Editorial: The pitfalls of the pink slip
Receiving pink slips during class can be invasive to students. Two potential solutions include making a single-colored slip for all situations and placing slips in envelopes. Graphic by Alyssa Sanchez
All eyes turn as the dean runner hands a pink slip to the teacher, who reads the name on the slip and hands it to the intended student. Classmates in the room stare and giggle, disrupting class and drawing more attention to the student now holding the pink slip. The student leaves the classroom immediately, as requested on the slip, and heads to the Deans’ Office. Because the slip is pink, many classmates know the student’s destination.
When a dean needs to talk to a student, a dean runner delivers a pink slip to the student’s class. Students may be called to go down either immediately or at the end of class.
The practice of delivering pink slips to classrooms raises privacy concerns. When classmates see someone receiving a pink slip, they immediately know the student is being called to the Deans’ Office. The current system of delivering pink slips can be embarrassing for students, turning a private affair into a spectacle for everyone to see.
Although this is not a legal invasion of privacy, students should be able to keep their personal matters private.
Another issue with the system of delivering pink slips is that dean runners know who is being called to the Deans’ Office. Since the name of the student is on the slip, it is clear to the dean runner who is being called to the Deans’ Office. Dean runners should not have the ability to see who is being called to the Deans’ Office, the same way classmates should not.
There should be a more discreet way of calling students down to the Deans’ Office to respect the privacy of all students. Below are the Editorial Board’s proposed solutions.
I. Use a single-colored slip for all circumstances, regardless of the student’s destination. On the slip, denote where the student should report to and when.
II. All single-colored slips should be placed in envelopes to prevent dean runners from reading the student’s name. The room number should be written on the envelope so the dean runner still knows where to deliver the slip. The teacher can open the envelope and hand the slip to the intended student.
