The Sentinel Konah
February 1, 2018
OPINIONS
B1
Health or education first: later start time beneficial to all
ILLUSTRATION BY ARIANNA SILVA
Danika Firth
Web Editor
Is starting school later the best option for high school students? While the pros heavily outweigh the cons there are many issues that could arise with pushing back the start time. Teens may now be able to get the
Many teens suffer from disorders such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, and sleep apnea. While all these are treatable, they cause further disruption to a teen’s life, adding onto the stress we already feel with school, work and family. recommended amount of sleep along with their sports and homework schedule. Currently, teens have a rigorous sleep schedule
due to the buildup of school work, jobs, sports, as well as personal hygiene. The National Sleep Foundation confirms that it is natural for a teen to fall asleep around 11 p.m. We all do it, don’t deny it. With teens needing eight to 10 hours of sleep nightly, waking up around 7 to 7:30 a.m. is deemed ‘normal.’ However, since school starts at 7:50 a.m., there’s no time to wake up fully, get dressed, shower, eat, if we’re lucky enough to not feel sick to eat that early in the morning, and drive the distance to the school. It’s worse for students who live as far away as Florence. New York Times’ Aaron E. Carroll’s article “The Economic Case for Letting Teenagers Sleep a Little Later” and the health website VeryWell both talk about the advantages and disadvantages of students’ being able to sleep later as well as starting school later. With this later sleeping time, high schoolers would be less likely to depend on caffeine to stay awake. This isn’t going to stop us
from having that triple shot Americano macchiato for the biggest wake-up call every morning, but imagine being able to sleep in. Do you stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends? I do, and the effects on the human body can cause trouble with ‘biological clocks’ as well as the quality of our sleep. Many teens suffer from disorders such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, and sleep apnea. While all these are treatable, they cause further disruption to a teen’s life, adding onto the stress we already feel with school work, sports, and family. Vice principal Margo Duneman confirmed that the district has already started talking about an 8:30 starting time to be enacted next year. Mentioning the ‘vicious little cycle’ of students still coming in late, Duneman says that a later starting time will not only benefit students, but aid teachers who have labs and larger lessons to set up for their first period classes. While obviously good for the students, parents come
into question as well. Jobs tend to start a little later in the morning, around 8:30 a.m. or 9 a.m., making it extremely easy for parents to drop their kids off at school before running to work. Parents are just as concerned about their kids’ health as teachers are about their students’. This great sleeping time
Mentioning the ‘vicious little cycle’ of students still coming in late, Duneman says that a later starting time will not only benefit students, but aid teachers who have labs and larger lessons to set up for their first period classes. and hopeful less dependence on caffeine will help teens be more alert during the day, as well as boost academic performance, and help reduce health issues connected to sleep deprivation. However, staying up late to catch up on Game of Thrones, watch that newest season of Stranger Things, or fangirl/boy over Riverdale, will seem more appealing since getting up early won’t be necessary anymore.
Leave a ‘Like’ in my apology: Logan Paul spiral of fame
ILLUSTRATION BY RILEY NIELSEN
Aston Kinsella
Editor-In-Chief At the beginning of the year, famous YouTube Vlogger Logan Paul posted one
Paul’s incident should serve as a sign to the YouTube world that not everything that can be posted should be posted, especially the mockery of the more tragic aspects of the world. of his most controversial and talked about videos that consequently had media buzzing, and landed Paul in not a little hot water. The video was meant to conclude his three-part series in Japan, that featured, as Paul claimed, “respect” toward the Japanese culture–– as he and his gang dressed up in traditional kimonos and proceeded to make fools of themselves in the middle of the city, mocking the citizen’s speech and launching
Pokémon stuffed animals at them and moving cars. In his last video in the series Paul entered the infamous Aokigahara forest, which is primarily known as the world’s second most popular place to take one’s life (behind the Golden Gate Bridge). Paul claims his intentions were to film the haunted aspects of the forest, as cases of paranormal activity are reportedly abundant in this location as well. However, what the group did encounter was an alleged suicide victim hanging from a tree. The group at first thought it was a joke and called out to the person. But as they got closer they realized they shouldn’t be acting the way they were. Paul turned the camera to himself and said essentially, “Suicide and depression aren’t things to joke about, I’m trying to process this right now, and I have a lot of feelings going through my head.” (As the the video has been taken down, this is a paraphrase of his statement.) After the post Paul received many criticisms to his piece, that he should have never posted it in the first place, that if he wanted to make a serious video like his
opening said he should have cut out the jokes and laughter and made the piece more about awareness, not about discovering this person and freaking out about it. Paul from then on fell down a spiral of apologies, a halt on all his current productions, loss of his reputation, and loss of his major advertising deal. While Paul apologizes to his audience and anyone he may have offended, it was all to save face. Paul knew what he was doing when he posted the video, what comments he would get for doing what he did, and the consequences that he could receive. He just thought he could get away with it. I know from experience, it takes a lot of time and tedious effort to create a video, and most of my videos are a few short minutes. Even with Paul’s experience the project would have taken anywhere from 3-7 hours to create, giving him enough time to not only think of what was going in the video, but how it would look, sound, and what he wanted to emphasize. Like Paul, many YouTubers feel the need to post any and all events of the world. While this need creates some
amazing moments, captures the beauty of the life, and can open people’s eyes to the world we may not know, for better or worse it also creates a drive to push the boundary too far. Not everything in life should have the goal to get as many subscribers and likes without a second thought of whether or not something should be posted. The disregard Paul showed to his fans, the general public, and any person who has experienced the outcomes of attempted and completed suicide was beyond disrespectful. It was outright
Paul knew what he was doing when he posted the video, what comments he would get for doing what he did, and the consequences he could receive....He just thought he could get away with it. abhorrent. The consequences he received were just, regardless of what his loyal fans have said in his defense. Paul’s incident should serve as a sign to the YouTube world that not everything that can be posted should be posted, especially the mockery of the more tragic aspects of the world.