Around Ray-Pec and the nation, a long-time debate has ensued over high school starting times. Students have been ranting about changing the school start time from 7:25, to 8:30; an entire hour delay. The arguments thrown out for this debate mostly revolve around inadequate sleep cycles, and nothing more. However, the issue with changing the school schedules goes far beyond the problems of sleep. If the school times were to change, not only would students be missing out on the “real world”, but after school activities such as sports and jobs would be affected. Having school start later in the day will cause more problems than it solves.

The biggest argument for school start times is that of sleep. Walking down the halls, it seems every other word out of a student’s mouth is the word “tired”. This simple problem comes with a simple solution. If a student feels tired, then they simply must “hit the hay” sooner than normal. Instead of staying up until midnight playing Clash of Clans, a student should get settled into bed by 9:30, giving their brain enough time to relax from the days activity. If the student falls asleep around 10, and wakes up at 6, they got a full 8 hours of sleep; the amount recommended by most health professionals.

Aside from a “lack” of sleep, after school jobs would be affected. Most high school students have after school jobs that start between hours 4-5. Students participating in COE leave in the middle of the day, as early as third period, which gets out at 10:18. If schools were to start an hour later, they would also get out an hour later. Students would now be rushing to 4 o’clock shifts after school, and COE would get 2 measly hours of education. Student jobs and student education would no longer be able to be balanced.

Extra-curriculars would also take a large toll on school time changes. Most sports practices, (yes even band) last until about 5-6, depending on the sport. currently, that is about 3-4 hours of practice a day, not counting game times. Games are also accounted for. Students participating in sports understand the necessity of starting games and practices on time, and in order to prevent injuries in a game, sports teams usually take an hour to limber up. Sports starting at 4 would be moved back to five, or students would get out even earlier, now including for home games.

I understand most students have busy lives, and need to stay up partying on weeknights to fill their “social needs”, but that should not require the entire school to change their schedule. In order for one student to get an adequate amount of sleep, an entire student body should not have to change their lives. Fixing school times may fix the “tired” problem in the halls, but it leaves many more problems in its wake.