Early High School Start Times

 Early high school start times are a problem because many student are having poor academic performance. Many schools are starting before 8:30 a.m. (The recommended school start time). Early high school start times are a problem in today's society because this is associated with many health risks. Including depression and drug use. Students from middle school and higher education levels are the people most affected by this problem. This causes overweight children, symptoms of depression, engagement in unhealthy risk behaviors, and poor school performance. People should care about this problem because many students are sleep deprived causing the possibility that students will engage in substance abuse, have trouble coping with stress, and cause car accidents. Thus leading to more deaths per year.

One failed solution that people have tried is contacting school officials. This was a failed solution because most school officials will commonly mention barriers like transportation cost and scheduling difficulties. Another failed solution is sharing busses among all education levels. This was a failed solution because many parents did not want their elementary school children waiting at a bus stop in the dark part of the year. A proposed solution that I and many other health organizations can agree with is starting school after 8:30 a.m.. I think this is the best solution because it will give teenagers their proposed amount of sleep.

Many academic researchers have worked on this topic and proposed that schools should start at 8:30 a.m. or later. If academic researchers saying something like this is not enough to convince school officials then I have no idea what is. There seem to be no charities for this problem. But if i could make a charity it would raise money for schools that have changed their start times so that they can pay the “transportation cost”.

People should donate to the charity because it would help students in many ways. They should also donate if they have children in school because this charity is to help the students. The world will improve because school average grade will tremendously rise due to students being able to sleep more. Amanda Okesky is a tennessee mother who has first hand witnessed the results of changing high school start times. She said, “Later start times have made a world of difference for my teenage boys”. She also said, “Getting them up is easier, they will actually eat breakfast now and their grades have tremendously improved. Please support this solution because the future of this country and this world will eventually be in the hands of our students.

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