Remember back in high school when it was time to get up and face the hallway hysteria, hear the morning announcements and turn in late assignments? "Hit the snooze!" was likely the operative phrase that crossed many minds.
Now, bleary-eyed teenagers in the Peninsula might just be getting those extra winks.
School officials in the Sequoia Union High School District are considering a new policy that would push back the bell for first period by just over a half hour for some students, starting next school year.
If approved, the new start time for students taking six or fewer classes in the district's high schools would be 8:30 a.m. Right now, the starting bell rings at 7:50 a.m.
The time shift is aimed at providing teens with those precious nine to 10 hours of sleep that give their fertile minds a fighting chance to focus.
"While we may never get our teens," Superintendent Pat Gemma told the Oakland Tribune, "in this American society, this hustle-bustle society we live in — to get nine hours of sleep every night, we can at least do a better job of setting up an environment where they can get more sleep than they currently are."
Sure, the teens might just use those extra minutes as an excuse to go to bed later on a school night, but just floating the idea is a sure way for officials to get on the good side of the students.
