![Wayland High School Class of 2019 alum Devin Wong is the new assistant coach of Harvard University Nordic Ski Team. "I’m excited to be a part of a new team and coaching staff am motivated to learn from [head coach] Cate Brams and grow as a coach and wax tech," Wong said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/09-27-24-NSKI-Wong-Announcement-1920x1080-1-e1730466291327-1200x704.jpg)
Students to stand against shifting school start times
Walkout to be held on Monday
More stories from Kyle Chen
Credit: Charlie Moore
Students talk as they walk around the school.
Students at WHS have organized a walkout on Monday, Nov. 19 to protest the Wayland School Committee’s proposed plans to change the school start times next year. The walkout, initiated by junior Jaden Brewington, will be held at 8:30 a.m. in the courtyard. Participating students will meet in either the media center or in front of the school at the designated time.
“I started the walkout because I’ve seen that a lot of the students in this school don’t want a later start time next year,” Brewington said. “And for the ones that do, they don’t [necessarily] agree with the two proposals.”
According to Brewington, the proposed change in school start times is unnecessary and will not result in any net benefit for the students.
“Realistically, [students are] going to get the same amount of sleep because school is pushed back one hour,” Brewington said. “They’re going to have less time to do what they’re doing and they’re going to get home an hour later, which means they’re going to get the same amount of sleep.”
To spread awareness about the walkout, Brewington called upon two of his friends, fellow juniors Michayla Mathis and Shawn Bernier. Mathis and Bernier organized an event on Facebook, inviting as many students as they could. In total, over 300 students were invited to participate via the Facebook group.
“[Mathis] and [Bernier] organized the [Facebook group],” Brewington said. “They added all the people that they knew. But I’ve also talked to a lot of people, and a lot of them have decided they are going to show up. I also started a petition, and [as of Thursday, Nov. 15], I had 205 kids on that who said they would participate in the walkout.”
As of Sunday, Nov. 18, 43 students have expressed on Facebook that they will be participating in the walkout. 29 students have expressed interest.
In addition to recruiting students through the Facebook group, Brewington sent out an email on Friday, Nov. 16 encouraging students to join the walkout.
“This walkout is one last attempt to change the School Committee’s mind,” Brewington wrote. “All are welcome to attend!”
In the email, Brewington assured students that since the administration is aware of the walkout, there would not be consequences for students that decide to participate. Principal Allyson Mizoguchi, however, sent an email to the student body on Nov. 18 clarifying that the administration had not made that guarantee.
“Students have a right to express themselves until it disrupts school, and the walkout will be a disruption because it results in missed class time for participating students,” Mizoguchi wrote. “Students who are late to class are subject to their teachers’ typical expectation for arrival, and students who miss more than half of a class would [receive an] unexcused [absence].”
In response to Mizoguchi’s email, Brewington sent another message to the student body, reassuring students that as the organizer of the protest, he would take full responsibility for any consequences.
According to Chapter 71, Section 82 of the Massachusetts General Laws, students have the right “to assemble peaceably on school property for the purpose of expressing their opinions,” provided that their protests do not “cause any disruption or disorder within the school.”
In this case, the administration has deemed the walkout to be a disruption. Thus, students’ rights to protest do not protect them from punishment.
Despite the potential consequences, junior Emma Sheehan still plans on participating in the walkout.
“It worries me that fewer people might participate now [as a result of the potential punishments],” Sheehan said. “But I still think it’s an important cause.”
For Brewington, who is a member of the METCO program, the issue of the start times has a personal significance. If the changes are implemented, some METCO students may not be able to return to WHS due to complications with transportation to and from school.
“With this change, I might have to go to a different school,” Brewington said. “I might have to go to a school in Boston.”
The walkout coincides with the School Committee’s meeting, which will take place on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Wayland Town Building’s Council on Aging. At the meeting, the committee plans to vote on a plan for start times for the 2019-2020 school year. Brewington hopes that the protest will cause the committee to reconsider their decision.
“I’m hoping to get a large amount of students to partake in [the walkout] and to be able to go to the meeting that night and show [the School Committee],” Brewington said. “Hopefully, they’ll see that more than 70 percent of the school doesn’t want [the change], and hopefully they won’t go through with it. Even if I’m not here next year, I want to make a change for the kids that are here after me.”
Your donation will support the student journalists of Wayland High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover our annual website hosting costs and sponsor admission and traveling costs for the annual JEA journalism convention.
Kyle Chen, Class of 2020, is the opinion section editor for WSPN, and this is his fourth year on the staff. Kyle is the captain of the cross-country team...
Janani Gandhi is a co-editor-in-chief of WSPN. She is a senior and this is her third year on the WSPN staff. She is a member of WHS' crew and cross country...
Jonas Gray • Nov 20, 2018 at 1:50 PM
Nobody at our school seems to understand the benefits. It’s not necessarily getting more sleep, it’s waking up later. Why is this good? Most teenagers function better at late night hours, so it would make sense to shift an hour forward. Plus, if you’re going to pursue a bachelor’s degree, you better get used to staying up late. Because of the hour later shift in everyone’s schedule, it’ll be easier to fall asleep, get a deeper sleep and to wake up more easily. And to people who constantly play games during their free? This is your consequence for your procrastination. So many people are scared of a change like this, but in the end, I think people will admire the School Committee’s decision. Hats off to them for using real data and statistics to back up their claims, instead of making pointless email chains and whining about change.
Tim Flynn • Nov 19, 2018 at 7:29 AM
Don’t let them make this change in your school district ! Its a lot of talk, but then no evidence things are any better.
3 cheers to the students for standing up to the later start times. I hope their parents get on board and protest it too.
Have Wayland Administrators talked to students and parents of other districts that have made this change ? Or did they only talk to the Administrators ? Many other school districts in the area have jumped on the bandwagon and embraced this fad. The justifications do not account for increased traffic in town at key times and corresponding longer commute times for all heading to school. Nor in some cases are the situation of student athletes considered or in any way accommodated. Have any of the districts that made this change conducted studies that quantify better outcomes since the change was made ?
My kids and their friends that I have polled are all against the change and speak only negatively about the later start times that were rushed through in 2017.
Anonymous Alumni • Nov 18, 2018 at 11:50 PM
Proud that members of WHS are exercising their rights and protesting this absolutely horrible idea of pushing back starts times. Pushing back start times is going to greatly disadvantage WHS students by eating up afternoon time where students could be participating in clubs or sports. Not to mention how this is going to make students have to adjust their weekend schedules to fit in more practice and game times just to accommodate the one hour of sleep that is not needed! As Jaden said, this is just going to make students stay up later!!! When it comes down to it, teachers are still going to assign the same amount of homework that will take the same amount of time. Everything will just be pushed back later. It shouldn’t matter what studies may say about how an hour (only an hour!!) of sleep is so revolutionary for students’ behavior. If the students and teachers don’t want this change, why do it?! As a former WHS student, this one hour change would have drastically hurt my ability to participate in clubs or sports AND not to mention how it takes away time to see teachers after school. This is the worst idea the school board has ever had and it is so disgraceful that they are not taking into account students’ opinions. I hope they read this article and the other article WSPN wrote that reflects how the majority of WHS students do not want this change. The school board’s job is to represent students and teachers in Wayland Public Schools. Do your job and listen to your constituents!!