Starting November 16th, the South Brunswick High School will begin a new schedule during this journey through COVID-19. Classes will begin at 7:30, and end at 1:55, making the class blocks a total of eighty minutes. Meaning, that high school students will be staring at screens for a minimum of three hundred and twenty minutes per day, with an addition of 40 minutes in the new schedule, and that's not even including the amount of time it takes to do our homework. Pediatricians and even the American Health Association have both made statements regarding the excessive use of screens before COVID-19, and considering the fact that we are using screens for almost everything, the health risks of staring at a screen for almost 8 hours a day are unbeknownst to doctors, and may have devastating developmental effects on students of all ages.

The Board has also made the decision to reduce lunch time to 30 minutes a day from the previous 60 minutes. I personally felt that it was a decision that will negatively impact our ability to learn during class. Those 60 minutes provided a time for students to rest their eyes, and their brains. Having students sit in one place for 70 minutes staring at a screen is already difficult enough as is, and reducing the amount of time they are able to separate their eyes from their screens would create even greater difficulty for the students to focus on the material they are being taught.

I am calling upon all the students of SBHS to sign this petition in order to ensure that the Board is making decisions that coincide with the public interest, while also ensuring the health and safety of the students to the best of their abilities.