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Later start times needed

To the Editor,

Schopenhauer’s three stages of truth:

“All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

At this point of time the Hancock County Board of Education is strongly anchored at first stage.

While national health organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have strongly advocated for sleep health among adolescents, back in 2014 the Hancock County Board of Education and the previous Schools Superintendent ignored everything and did the opposite : they moved the Middle Schools starting time from 8:50 a.m. to 7:20 a.m.

The BOE ignored the fact that vast majority of middle and high school students experience chronic and serious sleep debt which impacts their lives on a daily basis.

Research has clearly shown that these sleep deficits are associated with the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in US teens, including increased rates of depression and suicidal idea, health risk behaviors such as alcohol consumption and substance use, and driving crashes.

The additional link between chronic sleep deficit and such health risks as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes also contributes to what amounts to a public health crisis.

Moreover, the well-established detrimental impact of sleep loss on academic and social-emotional functioning as well as on cognitive functions such as attention, memory retention, learning new tasks, and decision-making increases the individual and societal burden.

I’ve been involved in the “Start School Later” movement for the last three years.

“Start School Later” is a national organization which is trying to raise awareness about the negative impact of starting school too early on middle school and high school children’s health and academic achievement.

Within the last three years, I had presented these studies to Hancock County Board of Education. They don’t care what the doctors said is best for our children, though we elected them believing that their decisions will benefit all children in Hancock County Public Schools.

It is time for our community’s public representatives to stop pretending that their ideas carry more weight than ours. It is time for public officials to listen and respond to our issues and concerns and realize that we are the public they serve.

Many of us in this community are tired of this kind of arrogance and stubborn dismissal of our voices.

If the current members of Hancock Board of Education have another agenda than that of the community they serve, they need to take a serious look at the descriptions of their positions.

It is they who serve to support and facilitate our agenda, not vice versa.

West Virginia is the 47th State in Education and the very Last one in Health.

I am sure we can do much better!

Gabby Fighiroae

Chester

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