New Proposed Start Time: Beneficial or Not?

Lately, the Park City School District has been discussing pushing back the start time for Treasure Mountain and the Park City High School - specifically, instead of starting at 7:30 every morning and going to 1:45 on Mondays and 2:25 on other days, the schools would start and end an hour later, from 8:30 to 2:45 (Mondays) or 3:25 (any other days). There are two sides to this, however. Most kids love to sleep in and get as much rest as they can so they can be performing at their best all day, but there are many others who do not favor this idea of starting later because of the consequence of getting out later. Most of the people against a later start time are kids with early release - they would have to miss too much class if the school day extended a full hour longer than it does now, especially when they already need to leave early. This could prevent them from receiving the amount of credit that they need from their classes. Many other students simply don't want to stay in school until 4:00. Everyone in favor is of a different mindset: they either don’t care, or they really need their beauty rest.

Many teens and parents in Park City already complain about the 7:30 start. At this age, a lot of kids stay awake until late at night and then have to wake up seven hours later. There are so many people that don’t get the eight hours of sleep that they need to continue developing. It has also been scientifically proven that a student’s brain isn’t fully awake until ten o’clock, which, on the current schedule, is halfway through second period, meaning students aren't fully awake for any part of their first period classes. When there is important testing at the end of the year, especially in high school, a later start time is extremely beneficial. Teens will be able to get the most out of their school day because they will most likely be more focused on their work later in the day.

On the other hand, parent release is a program which allows kids that do sports outside of school to leave early and practice. Many sports - like skiing and snowboarding - simply cannot be done after certain hours, as most ski resorts close at a certain time that happens to be early enough in the day that most students can never practice during the school week. To get the most out of their training time, many kids leave school early and start practicing right away. For the kids getting out early, an early start time is very helpful to accommodate their training schedule; when you graduate, you need a certain number of credits, and when you get early release, it can be tricky to make that work. The sooner students already get out, the fewer classes they have to miss. Missing as few classes as possible is crucial for graduating; if a later start time was placed, the early release kids would most likely have to quit their sport, or find a way to get as much training as they can, which won’t be much. If school ended at 3:25 on every day except Mondays, and the mountain closed at four, those students would have an issue. A later start time would be taking the opportunity away from early release kids to do a sport they love as much as they can.

By Caroline and Mackenna

Rock, Paper, Sisters: The Pros and Cons of Having a Younger Sibling

Siblings can be a driving force in one's life. They can create life-long alliances that outlast many other friends and relationships. You can go to them for anything; advice, help, backup...

But sometimes, you just want to throw a blanket over their head and pretend they're not there.

Since I'm technically an only child, you may think I'm not too qualified to be talking about siblings; you would be right, if you weren't so wrong. I do indeed have a sister. She's a year younger than me, an inch and a half taller than me, and only slightly less annoying. Summer and I have known each other for five and a half years, and we're so close we could have grown up together. For almost six years, we've lived two doors from each other, within shouting distance of each other's windows. She walks me home from school, I help her with her homework, I annoy her, she teases me... If you didn't know better, you would totally believe it was biological!

Pro: Siblings are built-in best friends.

Since the day we've met, Summer and I have been thick as thieves. Our first big adventure started when I accidentally broke a tree branch off of an aspen by our apartment complex's playground - the two of us proceeded to hide it behind a fence like it was a dead body. More recently, we've pursued a project of taking multiple recordings of Summer's incredibly annoying but hilarious laugh, and putting it into an iMovie. I'm considering saving it to play at her wedding.

Con: They're not required to be nice.

Like all relationships in life, things between Summer and I aren't always fine and dandy. Although we haven't fought for years, it's been for a good reason - when we do fight, it gets bad. Well, not "screaming matches and knife-throwing" bad, but bad for us. We've sat in brooding, angry silence, each irritated with the other, but silent until the annoyance finally boils over and one of us snaps, says something nasty, then storms out. These instances always leave us upset, so we try our best to avoid them.

Pro: You always have someone with whom to hang out.

When I'm ready to rant about an obnoxious kid at school, Summer's waiting. When she needs a shoulder to cry on, I have a shoulder, tissues, and a Netflix comedy ready to play... Oh, and one of us is going somewhere fun? The other is already waiting in the car.

Con: They always want to hang out.

While the above statement can be taken either way, it's true that one of us can become too much for the other to handle. If I'm home and Summer's too lazy to ring the doorbell, but has already called me a few times, she'll start to throw pinecones at my window until I wake up from my nap or take out my earbuds!

Pro: Siblings have your back.

I doubt there's anyone else in the world I trust as much as Summer. We're partners in crime, through thick and thin. If it was zombie apocalypse right now, she would be my in my A-team, along with John Cena (and this one kid we met in a game of dodgeball - that kid could throw with such amazing accuracy that he needs to be recruited for the Avengers!).

Con: That means they always have the perfect opportunity to push you!

Does anything else have to be said? If they see an opening, chances are that they'll nudge you just enough for you to lose your balance and fall into mud. Or grass. Or a pool.

Overall, siblings are irreplaceable. No one can make me laugh harder or argue longer than Summer, and I know that she can put her full faith in me at any time (even if I do mess with her often). I would yell at anyone making fun of her, and, if the situation was reversed, she would hit them. I'm grateful to have my little sister for every Netflix binge, writing session and laugh attack to come.

Too Young To Text?

     How young is too young for a phone, well it’s something that parents can take away from their child when they get in trouble, but most parents say they should get a phone between 12-18. Definitely not under the age of 2, because there probably not smart enough to function a phone. It’s good to give your child a phone because if they get in trouble or something they can call there parents. There are lots of kids with cellphones these days and the number of kids is getting higher.
     Most kids are getting phones between 4-7th grade, but now days the age is getting lower. A lot of parents let there 2-5 years old play on their parents phone, and when they get older they get a phone for there self.
     Before giving your child a phone, tell them about the dangers of a phone, like cyberbullying and internet safety. Make sure your child feels comfortable talking to you about getting a cell phone. On a website there was a vote on when should children get a phone and the most voted on was 11-13 years old.
     If your child isn't behaving with his/her phone well then take it away from them for a while until they mature more and then give it back to them.
     I think the best way to decide if your kid should get a cell phone is to figure out when they a mature enough, let your child pay around on your phone, but don't give it to your child yet until him/her grows up. Unless the kid can pay for his own phone, let him but when he grows up you should probably give him/her one.

Teen Theater Trouble

Many popular movies that are coming out are rated R, like the recently-released Deadpool and Dirty Grandpa. These movies are are attracting many teenagers who are under 18. Once they get to the movies, however, they are told that they cannot see the movie unless their parents sit next to them throughout the entire movie... but if the adult approves and buys tickets for the viewers, then the teenagers should be able to watch the movie without parental supervision - their parents approved it under the assumption that they wouldn't be spending money on an extra ticket, so it's an unnecessary and inconvenient rule.

Oftentimes, many parents hear that they have to sit and watch the movie with their kids, decide that it’s not worth it, and leave. Most parents don’t watch the movie because the movie does not look appealing to them. By having this rule, the movie theaters are losing money by making people walk out. The other thing that parents do is buy a ticket for themselves and one for their kid walk into the theater and stay there for a few minutes and then just sneak out. All this does is make parent waste their money by having to buy more than one ticket. Either way, if the parent didn't expect to have to sit with their child throughout the movie and approved it anyway, it's not the theater's business to overrule that and force the parents to spend extra money, and everyone involved is being negatively affected.

Many people will argue that some movies are just too inappropriate for some viewers and they shouldn’t be exposed to certain topics that are displayed in the movie, but it’s the adults’ choices as to whether or not their children are allowed to watch the movie, not the movie theaters’ choices. If a parent buys R-rated movie tickets for their child, then the kid obviously has approval from their parent, so why aren’t movie theaters letting the child into the movie? The parent made their own decision and a movie theater manager shouldn’t be allowed to disregard that. In addition, parents have things to do! They don’t have time to sit through a movie with their kid in the middle of the day, and most kids don’t want that, either!

Carley Rogers, a fourteen-year-old student went to the movie theater to see the movie Deadpool. At first, the theater wouldn’t let her into the movie, and even when Carley asked her mom come in and buy the tickets, the theater still wouldn’t let her into the theater without making her mom sit through the movie with her. “I think it’s ridiculous that they wouldn’t let my friends and I into the movie. I understand that it’s R-rated, but my mom obviously approved of it and she doesn’t have the time to sit through a movie with me when she doesn’t need to. This issue ruined my time with my friends,” Carley argued.

Others may still argue that kids might bring an adult other than their parents to buy the tickets for them, without their parents' approval of the movie. If a child does this and the parents finds out, then the child has to face their own consequences from their parents. It’s not the movie theater’s responsibility, it’s between the parents and their children. Either way, forcing the adult who did buy the tickets to sit with the children is going to change nothing.

Theaters have to leave the parenting to the parent and the possible consequences to the child. They can’t control everything that the family does. This isn’t fair to all of the kids who want to see rated R movies, because it’s their right to see it, and parents shouldn’t have to sit through the movie with them - just buying the tickets is enough consent.

Article by Mia Rapella and Hali W.