Letters to the editor for Nov. 23

What about legal campgrounds?

This is an open letter to city of Olympia officials and Thurston County Commissioners.

Squatter camping on private and public property in Thurston County is out of control.

While property taxes continue to rise for middle-income property owners, squatters are creating health and community standard issues which lower property values for everyone, making this taxing structure unfair.

It seems an equitable solution might be to make camping and parking of RVs illegal outside of established campgrounds.

Affordable campgrounds could be created where campers would be required to pay a monthly fee to help care for the grounds, and to deposit trash and waste in appropriate containers, which they help pay for.

Legal campgrounds also would provide campers with a permanent address, which is necessary for educational and employment opportunities.

I know from personal experience, from within my own family, that handouts and freebies with no expectation of personal responsibility only make it easier for people to resist help, and to continue living on the streets.

In addition, using public resources to clean-up illegal camps and dump sites is wasteful. These funds could be redirected to establish legal campgrounds — or private landowners could be given incentives to establish fee campgrounds for people transitioning out of homelessness.

Monthly fee campgrounds, with mail delivery and restroom/shower facilities, could remove employment barriers for many. But most of all, such an arrangement would demand personal responsibility, which always leads to a greater sense of self-worth and productivity.

The problems with technology and school start times

School start times are a problem and are affecting high school students negatively.

Teens need an average of 8 to 10 hours of sleep and only about 15% are achieving this. The majority of the rest are achieving 6 hours or less at night.

This lack of sleep has caused major problems, giving students sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and depression, and even been linked to school absences and lower test scores. By just moving the start time an hour can help students get a good amount of sleep and has been shown to make students happier and achieve higher test scores.

However, technology may be the other major factor in causing sleeping problems. The average high school student spends 7 hours a day looking at screens, and three of those hours are spent at night time. Not only are teens’ internal clocks pushed to 11 p.m., but them spending an extra hour or two at night is causing them to be extremely tired and it has been shown to cause sleep disorders and depression .

If we push back school start times and restrict the amount of time teens spend looking at screens, we could help them achieve their best.