Why we need a later start time
By Ronak Dsouza

Aren’t you tired of feeling exhausted in the morning everyday, because you were up all night doing homework? Well how you would you feel if you we had a later start to school?

As a high school student, I know that we are often extremely busy with extracurricular activities, which we enjoy, but take time away from completing homework, which results in not having enough sleep or time in the morning to even eat breakfast. This is why we need to implement a later start for school, so students are no longer stressed out or slumped when they come to school.

“Teens from thirteen to eighteen years old need nine and a half hours of sleep, but the average teenager gets seven hours of sleep,” A spokesperson for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital said.

This is only one of the many reasons of why we should have a later start time. Another factor for sleep deprivation in teens is the heavy high school homework load which causes numerous kids to stay up late, further preventing them from getting the nine and a half hours that they need, settling for mere six or seven hours.

The most tragic part is those who are active members of our Legend community are the ones who are hit the hardest by sleep deprivation. These are students who willingly want to partake in before school and after school activities, in spite of all of the homework, and are, essentially, being punished by the school for participating in out-of-school activities, because of the early school start times. Students shouldn’t have to choose between partaking in a hobby and not being exhausted everyday. A later time would relieve active students from the stressful act of balancing their hectic schedule.

What we should push for is having something similar to a block day, everyday. While it seems like a foreign concept, this was actually what the schedule was like at Legend only five years ago! Block days not only allow more time to sleep but also more time for homework to be completed, getting rid of stress and other emotional or behavioral problems.

With a block day schedule, you are no longer going to be constantly tired when you come to school and with more time in the morning, you will start to enjoy coming to school more.