Columbia, Missouri Teen Makes Big Changes in Her School’s Schedule

Seventeen-year old Jilly Dos Santos made an enormous impact on her school community, as well as on the well-being of her fellow students, by doing a little research and speaking up. The teen, a sophomore at Rock Bridge High School, had consistently struggled with getting to school on time for the 7:50 a.m. first bell, so when she heard that her district’s school board was meeting to discuss shifting the school’s starting time to 7:20 a.m., she decided to take action.

Like most teens, Jilly Dos Santos was sleep-deprived. But she also knew that there was a biological reason for that in her own case as well as in every other teen. She decided to speak to the board to educate them about the growing movement to adjust school schedules to reflect the body clocks of adolescents.

High schools all over the country have been making a shift in their starting time and have been finding that the switch has made a real difference for their students. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-study conducted at the University of Minnesota analyzed the impact of the later start time on students from eight high schools across three states. They found that students were scoring better on standardized tests, achieving higher grades in class, showing much improved mental health and attendance and getting involved in fewer automobile accidents. Even professionals who were critical of the study’s methodology acknowledged that its results were “promising”.

The arguments in favor of pushing high school hours later make good sense. In sleep studies, scientists have determined that when adolescents experience surges of hormones and prolific brain development, they are able to learn better and do better socially when they are able to get between eight and nine hours of sleep. Getting adequate sleep also seems to help prevent risky behaviors and impetuous decision-making.  Unfortunately, because the adolescent brain releases the sleep hormone melatonin later in the evening then is true for children and adults, they don’t begin to feel drowsy until about eleven o’clock at night, with some staying up later than that, particularly if they are using electronic devices that slow the release of melatonin by simulating daylight.

Despite all of the arguments in favor of postponing the start of school to maximize teens’ sleep potential, many people object to the idea. The reasons they cite include the disruption it would make to sports or employment schedules, time taken away from extracurriculars or homework, and the difficulty it might pose to parents having teens around in the mornings while they need to leave for work or help younger children get ready for school. But most of these objections are explained honestly with the simple idea that people aren’t buying the idea that sleep is that important.

Jilly Dos Santos was motivated by the threat of her losing some of the little sleep that she was getting, but she was equally motivated by a project that had been assigned during an AP World History class she was taking. The teachers had challenged them to find a topic that ignited their passion, and had been harping on the idea that leadership required action.  In response Jilly did exactly that. She stayed up all night to put together a plan and mobilize her fellow students via Twitter and a Facebook page. She notified students about the school board meeting that was being held in a matter of days and sent out emails to the teachers in the school. In addition to starting an online petition to show dissatisfaction with the idea of moving the school’s opening time earlier, she did research on the science of the teenage need for sleep.  She solicited help from a nonprofit group called “Start School Later” and assigned small topics to several of her friends. She even went so far as to suggest a dress code for students who planned to attend the school board meeting.

At the meeting Jilly stood up and spoke about what she had learned, telling the school board, “You know, kids don’t want to get up. I know I don’t. Biologically, we’ve looked into that.” The board took a vote and decided to leave the schedule as it was, allowing the students the extra bit of sleep that they had nearly taken away from them.

Energized by her win, Jilly started the next day on attempting to get the school day to start even later. The idea has been floated in many other districts and schools, and has even gotten the endorsement of the Brookings Institution and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The study conducted by the University of Minnesota followed 9,000 students, both before their schools made the switch to a later time and after. Before the switch about 30% of students indicated that they were getting at least 8 hours of sleep, and those who reported less than that had experienced signs of depression and used stimulants, drugs and alcohol far more than those who got adequate sleep. The results were the same regardless of the income brackets.

After the switch to an 8:35 or later start time, almost two thirds of students got 8 hours or more of sleep. One school’s number of student car accidents dropped from 23 in a year to 7. Another school found that student’s early morning class GPAs rose significantly.

Jilly gathered data and continued her campaign until the school board decided to debate the issue. At the end she expressed her appreciation for their having allowed her to have a voice and reminded them that it was the right thing to do for the students. The board agreed and voted to move her school’s start time back to 9:00 in the morning.

Though not everybody is happy, the school is working hard to accommodate complaints by doing things like adding WIFI on school buses so that homework can be done on the way home and offering some classes online.  More importantly, parents and teachers have reported that students are better rested and more alert.