Jaime Zahl

Professor Gavin McCormick

JOURN 200W

Localizing Memo

10 March 2014

I found an article in the NY Times health section titled “To Keep Teenagers

Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In” that discussed the benefits of high schools starting

later, enabling teenagers to get more sleep. One girl let a campaign to get her school to

start after 8 AM, applying research to make her case.

If this idea spread to the NYC Public School System many factors would come

into play. Would the start time be city mandated? How might this affect the

transportation system? Would parents be negatively impacted due to their work

schedules? All these questions are the beginnings of a potential local story.

Transportation might be the biggest question at hand. NYC public school children

ride buses and subways to get to and come home from school. At 7 AM the Q25 from

Jamaica to Flushing is stuffed to the brim with a mix of students and working commuters.

A later starting time might result in less crowding. This could be supplemented with

statistics on how many students use public transportation during rush hour. However, this

could negatively impact the evening commute. If students are let out later, they might

clash with the congestion of evening rush hour.

The next pertinent issue would be the impact on parents. A later starting time

would put the parents of younger children in a bind. Although if this was confined to
merely high schools this might be less of an issue. A reporter could talk to local Queens

based parents and get their overall opinion on the topic. Are parents comfortable leaving

their children to sleep while they go to work? Do their children have trouble getting up in

the morning at all? Do their children partake in sports in which practices might be

affected? There is a lot of interview potential here.

A local article could also utilize data on test scores in correlation to starting times.

This would provide evidence to whether this is something beneficial without

editorializing with assumptions.

The reporter might want to meet with someone on the NYC public school

educational board and propose what the research in the national article presented to get

the official’s view on it. They could also talk to Queens students to get candid remarks on

what getting more sleep would mean to them.