At Tuscarora High School, the school day begins at 7:30 a.m. This is an extremely early start time, especially since a lot of teachers expect you to be actively listening and learning when you have only just woken up and likely haven’t had breakfast. The average teenager needs 8-10 hours of sleep per 24 hours, while most teenagers only average 6.5-7 hours of sleep. Data shows that starting school this early in the morning has a negative impact on student sleep schedules which is harmful to teenagers’ academic performance and physical health. Extracurricular activities, such as jobs or sports outside of school, may keep students away from home longer and also have a big impact on the time students can get to sleep at night. Schools across Frederick County should all set school start time back at least an hour to ensure students come in well cared for and ready to learn.
Plenty of high school students across the country struggle with lack of sleep. Insufficient sleep has been shown to be linked with lower grades and academic performance, higher susceptibility to mental disorders and poor physical health. A delayed start has been shown to relate to improved attendance, less sleeping in class, better sleep during the night and less vehicle crashes.
Camille Leak, a student at Tuscarora High School, stated that waking up everyday at 6:00 a.m. is inhumane. “There’s so many people that work, take care of other family members, and support themselves. We aren’t academic robots, we are human beings trying to survive.”
Starting the day at 6:00 a.m. can be highly stressful and problematic for students, especially those that have activities such as sports or jobs outside of school. Imagine you come home from an almost seven hour school day just to go to work, sports practice or even both. A lot of schools assume that students are just students when in reality, students or not they’re humans and have struggles and responsibilities outside of school just like anyone else.
Here at Tuscarora High School, a lot of students come to school visibly tired. Many students can be seen coming in late, sleeping in class and simply showing up to class less. During first block, presumably when students are most tired, around 4-5 students show up late to class everyday. Data indicates that schools that started at 8:30 a.m. had much less tardiness along with an overall sleepiness scale than students that started school at 7:25 a.m. or earlier.
Imagine the struggle for students who have a math or English class at 7:30 in the morning but have only slept for less than six hours the previous night. How is that student supposed to actively learn? Neuroscientists stated that the teenage brain is not fully awake and ready to learn until around 9:00 a.m. So why are schools starting anytime before? Some argue that changing the start time would interfere with transportation for bus riders or car riders. Some students depend solely on buses to pick them up and take them home and the same can be said about those that rely on parents. Parents cannot simply change their schedules or leave work to pick up their children, and the schedules of parents must be considered or more problems with transportation will be presented.
The opinions on start time are very divided between students, parents and staff and every voice deserves to be heard since this choice affects us all.
