According to an article written by Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education, students aged 13 to 18 require 8-10 hours of sleep, but 73% of high school students only get 7 – 7.5 hours of sleep
Pulling from that same article, there is a link between sleep deprivation, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and depression as well as anxiety.
The National Library Of Medicine analyzed the results of 38 reports regarding the effect of later school start times on students. They came to the conclusion that waking up later leads to less tardiness, more attentive students and reduced depressive symptoms.
An article from the American Psychology Association speaks of how, in 2019, California passed a law that middle and high schools must start at 8:30 a.m. or later. In 2022, it went into effect. In 2023, Florida passed a similar law.
In fact, if you narrow it down, students at Westerville South High School go to school significantly earlier than almost every other school in Ohio.
Data collected by the National Center for National Education Statistics in 2017- 2018 stated the average start time for a high school in Ohio is 8:15 a.m.; whereas, Westerville South starts at 7:25 a.m., a whole 50 minute difference.
The effects of this are clearly seen in our attendance statistics. Westerville South has 170 tardies per day on average. That means roughly 12% of our student body arrives late.
It is obvious that classes at Westerville South start early, especially in regards to other schools, and that students might be better off academically and mentally if school started later.
So why has the district not pushed back start times?
“For lots of reasons,” Principal Micheal Hinze, said.
“We have a lot of students that take care of their siblings after school or have after school jobs and their families rely on us to get out pretty early,” Hinze elaborated.
It’s a lot more complicated than just “the data” or even the fact that later start times have worked for other schools. There are various factors that South specifically has to weigh when considering the matter of start time.
Westerville South is a very diverse school, with hundreds of students from wildly varying economic and social backgrounds. Getting out early allows students whose families rely on their presence to get home quicker.
There’s also the question of transportation. According to Hinze, Westerville South is “heavily reliant, relevant to other districts, on school transportation”.
With modified start times, the time buses have to arrive to pick up students’ changes as well, which would cause a domino effect that would require the changing of every other start time in the school district.
Additionally, some schools may be fine with the current time, or want their time changed in a way that wouldn’t mesh with Westerville South’s desired changes. Different schools have different people, and will have different needs as a result.
In the period of 2019 to 2022, Westerville South administration did ask families if they wanted to push start times back and presented some possible times to them. But, according to Hinze, families couldn’t come to a consensus, so they decided to stick with the current start times.
As a student, you have a say in your community. Your voice matters. But, along with your voice comes the voice of every other student, and parent, and guardian, and family.
When a community as large as Westerville tries to be respectful to everybody, many people naturally have to take some bum deals here and there.
“But no, it wasn’t just us deciding to torture the high school students,” Hinze continued, “because I don’t like waking up this early either.”
Justin Ferguson, Westerville South counselor and wrestling coach, said, “To me it’s like, whatever the structure is, it’s laid out for you to play it out […] this is what it is, so how are you going to make that happen for yourself?”
Ferguson said he wakes up eye-wateringly early, at 4:45 a.m., and he doesn’t get enough sleep. He agreed it would benefit students to have a later start time, but he also acknowledged that sometimes, you have to go with the cards you are dealt.
“My job needs me to be there at such and such a time, I have to be there, like period, or get a different job,” Ferguson said.
Administration as Hinze noted has to strike a middle ground.
School start times aren’t going to change any time soon. Instead of lingering on the things you can’t control, students can focus on the things that they do have control over.
According to a Scribe survey of Westerville South Students, 34.2% of students here at South go to bed late due to distractions, such as their phone, or video games. 26.3% of students go to bed late due to schoolwork, and 21.1% go to bed late due to extracurricular activities, such as sports.
That same survey found that 44.7% of students only get 4 to 6 hours of sleep on average, likely for these three reasons. Looking at the reasons noted, there are some things individual students can do to regain control of their sleep.
The 26.3% of students going to bed late due to schoolwork have their hearts in the right place. School is important.
But going to bed late due to schoolwork can set you up to be lethargic and tired the next day, leading to poor absorption of the material, which means you have to take more time with the subject, which means you have to stay up even later to work.
Instead of sabotaging yourself, students should try and keep a consistent sleep schedule, and keep track of their work with a planner of some sort, as to minimize staying up late doing work you either forgot about or forgot to factor into your schedule.
Similarly, the 21.1% of students who go to bed late due to extracurricular activities should take care to make sure their schedule has a consistent sleep time.
According to the previously cited Harvard article, students should “prioritize sleep”. Think of it less as something you will naturally fall into, and more of a scheduled event you have to get to.
Finally, the 34.2% of students who go to bed late due to distractions. This is the most straightforward reason to fix, as most distractions are found on technology like phones and laptops and TV’s.
Avoiding technology for at least an hour before bed will not only stop you from losing track of time playing games or scrolling on social media, but will also increase the quality of your sleep.
Sleep is extremely important, but you can’t always rely on the system to give you the things that you need.
You have to build some habits yourself, by your own strength and willpower.
