When walking through the halls at Gunnison High School, visitors educators, and students will more than likely see a student with a caffeinated beverage or item. GHS student-athlete, Cooper Boardman said, “Caffeine is a huge problem in our school and students are starting to rely on always having access to a caffeinated item.”. One student has even had severe health issues because of caffeinated beverages. The student was hospitalized with a very high heart rate after drinking 3 cups of coffee for multiple days in a row. The most popular of these energy drinks are Redbull, Celsius, Yerba Mate, and Monster, which all have a very large amount of caffeine a flavor and are relatively cheap. So one has to ask why students are drinking and consuming this much caffeine? asked multiple students at GHS why they were consuming this much caffeine, and the majority all said they needed the energy to get through the day and for physical activities like sports and weightlifting. Vice principal Susan Powers told us, “This is the highest caffeine consumption I’ve ever seen in my years as an educator.” Some students have been seen spending more than 40 dollars a week on these drinks. Furthermore, we interviewed a group of 10 different students all with different backgrounds and all the students had one thing in common, all the students started drinking and consuming caffeine when they first became GHS students, and their consumption gradually increased. Some students consume caffeine up to 4-5 times a day with the average student consuming caffeine around once or twice a day.
