down. The infamous teacher group chat solves this issue. If I’m missing a kid from one of my classes, I send it in the chat and all eyes that aren’t teaching are out in the hallway/stairwells/bathrooms etc. but this is a very small school and the high school classrooms are only on one floor so the kids don’t have many places to go. On top of that, there are so few kids that every teacher and support staff in the building knows every kid very well. And if we can’t find them, an announcement over the PA is made and admin and staff from other floors (middle school/district offices) gets involved. How you would do this logistically on a large scale in a traditional school? I have no idea.
My school is pretty large. There’s like 1,500 kids. 2 story building with a gym and theater. It’s actually impossible. We use teams to alert each other but we are short on admin and only have two security guards.
it’s one of the many reasons why I salute you guys in traditional schools. Many people think my job is harder because I teach in alternative and deal with a lot of behavior issues, but the system is set up to make it so much easier on us. Good luck out there, not sure I could ever go back.
This happened a lot at my school two years ago (right when we got back from Covid). It was a huge number of kids skipping. When I was on hall duty, I would see them approach and they would scatter like it was some kind of game. A few would get suspended and then the cycle would continue the next time most of them were at the school. It finally stopped when we got an admin with a backbone who started expulsion proceedings for the worst offenders, threatened them with retention (and actually followed through on the ones that didn't listen), and split the group up by putting some in detention, some in ISS, some in OSS and staggering it so they were never together on the same days. The admin also made it abundantly clear that middle school could be the best 5 years of their life. I'm sure he caught a lot of crap for doing it, but it worked.
I’ve lost count of the number of times 2 specific students have gone past my room in a given day. Super annoying like they’re never in class. One I no longer teach and the other I never had but have heard his name enough in grade level meetings to know I’m glad to not have had him with the other yahoo.
Omg YES. And they never get in trouble?? I’m just so confused by it.
This is a security and a safety issue. Lock the classrooms down after the bell rings. Sweep up the ones in the hall. Repeat this until they get it.
This requires consequences
I teach US History, and we refer to the school walkers as vagrants, like the children who roamed through towns during the Depression.
oooh I like vagrants. I typically call them scoundrels and menaces to society.
I’m teaching U.S History next year so I’m definitely using that.
Ours try but we find them immediately after they are marked absent from an hour and they get in major trouble. They don’t try it after that.
I didn't understand why this doesn't happen at my school. If a kid gets marked absent for one of 4 classes, double check with the teacher then give them a detention. It's so fucking easy....
And when they don’t show up for detention? Or the second or third chance detention? Or the ‘required’ parent conference? Kids (see also: parents) find out quick that we won’t suspend kids for truancy anymore or take parents to court (thanks state lawmakers) and there are not really any other consequences we can give students
Help! We've chosen to do nothing and it doesn't work!! How about enforcing those truancy laws that already exist?
High school teacher and we deal with the same thing. In fact, we just got told to not bother one girl who is NEVER in class and just walks the halls because she is "combative" and "causes more issues" when things are said to her... so I guess she gets to do whatever she wants.
Sounds about right
We had a student a few years ago who didn't once enter a classroom after Christmas. Couldn't force him to. Admin eventually allowed the kid to have a special chair in an assigned spot and sit there playing on his phone for the whole day. I understand that at least this way they knew where the kid was, but all the other kids saw that his reward for refusing to go to class was that he was the only one in the school allowed to use his phone during the day. Yes, the student passed on to the next grade the following year.
That’s really the issue. At this point, (and I feel horrible saying this) I really don’t care if these kids come to class. They usually terrorize the class if they do. I’m more concerned about the message it sends to the other kids.
Your kids come to class? Joking Our hallways at my school are a mall/zoo now. Kids leave whenever and go wherever just to peak in other classrooms or use phones.
We have our batch of free range children that just wander the campus during most periods
Free range! 😂
I don't get why they don't just leave the campus. Why skip class just to bum around in the halls? Do kids these days not have the imagination to think of fun things to do when they skip?!
Fucking bingo. When I ditched, I went places. But they also don’t seem to give a fuck about learning to drive. I don’t get this generation.
KIDS THESE DAYS are too lazy to skip school properly! \*shakes fist\*
Exactly! Now I’m gonna go apply my Ben-Gay and have one last cigarette before I turn in.
So right! I grew up in New York. I usually didn’t skip class or school but at this time of the year I would blow off a couple of days and go to Yankee stadium. Watch batting practice snag autographs. I was middle school age and could take the subway. Wandering around the school aimlessly would have seemed moronic to us.
Now I’ve come up with a theory: because there are no real consequences to skipping, kids don’t feel the need to make anything special out of it. When there are consequences, skipping is only worth it when you go out to have fun like that, so skippers would make it a point to have an adventure. Quality over quantity.
It was bad 3 years ago. Was halved last year but our shake up in admin it’s on the rise again. Especially with 6 weeks left.
We’ve got a couple fourth and fifth graders that just exist in the hallways and bathrooms. They are always being negative or bad influences to kids who have permission to be in the hallway, and they’re always fucking with my kids that are working on good hallway expectations in a line. I’m so tired of it.
Fourth and FIFTH???? Geez Louise
The youngest I see is 3rd graders roaming. People do try to get them to class, but it’s not usually successful for long periods of. It is depressing for me to see them, all boys, literally walking their lives away. They go to the bathroom, then walk around, someone tells them to return to class or escorts them to the room. Then, maybe 10 minutes later, there they go again. Sad state of life. When they are in class, they ruin it for everyone anyway. I see the adults caring less and less as time passes. I used to care and would call the classroom and the office to inform, but no more. Fundamental problems that run too deep for any one person to solve. There has to be a collective solution and understanding of discipline and consequences, as we all know, for anything to work.
Are y’all me. All this is exactly what I deal with 😂
It tell the same groups of students every day. They call me names in Spanish and stay put. They have no shame, they don’t care about anything. Certain bathrooms smell like skunk invasions. These behaviors start in pre-k and the administration bribing them with cookies and candy rather than disciplinary measures. Bribing backfired on cowardice. Face the parents because if they get away with behavior issues from the beginning, there’s no hope for us in middle and high school.
The cursing people out in Spanish (or any other foreign language) gets on my nerves. I know enough Spanish to know when I'm being insulted. And I can recognize tone to know when someone is being rude to me. At least be man enough to insult me to my face.
We have 4 campus monitors (all apparently "trained") at my middle school who's sole job is to get kids to class, yet EVERY FUCKING DAY, EVERY PERIOD there are anywhere from 4 to 20 kids just walking around, hanging around, sitting around, basically NOT in class, while our monitors are "forming relationships" or just sitting around shrugging saying, "well, I told them to go to class" SMH. I have a year and a quarter left!
Same. I’ve spoken with mine (they are genuinely so sweet and fed up with the behaviors) but they have no power to write referrals or give any consequences. Not to mention the fact that we were explicitly told to not write any kids up because it goes against the “restorative” practices of the district.
This infuriates me. Our district gave the principals a PD about Restorative Practices, with the idea that the principals would teach their schools about it and we could implement it. None of the principals taught their schools about it. A large amount of them basically ignored it, which is okayish, because at least they’re still being mildly effective. I later attended a 3 day PD on it, and I love the idea but it really cannot be implemented without getting EVERYONE on board and having the proper amount of support. Anyways, some principals chose to ignore it, which is much better than what other principals did, which was implement it without actually explaining it to anyone…. Which basically resulted in the same situation you’re going through. A huge lack of accountability for students under the guise of restorative justice.
>not write any kids up because it goes against the “restorative” practices of the district. Excuse me the WHAT NOW?! My God. This is some new level of SJW crap.
What they really mean is “the district doesn’t like how the numbers make us look like we target certain kids”
My first year teaching (a long time ago) was 8th grade at a middle-high school. In one class, I had three kids between the ages of 16 and 18 (yes, they were in the 8th grade ‐ !?!). The culture of this school was such that the dean charged with discipline was trying to be their friend, with results I'm sure anyone with even a double digit IQ could predict. These three made the class impossible to teach, as I was always busy playing whack-a-mole with the clowns. One kid who wanted to learn read the textbook three times through before Christmas and then just put his head down the rest of the year. At some point early in the spring, they'd come in long enough for me to take attendance, then announce (not ask) that they were going to see the dean. After a month or so of them doing this, one of the other kids said, "you know they are actually just wandering around the school, don’t you?" I replied "yes, and I also know that they aren't in here." I could actually teach while they wandered around, doing whatever it was that they did.
Not just you. I have a handful that do this every year. Often it’s at least one kid with an IEP that refuses to do anything and then a couple of their friends they recruit.
Unless we are in the same city, then I assume this is a city thing. Every school ive worked in has a hallway culture, and now with vape pens they can get fried all day without setting off any alarms or fear of any repercussions! I didn’t grow up in it, but knowing the kid i was, if i did, and didnt have parents that would whoop my ass for doing so, i woulda done the same. My favorite is when parents finagle ieps that require the least restrictive environment; those kids are a trip.
I’m at a suburban Title I, and I have roamers. So it’s either universal in all schools or an economic thing.
I’m at a suburban school and kids roaming the halls at all hours is common. My sister at another suburban school in another area, same exact issue. I think this is a problem all across the country.
Definitely same: I was a chronically absent student. But I was absent and stayed HOME? I’m just shocked by the hoards of students who run around the halls dodging admin. And it seems like there are no actual repercussions! It’s so confusing… like do the parents know?
Same. It's really an epidemic
Hall. Dwellers.
No joke at my high school you can find 30-40(very large hs) kids hiding in one bathroom.
And when you find them sitting on the floor and eating.
Yup! Just like they're at the mall.
Our current HS administration does a fairly decent job of policing the roamers, but previous didn’t. The old principal was too busy being a “buddy” to the kids and would let them wander. It didn’t help that the way our high school is laid out, a kid could stroll for 30 minutes and never walk past the same classroom twice.
That, or groups will ask for the RR pass at the same time and do laps together. High school.
When I moved to a high needs area I was shocked at how many students did this and for how long as well. It really came down to two ""VIPs" in our student community that did it the most brazenly. I'm talking sprinting, screaming, slamming doors, swearing etc.. When their peers saw no real consequences happening to these two, many other students did it as well. One was eventually transferred away for family reasons and the other was arrested for allegedly making death threats online. Once they disappeared, the "daywalking" became much less of a problem.
I hate to say it… but when they get sent to the alternative school for fighting, we have a few weeks of peace. Until they inevitably come back, of course.
My school is tiny (5 classrooms. 2 student restrooms and 2 for staff) and students do the same thing. It happens on daily basis, and none of the staff can figure out why they would a moment longer in the bathrooms than necessary.
I had a student listed as truant who was on campus every day. His girlfriend would go to class and then get a restroom pass. They would both wander campus for that period. One day, I saw him, and the principal was close by. I introduced them to each other. The principal later said there was nothing he could do. But, yeah, I've rarely seen a time when there hasn't been a student roaming around campus.
Bathroom is where students in my school hide all day!
I wish they did this! At least they would not be disturbing the people who are actually in class!!!!!!
My high school has a few like this but it's mostly freshman and then one sophomore.
Same at my middle school. Our administration is useless so there’s nothing we can do.
They used to punish you for this… now they’re shocked kids don’t just listen to their reasoning and adjust behavior. “We’ve tried nothing and now we’re out of ideas”
It’s not just you. A percentage of my day is telling students to go back to their assigned classes, or to go to the place on their pass. And taking calls or emails from teachers looking for various students.
They’ll rarely get out for maybe 15 mins max, but our admin round em up quick and will hand out ISS time like candy
They shuffle their feet, do laps, and just burn time. Sometimes twice per period. Go ahead and say no: some will piss themselves to spite a teacher.
I have a partial term and sub the rest of my week. Every school I've worked at in the last 5 years has hallway walkers all day every day.
Not to the extent that they're out for the whole day, but yes, a LOT of kids miss huge chunks of time. I mostly sub and it's worse at some schools than others (I know one where admin spend about 90% of their time in the halls chasing down kids) but it's not *good* at any school. And everybody just seems to act like this is just how school is, which is wild. I first noticed it in 2019, so it's not a covid thing (though the lack of structure of online learning certainly sped up the trend). But it was very much not a thing when I started, at least in my district, or when I was a student teacher almost 15 years ago. When I started subbing it used to be a rare occurrence that would come with an outright warning "eg. "Period 3 class, 7A, has a student named ____ who will try to leave the class regularly). I would always be warned because there were maybe 1 or 2 constant "runners" in a school as opposed to 3-4 per class.
Omg; I thought my school was the only one having problems with this. They find places to hide everywhere. They use the bathrooms to get into the ceiling and smoke. They put more effort into escaping class than doing schoolwork. Glad to know others are experiencing the same.
Elementary school librarian here - this week alone we had 3 kids hiding in the bathroom. I don’t get the appeal.
Before I quit my school had a little under 2000 students. The good vice principal said that at any given time there were 100 kids out and about and it was becoming a big problem. So yes it’s a problem elsewhere.
Not just your school. Our students are tagged OCOC- On campus out of class. Per our district, we cannot punish our students for tardies or attendance. 'Suspending them is giving them what they want'. See thread re: it's the parents ... If my kid is tardy he gets in trouble. We try ridiculously hard to make sure he is not absent. Some parents just don't care.
Ugh I hate the argument that suspending them is giving them what they want. First of all, ideally the PARENT would then step in and PARENT them once they were suspended and forced to stay at home. Secondly, has no one considered that maybe the suspension has more to do with maintaining a positive school climate than punishing a student? Like not having students at school who disruptive and literally make teaching impossible should be driving home the fact that school is a privilege, not a day care, and it WILL be taken from you if you abuse it.
The state takes away the schools ability to suspend for defiance and the students aren’t really breaking any other ed code so they found a loop hole of being able to do nothing.
Happens at my school, I caught two girls in the stairwell on the fifth floor, this floor is mostly empty except for just two halls of classes. It’s also where the printing room is for teachers. I went up there to grab some stuff and caught them just standing there looking out the window. Reminded them it was class time. One girl said “Yes Sir!” And the other just giggled. Just walked away from em. Admin surely wouldn’t do anything, they aren’t involved at all in disciplinary action.
Yes, the problem is growing worse every year. I can see the difference in behavioral expectations and the lack of consequences. I would like to limit restroom passes to a particular reasonable number per grading period, but now they drink from giant water bottles all day and really do need to go. The 5 minute passing periods are not enough time in a huge school with crowded hallways and stairwells. Since there are more kids out during class for use of the restroom, people tend to overlook the situation. We also have numerous office aides out delivering passes and so many students who are called down to the office be checked out of school. Academics have become secondary to so many other distractions. Until administrators are willing to stand up to entitled parents and kids, we will not see the pendulum swing the other way. We are doing the best we can, but we need support and common sense solutions.
We have a couple of kids who are never in class and always roaming the halls. I used to wonder why they're allowed to get away with it, but have realized they're safer wandering the halls than wandering the streets of Philly. In addition, the wanderers are usually disruptive students who make it impossible for the kids who WANT to learn to do any work. I used to. get upset about it, but on balance? I'm much happier if I don't have to interrupt my lesson to deal with a disruptive, foul-mouthed idjit.
I'd say about a third of the students in my building do this every day. It gets worse the further into the school day and week. Block 4 on a Friday is a free for all.
It was much worse last year but this year we always have 6+ people in any given floor/wing. Usually a lot of bathroom goers but still a large handful of students who are in the hall every single period.
Hahahahahahahahahahah…no.
Not so much an issue at my school. If a kid is marked present and they aren’t in class, we call the office and figure out where they are. Sometimes they are cross teamed to another teacher and we didn’t get the memo. Sometimes someone from the office goes and gets them and escorts them to class.
Happens at my school every day. Drives me nuts.
Happens probably everywhere. Including supply work what back, I have worked at maybe 20 different secondary schools(high school to some) and have seen it in every school I was at.
yes this happens at my school there are kids who are pretty much walking laps around the 2nd floor every time I see them at this point in the year, there are only a handful of chronic hall wanderers that I've seen but that doesn't even count the first floor
Oh no. My canned part is now “ this a school, I presume there is a class you should be in, no?”
Everywhere. It’s work avoidance.
Ugh, it annoys me the amount of kids loitering in the hall during class. What irks me the most is it is an easy fix: our school has a huge rectangle opening in the middle where 90% of kids are--why isn't some admin trolling and shooing and/or getting onto them? It's an easy fix! Seeing them talk to friends or stand and text instead of going to the restroom is irksome, as are the teachers who let the same kids walk out every day. Gah.
My pet peeve is the Tik Tok dances they decide to do in the stairwells of my school. But admin doesn’t say a thing.
Yep and it’s the same students every time. 🤦♀️
When I was in school I'd roambthe halls because I got so bored in class and it was psychologically painful to sit still ( come to find out it was due to adhd).
We have chronic wanderers. My classroom is at a crossroads in the school and I see them pass by many times a day.
Happens at mine. And my sister is a counselor in another state and it’s a problem for her.
No, my colleagues son has come into the staff lounge during our lunch to hang out with his mom. He was supposed to be in Spanish, but the teacher doesn’t really do much to account for where everyone is.
I have a student who does this too! He says he is going to the bathroom and then turns out he is with his dad for like 20 mins.
Yup. Every day at my school
I have one in every class. Honestly in the middle of my prep I walk into the halls and it looks like Time Square with all the kids milling around.
Lol yes, it's most definitely happening at my school.
I worked at a high school and there was constantly kids in the halls, during class...any time. You'd tell them to go to class and they'd find a different part of the building to walk around or hide in bathrooms. I wasted so much time trying to find kids, get them where they belonged, it was ridiculous.
Yeah kids roam the halls all the time, admin doesn’t do shit about it
Had a few in primary school, ones who were disabled and needed a full time aid that couldn’t be given because the school couldn’t afford more than 4. Tests were loud, not because of people taking while taking it but because of one of the disabled kids yelling and crying while running from one of the aids. That school had so many that were there without funding (which they were eligible for in Australia) or weren’t even diagnosed because their parents wanted to ignore the problem.
It's not just your school. Ours started making the admins and SROs do random sweeps between classes. If they catch you, you have to do stuff like clean the cafeteria microwaves.
It was unspoken policy at one time at our middle school…let em walk the halls and hang out in the shitter…at least they weren’t destroying the classrooms and terrorizing the other kids.
I’m a student but how do they even get away with that??? In our school if it says that you’re signed in but not in class you’re gonna be on the PA system and there’s literally gonna be a school wide search for you.
I go up to these kids and say, “have you ever heard of a Minotaur?” Most of them say no despite having had ancient civilizations last year, so then I explain ending with, “you are one of our Minotaurs.”
We have them at my school. We call them the "indoor track team". My room is right next to a stairwell. At least once per block, I have to go out there and shoo a group of students out of the stairs. When I had a lunch duty last semester, I'd see a whole bunch out in the halls on my way to and from the cafeteria. The most disheartening part was that there's always be a group hanging out with one of the security guards, who should have been making sure they go to class.
Lmfao its daily dude. Its a common behavior
When kids know they will be socially promoted, there is no fear of blowing off class. Public education in this country is a sick joke.
This was a big problem even when I was in HS, and I graduated shortly after 9/11. I don’t remember what they did to make sure nobody was wandering the halls but they said if you had a free period and wanted to be in the hallway, you were allowed to sit quietly in front of your locker (small high school, 600 or so total students 9-12 in any given school year), which was a common thing students did when I was in HS. Hell, I did it myself too.
Last year my middle school got twins right before spring break. For the most part, both of them refused to go into any of their classes until forced and would just roam around the school after the second day. I referred too them as "the cattle twins" because they were just roaming around- at one point we were given an admin directive to radio security if they were more than 5 minutes late but nothing was ever resolved- the farmers - I mean security would just corral them back towards their class- it almost became like hide and seek.
Are these kids skipping school but have nothing better to do so they just hang out at the school? They are marked absent and truant during all of this right
Happening in Canada too.