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Inside Greenwich Town Hall, members of the Board of Education, doctors, parents and students met to rally for later start times at the high school.
Board of Education member Peter von Braun has launched a petition to change the start time at GHS from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
“Sleep is like pressing the save button on a word processing document. Insufficient sleep is like pressing delete by accident. With chronic sleep deprivation, noting make sit to the hard drive,” said psychologist Dr. Beth O’Donnell.
“Sleep deprivation impairs judgement and reaction time, increases injuries, even in elite athletes, and leads to illness,” said Dr. Rosa Fini, pediatrician and GHS mother.
A recent 2012 GHS grad, Jordan Force, says he wishes he had a later start time because he had a hard time concentrating at school.
“I found that even if I went to bed very early, I wasn’t actually able to fall asleep. It’s not something that you can just try to do, fall asleep,” said Force.
And that is exactly how a later start time could potentially help students supporters say.
“Changing the school start time to later, actually gives kids more sleep. A lot of people ask the question if they are just going to go to sleep later? No, it has really shown that in districts that have made the change, kids get more sleep,” said physician and school board candidate Gaetane Francis.
Board of Ed Chairman Barbara O’Neill says she’s in support of a later first bell.
“I haven’t met anyone who’s against it. I think what everybody is waiting for is how the plan is going to work out, and how it will effect their families,” said O’Neill.
“Once you have the desire to change, and I think we’ve seen the desire, you have to think out of the box, you have to get creative, and find a solution. Do we know what that solution is for Greenwich yet? No, we need more information,” said Valerie Erde, the founder of the Greenwich chapter of Start School Later.
“Let’s not figure out whether we should do it, let’s figure out how,” said Frank Farricker, the democratic candidate for First Selectman.
You can get more information at www.letkidsleep.com.
