SLEEP: School starting later will make students with extracurriculars lose the little sleep they get.
By Kate Diguglielmo, Staff Writer
Gavin Newson, California’s governor, has signed the law stating that schools will not be allowed to start until 8:30 a.m. However the big question is, will this law really benefit the students? No, this law will push students towards having a worse sleep schedule, causing them to get fewer hours of sleep each night.
According to a new report released from the U.S. Census Bureau about 57% of students between the ages of 5 to 17 participate in extracurricular activities. These students’ sports and other activities such as art or a foreign languages usually take up an hour to two hours and start later in the afternoon. Making school start later will lead to either having no time to do schoolwork between sports and school, or sports starting later leading to a later bedtime.
The benefits of not starting school until 8:30 a.m. are obvious, but unfortunately they might not be fully thought through. Many believe that the new time will lengthen the amount of sleep, but many students don’t feel that way. Delaney Norris (9), an athlete on the Poly Waterpolo team agrees. She states “Everyone would just go to bed later and wake up later, still getting the same amount of sleep, so those who are sleep deprived, will stay that way.” Norris is simply saying that as a teenager, many kids do not like to sleep and create great memories at night. So even if time was moved later, most likely kids would just stay up for the fun of it.
After continuously hearing about students who do extracurriculars, one may think, what would a student with no after school activities think? Andrew Gallindo (9), who is not doing a sport at the moment states, “ Yes! I know it’s only 30 minutes, but that 30 minutes would be nice. Like an extra cushion time. So I would get up a little later.” So to answer that question, the 43% of students not doing any activities would enjoy the extra sleep. However, a majority of students do partake in after school activities and would more likely not enjoy the new time based off that they wouldn’t gain sleep and may even receive a less amount.
The law stating that high schools can’t start until at least 8:30 signed by Governor Gavin Newson has displayed a negative effect on students with after school activities, however it has demonstrated a positive effect on students with no activities. The law will soon be put into effect and the students real reaction will soon be known.