It is time for schools to listen to medical professionals and adopt later start times. The American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that middle and high schools adopt start times of 8:30 a.m. or later in order to allow students time to sleep. Unfortunately, few school districts have listened. In 2014, 93 percent of high schools and 83 percent of middle schools in the United States started before the recommended time. Choosing to uphold current policies is making the choice to put students’ health at risk.

In 2015, a study performed at Iowa State University found that approximately 40 percent of teenagers got less than seven hours of sleep. This is under the eight to ten hours recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.  When students do not get enough sleep, they are at higher risk for poor academic performance, car accidents due to drowsiness and symptoms of depression. Though technology is commonly blamed for the increasing issues with teen sleeping schedules, it is far from the only issue that can cause this problem.

Take Neuqua Valley’s schedule, for example. Currently, our schedule on all normal school days runs from 7:25-2:25. Students who have undergone puberty, so most middle and high schoolers, are usually told by their natural circadian rhythm to sleep around 10 or 11. This could account for eight hours of sleep but it leaves very little room for error if a student has a late shift in the job they took to pay for college, an athletic event in one of the school’s many sports, a concert in the award-winning music program college essays, a project they procrastinated on or a number of other things. Even if students get home on time, there may be a couple of hours where they simply cannot sleep due to their circadian rhythms. If student schedules were shifted later by two hours, some of the wasted time due to inability to sleep could be used healthily.

For years, health organizations have implored schools to adjust their schedules for the health of their students but very few have complied. This, like many other things in the school system, should not still be a point of contention. In fact, I would argue that there should be no points of contention between medical professionals and school districts. Aren’t both systems supposed to have students best interest in mind?

The job of a school is to educate students, yes. But it also needs to ensure our safety and well being. Often, we spend more waking hours in our schools than in our homes. Schools then, like our parents, need to advocate for us or at the very least listen when we are advocating for ourselves. When you have authority over minors, some of the most vulnerable people in the population because of our lack of control over our own lives, you need to step up and make sure that the policies you are setting in the name of improving our minds are not actually damaging. Please do your job.