At 7:30 a.m., Glacier Peak High School students are expected to be in their classrooms and settling into the beginning of first period. At 7:30 a.m., the hallways are scattered with lingering students as they trudge their way to their classrooms with hopes to delay the inevitable and students with hearts pounding in their chests, scrambling to get to their first period, dreading being marked tardy. At 7:30 a.m., the bell rings, or rather beeps, in a sort of calming, melancholic way and marks the official beginning of each and every school day. After 7:30 a.m., depending on if the teacher felt merciful or not, warnings are issued, parents are called, and lunch detentions are arranged for students who walked into the classroom late one too many times. Or, in the case of those who start their days in Ms. Dobeck’s class, they suffer an even worse fate; the denial of a Dobuck. 

Depending on where you may live or the complexity of your morning routine, you may be getting out of bed as early as 5:00 a.m. Or, if you’re more like me, you scramble out of bed at 7:10, put on some presentable clothes, and rush out of your home with a to-go snack that will keep you going until lunch.  

In the United States, the average amount of sleep that the average teenager gets per night is about six and a half hours. The recommended amount of sleep is eight to ten hours. Many of us feel the impacts in our day-to-day lives.  

“I physically can’t do it,” said junior Diego Cumplido. “I get up at 7:20 and get to school like 7:45 every day,” 

Due to lack of sleep, students falling asleep in class is a common occurrence at GP and schools across the country. According to NPR, at least 20 percent of high school students fall asleep daily while at school. The lack of sleep and the consequences of school starting so early for many schools make up many of the arguments for advocates of later school start times. Groups such as the non-profit organization, Start School Later, otherwise known as Healthy Hours, also argues that having school start at 7:30 or earlier is detrimental to the health and wellness of teenagers and school success. Many GP students echo these thoughts.

“I absolutely think it needs to be later, even just an hour. I think 8:30 would be a great time. The elementary schools start at 8:30 and we start an hour earlier even though it has been scientifically proven that teenagers need way more sleep than the younger kids. Makes no sense to me,” said senior Linnea Mitchell. 

In 2016, Seattle Public Schools changed their school start times from 7:50 to 8:45 and local studies have shown that the increased sleep that it allowed is linked to higher attendance rates and improved academic performance.

However, many families worry that a change in the school start times could make transportation and after-school activities more difficult. There are also many students at GP who are satisfied with the school start time as it is and some who would prefer it to be earlier.

“I’m ok with the start time,” said Avalon Lacy. “I kind of wish it was earlier because my stepmom drives me to school and she has to be at work really early so I get to school at like 5:45 and I wake up at 4:15 because I live really far away.”

Many opponents to delaying start times argue that it could negatively impact families, especially single-parent households and parents, and guardians who do not have flexible workplace times. Starting school later also potentially would result in school ending later, pushing back after-school activities such as sports and social clubs along with time to complete homework.

“I think the start time is good as is,” said Aiden Mair. “We have plenty of time after school for homework or after-school activities.”

In 2019, the California state legislature passed a bill to mandate that high schools would start no earlier than 8:30 am and was enacted in 2022 to mixed reactions. Many superintendents, teachers, and families alike spoke out against the law for the disruption it caused in the transportation of students to school as well as the decreased amount of time students had for extracurricular activities and homework.

Here are some more thoughts from Glacier Peak students on the school start time:

“I live 25 minutes away from the school and have to wake up at 5:30 daily to get ready and get to school on time, without being stuck in immense traffic. The school starting at 7:30 feels detrimental to how we as students learn because studies have shown that our brains learn better later in the day. And during the dark winter days, it is especially hard to drive and function in the morning” – Julia Hall

“I don’t like the start time. I think school should not be as long as it is. But I would rather the start time be at 7:30 than the end time be later. I get up at 5:00 am for school” – Kayla Long

“I hate it because growing kids need more sleep especially teens since we have to work harder than someone in elementary school and with harder work we’re up later and we still need sleep but we have to wake up early! Plus since a lot of people have to walk to school they have to get up even earlier. I’m lucky to be driven so I only wake up at 6:00 but I know a lot of people who get up at 5:00 or earlier.” – Lilah George

“When I was going to school at normal time when I didn’t have my concussion, I woke up at 5:30 to get ready and I left the house at 6:30 but almost every morning I would be so tired I’d be falling asleep at stop lights. and since I had homework the night before I’d never get to sleep before 10:30. Currently I am going for second to sixth period. And let me tell you waking up at 7:30 or 8 is so much better I no longer start falling asleep.” – Shroom Finch

“I wake up between 5:30 to 5:50 and sometimes 6 and it was almost always around 5:30 when I used to ride the bus. My personal opinion is that our school, and in general most high school start times are too early. I’ve seen so many studies and factoid things that say that teenagers specifically need 8 to even 12 hours of sleep at night but the high schools have to wake up the earliest. Of course younger kids need sleep too but they generally don’t have a ton of homework, a ton of activities, extra and so they have a great ability to take naps or go to bed earlier. Knowing this, it doesn’t make sense to me why the high schools start so early and elementary students go to school later. Ofc there are difficulties with parents who work sometimes but even with the later start time there will be difficulties with parents and school start times no matter what in elementary school. Also, I know a lot of my friends and just fellow classmates are super super tired in the morning because of late nights and then early mornings and they can’t focus or they fall asleep during the day. If our school had a later start time it seems that students would be able to focus more and would be less exhausted throughout the day.” – Isabelle Paulsen

What do you think about our current school start time? Do you like it? Do you wish it were later? Share your thoughts with us!