Having longer school days will overall have a negative impact on both staff and students. Longer school days will negatively affect both the mental and physical health of students and teachers attending online school. According to Webmd looking at a computer screen for too long can cause problems such as eye strain, blurry vision, trouble focusing at a distance, dry eyes, headaches, and neck, back, and shoulder pain. There are not only short term effects of being at a computer for too long, but also long term effects. According to webmd, sitting for too long “raises your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol”. Having a full day of school while in the school building there are times where kids and staff can move around and be active throughout the day. These times include lunch, gym and between classes. Due to COVID-19 we should not be going back to school and both I and other students/staff fully understand this, however school being a full day online will not provide us with these opportunities to get up and move like we do when we attend school in the building. 

    It is clear that the physical effects will negatively impact students and staff, but these effects are not the only negatives of a full day of online school. Mental health is another way in which students and staff will be negatively impacted. According to DailyMail, sitting at a computer screen can change mental health for the worse as stated here: “Sitting in front of a computer screen for five hours a day can dramatically increase the risk of depression and insomnia” If we were to have the full day schedule, we would be sitting at the computer for approximately seven hours each day and that is not even counting homework. This new schedule would put students and staff at risks for all the previously stated issues. Having depression as a student will decrease their motivation and overall quality of work in school. According to ibcces students who have depression or anxiety “are at risk of suffering from poor academic performance and resistance to anything school-related. This can include lack of engagement in the classroom, poor relationships with peers and teachers, and disinterest in pursuing passions and planning for the future. Their learning is also affected due to the fact that anxiety and depression can impact the working memory, which makes it challenging to retain new information and recall previously learned information”. This is another reason I think the full day online schedule will be worse overall. 

    In conclusion having a full day of school while online will be detrimental to the students’ and teachers’ health and could possibly lower the performance of students. Both I and the others that have signed this petition propose that we stick with the online schedule that we currently have. 

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/qa/can-staring-at-a-computer-screen-for-too-long-damage-my-eyes 

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/slideshow-sitting-health 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-153281/Why-using-cause-depression.html 

https://ibcces.org/blog/2019/05/01/impact-anxiety-depression-student-progress/