Airport students spend delayed start Wednesday in variety of ways

Lexington School District 2 high schools have an hour delay on Wednesday mornings, so the students at Airport High School have a lot of options for how to spend this time. The students engage in various activities from sleeping late to eating and any activity in between.

The students of Airport High School have a privilege of a delayed start on Wednesday mornings, when school starts an hour later than regular. This delay opens up numerous possibilities that students can choose to do before going to school. Some activities include sleeping late, going to eat, hanging out with friends, possibly could seek extra help, some go fishing or hunting before school in some instances, but most just either sleep late or go out to eat for breakfast. This is beneficial to our students and staff because the students can sleep late and the staff have time to do stuff they need to get done in order to be successful in the classroom.

This is not totally unique to Airport or even Lexington District 2, which includes Airport and BC. Some other schools like in Richland 1 and private schools also have delayed starts for their students and staff. Even though we are not the only school that has delayed start it is still a much looked forward to privilege, from both current students and younger students ready to get here and have delayed start Wednesday adventures for themselves.

The delayed start schedule is beneficial to the students because they can sleep later if they choose to, this is important because teenagers need to get at least 8 -10 hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation, to be at their fullest potential when learning and doing other mental or physical activities. Delayed starts benefit the well-being and learning of the students at Airport.

Some other schools practice the same principle of delayed start days to benefit students and staff. Some include Columbia public schools. There are more schools getting on board with delayed starts due to the benefits they offer students and staff.

“Sleep, eat and hangout,” is what Nick M. , a junior at Airport, says he and his friends do on a typical Wednesday delayed start morning before school.

Nick M. also stated, “The students definitely love it.” And it' easy to see why because everyone likes to sleep more.

The families of Airport students may not see the whole picture, however, as Alex R. mentioned: “My little brother and parents are kinda [sic] jealous.”

Most people are supportive of the delayed start Wednesday for the benefits it reaps the students and helps with development in younger people. However, some people are opposed to it because it is not traditional from when parents and relatives were in school. The people who are against don't like it because they didn’t have the opportunity.

The NationalSleepFoundation.com says that teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night at least for proper development and growth. TimeMagazine.com has articles about the lack of sleep in teens and how it affects their attention and growth, development,etc. StartSchoolsLater.net, a website devoted to advocating for later school start times, contains information all about the benefits of delayed starts in schools. For more information about the health benefits of starting school later and to learn more about its pros and cons, students can visit these sites.

The students should consider other activities that are beneficial to their school work. They might also consider talking to administrators about the delayed start being later to start so they have additional time before school. They can do a lot of different activities before school.