Early school start times hurt students

Young Voice, by Danielle Lincecum

Although some people feel schools should start around 7:15 a.m., schools must start later rather than earlier. In the first place, early start times are not healthy or reasonable because students are not getting enough sleep, and lack of sleep causes bad grades, violence and can also cause emotional breakdowns.

In addition, to starting school so early is not important. Without a doubt, we don't want the results of early start times in our schools.

Your alarm clock rings. You look up, push snooze and fall back into a deep sleep. Beep, beep, beep … finally you jolt out of bed. You realize it is 6:30 a.m. and you don't have time to take the shower you need.

Your mom walks in. "What have you been doing?" she asks. "It's 6:30."

"I know" you yell, exasperated. You throw on your clothes and stalk to the bathroom to do your hair and makeup. You're totally stressed. You're failing language arts, and the teachers are grumpy because they have to wake up hours in advance to prepare. This is how most teens feel -- tired, stressed and overworked.

Let's be reasonable. Should school really start at 7:30 or earlier? Is it really necessary?

Mary Carlson, an adolescent sleep expert, says prepubescent changes in body chemistry make it difficult for teen-agers to go to sleep early.

"Combined with early school start times, students are going to school sleepy," she said. "They're going to school while their brains are asleep."

Teen-agers need eight or more hours of sleep each night. Lack of sleep can cause poor grades, trouble concentrating and sleepy teen-agers are more likely to have negative moods and behavioral problems.

Are early start times so important that we have to put our health and academic futures at stake?

In an effort to pay attention to school start times and teens' biological clocks, the Minneapolis school district changed start times from 7:15 to 8:40 a.m.

The benefits included improved attendance rates, better grades and less trouble with students.

Lack of sleep also causes health issues such as mononucleosis. Students who suffer from lack of sleep are more apt to get colds, the flu and viruses.

As you can see, early school start times are absurd. After hearing these facts, why would we want to continue such early start times in our schools?

Danielle Lincecum is a Palmer Junior Middle School student.