SCHOOLS: Grassroots Effort for Later Start on National Front

It’s time to update Patch readers on Terra Snider’s progress on the most recent Later High School start time petition on signon.org where there is now close to 3,000 signatures from all 50 states and Washington, DC, Snider said.

The first petition appeared on Severna Park Patch in October on the "We the People" government website, riddled with technical difficulties. At that time, a Patch poll brought in 84 percent of respondents in favor of later high school start times. Severna Park High School starts its day at 7:17 a.m.

The latest petition and the grassroots effort, continues to attract attention by the media, including Snider being a guest on The Sleep Doctor Radio Show out of Nashville on Jan. 15. Snider said the sleep deprivation/later high school start times issue has grown to proportions she could have never imagined. 

Because of her activism along with others in the Severna Park community like Maribel Ibrahim, who has started a Start School Later website, there is now a national advisory board of health and education experts looking at the issue and supporting the effort, Snider said. The National Sleep Foundation supports later high school start times and Snider is now working with advocates and groups throughout the country. 

“We hope to get to 5,000 signatures in time to deliver the petition in person to Washington, DC, in time for the National Sleep Awareness Week in March,” Snider said. 

Snider will be speaking to the Jones Elementary School community on Thursday night to provide an overview to the PTA on the research, history of the issue in Anne Arundel County, the national petition—and to point out why it matters to take a look at the issue now while the children are in elementary school, Snider said.