Teenagers can decide to work part time jobs for a variety of reasons, such as wanting money or to gain experience for future employment. Many students here at RHS have a part time job, or want a part time job. However, the negatives of students taking on part time jobs greatly outweigh the positives.

Ninety-seven percent of young adults have worked a job between the time they leave high school and when they turn 22, according to data collected by Child Trends. High school students should not be working part time jobs during the school year because they need to focus on their studies and school-related extracurriculars.

Students manage a heavy workload, and it is easy to see how students grades can drop when confronted with the choice between working a job and studying for a quiz or doing homework. Since students have less time due to their job, they spend less time doing homework and studying. Students at RHS have had to make this choice and it has ended badly for some of them, often choosing not to do homework for certain classes in order to get sleep.

“I began falling behind because I was always tired from getting little sleep because I did my homework after work,” junior Lily Hernandez said.

Along with extracurricular activities, homework, studying and having free time, students who work part time jobs have even more to juggle than other students which leads to increased stress.

The opposition argues that working a job during high school gives students more responsibility and experience for them to use later in life. However, there are better ways to gain experience that do not cause extra stress and reduced sleep for students. Often students do not want a job to gain experience, but instead are doing it in order to earn money, while still suffering from all of the negative effects on their school life and studies.

Although it is understandable that students may want to earn extra money or gain experience, a student’s grades and health should always be a higher priority.

Students can begin to gain experience through a summer job or working on the weekends. Students can also volunteer and even use the time spent volunteering for Student Service Learning (SSL) hours.

While students are in school, they need to focus on their studies. No one should ever have to choose between working a job and studying for a test. As a student, one’s education should be very important and earning money should never be a detriment to that.