Stress is a common thing among high school students. It is so common that it has become apart of the iconic high school experience. Shockingly, statistics show that anxiety rates of high school students are higher than veterans returning from war.

As classes get more advanced, so does the homework, and what do they get told when they need a little break? “This is preparing you for college.” Let’s do the math here.  Studying in each class for pop quizzes: 30-45 minutes. Homework that is given daily: 1-1.5 hours. Family time: At least an hour. Eating meals: 30 minutes. Extra Curricular activities (sports, clubs, yearbook, newspaper, etc.): 1 hour. And most importantly, sleep: 9.5 hours. Add all that up equals 14 hours.

Not all students are involved in clubs, but students are still expected to be social in life. What am I getting at? Students need a stress reliever, and I have a suggestion: pets. Not just any pets – that’d be complete chaos- service dogs. Service dogs are trained to help detect something happening in your body and warn you. If you feel an anxiety attack coming on, the happy little puppy is right there to save the day.

With online homework becoming a bigger deal, doing it at school with free WiFi allows students more time to do paper homework at home. However, school WiFi isn’t always the best, and it can cause serious frustration. Just imagine if there to reduce the stress was a dog that can calm you down while the WiFi is being worked on!