California Governor Gavin Newson passed a new law on Sunday, Oct. 13th, 2019. The law does not allow most public middle and high schools to start earlier than 8:30 a.m. The premise of the law is to set aside extra time in the morning for teenagers to get more sleep. A huge worry for doctors in the United States has been the issue of sleep deprivation. 

DHS’ first hour starts at 7:40 a.m. That’s earlier than the California law permits. So, are kids at Dow not getting the correct amount of sleep that they should be? 

“I probably get six to seven hours every night, which is not enough,” freshman Evan Hannon said.

Hannon was homeschooled through all of his middle and elementary school years. When he was home schooled, he got more sleep than he does now in public school. He believes his lack of sleep is negatively affecting his schoolwork.

According to Johns Hopkins pediatrician Michael Crocetti, teenagers should be getting nine to nine and a half hours of sleep each night. The human brain is developing in new ways when it reaches its teenage years. The appropriate amount of sleep supports that development.

“If they just made where we got to school an hour later, it would help a lot,” Hannon said. 

According to assistant principal Jennifer Coppens, there has not been any talk or ideas regarding pushing the start of the school day back at any of her recent meetings.

“There comes a domino effect,” Coppens said.

The effect Coppens is speaking of is the fact that if the start of school is moved back an hour, students get out an hour later. All of their after school activities would start later and they would get home later and potentially go to sleep later.