Start our schools later

By Laurel Squadron

Summer is over. School has begun. For most high school students, this means the beginning of the back-to-school schedule: going to bed early, then waking up extremely early to catch the bus or drive to school.

Though this may sound like fun, it's not exactly the ideal schedule for most teenagers. In fact, a Brown University study shows that most teens cannot fall asleep until 11 p.m. or later, even if they try to go to bed earlier. And according to a report published by the National Sleep Foundation, teens need 8½ to 9 hours of sleep per night.

Add the fact that most schools start at 7:30 a.m. and you have some tired teenagers. If a student goes to sleep at 11 p.m. - or later - and wakes up at 6 a.m. every day to begin preparing for school, then that student is getting at most 7 hours of sleep per night. This is at least 1½ to 2 hours less sleep than the student needs.

That may not sound like a lot, but those hours have a big effect over time. Research has shown that about 20 percent of students fall asleep during the first two hours of classes. Lack of sleep also causes anger, depression, mood swings, lack of creativity, bad judgment, impaired decision-making skills, and short- and long-term memory loss, and increases the risk of using drugs and alcohol.

So can anything be done to help these tired, angry, depressed, drugged-up teens? The solution is simple - change the school starting times. If schools started later - between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. - teens would no longer be sleep deprived.

Why hasn't this been done? There are two main reasons. The first has to do with bus schedules. Changing the schedules of school buses can be expensive for the school district. But this can be avoided; the West Des Moines School District in Iowa changed its starting times and bus schedules without any additional cost. The district actually used fewer buses because of the later starting time, saving about $700,000 a year.

The other problem with starting later is after-school activities - clubs, sports, and so on. A solution to this problem was found at the Mahtomedi School District in Minnesota. The amount of time between classes was shortened in all the high schools in the district, which allowed the schools to start later but end at the same time. Thus, after-school programs could go on as usual.

The purpose of school is for students to learn. The early starting time of high school interferes with the education of students. It is important for high school to start later, not just for the high school students in the present, but for our society in the future.