Schools
Temporary Mechanical Failure Leads to Permanent Dismissal of Passing Bell
Staff at Kirkwood High School discovered some unexpected results after the school's passing bell stopped working.
Something’s missing at these days.
It’s the blaring of the bell that marked the beginning and end of each class period, interrupting conversation in each classroom, office and hallway across the 47-acre campus.
Principal , for one, doesn’t miss it.
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“It was pretty obnoxious,” Havener said. “It was a very loud horn-type of sound, something like the horn on a train.”
The bell went missing early in the school year. One day it just stopped working, sending five principals and six walking counselors scurrying through the halls for the rest of the day, ducking into classrooms to let teachers know when to start and stop class.
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“We decided after the first day we couldn’t keep that up,” Havener said.
So teachers were told to keep track of the time themselves and start and end class accordingly. Administrators got to work getting the bell fixed.
But then they noticed something.
“We noticed that the students were getting to class on time and the hallways were much quieter,” Havener said. “The tone was different – it was calmer. Staff and students were still in the hallways but it wasn’t that rushed feeling.”
It took about a week to fix the bell. In the meantime, Havener asked an assistant to check on the tardy rate and they noticed something else: tardies had dropped in half.
A survey of the staff found that 70 percent liked the sound of silence. Even some of the teachers who missed the tardy bell found ways to adapt.
Now the bell is on permanent hiatus. What sealed the deal for Havener was the number of students who came to tell him thank you.
“That shows us that you trust us,” they said.
Still, there are those who think school runs a little less smoothly without the bell.
“I think it’s more chaotic now,” junior Grayson Norris said. “People just walk in to class whenever they feel like it and there are no real consequences. I think we need something so we actually know when class starts and ends.”
Maybe not the old bell, she added, but “something nice and pleasant.”