By J1 Reporter Sienna Kruse

The ban of energy drinks in the middle of August caused controversy between students and parents. Even though energy drinks can harm you in different ways, some students are still angry about the ban and believe that they should be brought back to school.

Nutritionist Mrs. Jane Trainer, who also happens to be a parent of a Marian alumna, understands that the decision to ban energy drinks was for student safety and mental health. Trainer explained that they can have an affect on your sleep in two main ways:

Caffeine blocks the amino acids that make us sleep and can cause someone to have more of a challenge to get to sleep. In addition, they shorten your sleep cycle and make you wake up and still feel tired.

While affecting your sleep cycle energy drinks can have long term effects such as higher blood pressure which affects your regular heartbeats. Trainer said that “caffeine is addictive and can affect your mental health, physical health like weight gain, and overall performance in school.” She said that there are even statistics linked to lower school performance and trouble concentrating (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

Marian junior Lena Sabata  argued that “energy drinks help me focus and stay awake while doing late night homework after sports or other activities.”

Sabata does not agree with the ban and said that it should have been a student-led decision, but she does agree that the ban could improve teens’ overall health. Some other interesting perspectives Sabata brought up that other schools do have the ban as well like: Creighton Prep, Skutt Catholic, and  Duchesne Academy. In addition, if the school gets rid of things that are not good for you then they should get rid of ice cream as well. This would really upset the student body if they took ice cream away. Overall, this ban is for teens’ health and is here to help students all have the best chance to succeed in school.

How do you feel about this ban?

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