At 7:29 a.m., the first-period bell rings to start the eight-hour school day at Penn-Trafford High School. Initially, it does not sound that early, but when that early morning schedule is repeated five days a week for 36 weeks, it becomes a lot on the teenage brain and body, especially when the average teen gets seven hours of sleep per day, according to a 2015 study by Harvard Health.

    Adults, doctors and administrators might be inclined to say that a student’s lack of sleep is due to unhealthy eating habits or staying up late on screens, but I believe the biggest factor is waking students up before a majority of adults’ 9-to-5 jobs start and forcing them to learn and retain everything from Biology to U.S. history. 

     Students also cannot get the proper rest when teachers pile on homework, projects and other work that needs to be done outside of class, forcing students to stay up later working on it. On top of the possible hours of work outside of class, many students participate in school-sponsored extracurricular activities that schedule games, practices and rehearsals to end as late as 10 p.m.

     My solution to these late nights and tired mornings: school starts later. The school day does not need to start at 7:29 a.m. It could start later, even around 8-8:30 a.m. This extra half an hour to an hour could drastically improve students’ mental and physical health by allowing them to get better sleep and nutrition and perform better at school. 

     Between early mornings, work outside of class and late extracurriculars, students are struggling to get enough sleep. This later start time would allow students to wake up later, closer to when their bodies naturally want to wake up, making them much more focused for early morning classes. 

     This change would also help teachers, parents and bus drivers. Teachers wouldn’t have to be at school quite so early, allowing them more time to sleep and get work done in the mornings if needed. It gives parents who choose to wake up to make their child breakfast and/or drive them to school a little more time to hit the snooze button if they would like it. Lastly, this change in start times would give bus drivers more time in the morning to sleep, especially when many bus drivers start their route very early with some picking up kids at 6:30 a.m.

     I understand some people’s argument that school should start early to give students enough time after school for themselves to complete school work, extracurriculars, take naps, or attend jobs. But honestly, I would rather end school at 3-3:30 p.m. and start later. If everything is pushed back about 30 minutes, and the classes remain the same 40 minutes, students will still get plenty of time after school for jobs and other after-school commitments.

     Some might argue that students have plenty of time to sleep, yet are tired in the morning due to bad nutrition. But the reason many kids struggle to get good, healthy food in the mornings is because they are rushing to get to school, sometimes before the sun rises. If school is at a later start time, students are given much more time to get a healthy breakfast instead of rushing to get to school before 7:29 a.m. 

     The last major reason someone might argue against a later time is that students have enough time to sleep. But, the use of screens is the reason they struggle to get it. While I agree that screens are the reason many sleep patterns are disrupted, sometimes it has a good intention. For example, in most work outside of school computers are needed to complete assignments. Whether it is to answer questions off of a Google Doc, read an email their teacher sent because they were absent or complete a Delta Math assignment, there are many reasons teenagers need a screen to complete the work they were assigned.

     When taking all these reasons into account, why not start school later? It does not have any major negative effects, while the positives seem to be plenty. It would be beneficial to students’ health, nutrition, ability to focus and therefore grades for those first couple of classes of the day. Additionally, it would also be beneficial for teachers, parents and bus drivers. Lastly, it would also help attendance as I promise that there would be fewer tardies if kids were given more time to sleep. 

     According to Sleepfoundation.org, teens should get somewhere between eight to ten hours of sleep per day and while it might not get teens to that full eight to ten hours it will certainly improve their hours of sleep by pushing the start time back.

     I am not the only student who believes school should start later. Out of a survey conducted with 127 P-T students from across all four grade levels, 72.4 percent, or 92 students, stated that they believe school should start later. Even a teacher stated that she believes school should start an hour later. Most students agree and said that school should start around 8 to 8:30 a.m., with some stating it should start as late as 10:30 a.m.

     Some students also believe that the times of the elementary schools should be switched with the high school. 

     “Students in elementary school should go to school earlier and high schoolers should go in later. Have elementary schoolers start coming in at 8 and have middle school start at 8:45 and then high school at 9:30” suggested senior Jacob Dietz.

     People might counter Dietz’s idea because high schoolers might need to be home before elementary schoolers because they might need to babysit/help take care of the elementary schooler. But if a high schooler is leaving after the younger kid then they could possibly help them get breakfast, get ready in the morning and just hang out with their younger sibling.

     Another student, sophomore Tyler Kido, brought in the argument that a later start time would mean more energy in the morning.

     Kido stated, “I believe that if school starts later students will be more energized and ready to learn in the early periods of school.”

     Even if you do not agree with these particular students’ arguments I think you can agree with freshman Abigail Punturi’s reason she wants school to start later.

     “I hate having to wake up at 6 a.m,” Punturi said.

Mia Williams, Business Manager