A massive but important challenge that Granite Bay High School students face is the struggle of working while also  managing to go to school.

The result? There is no shortage of students who manage long nights of work and long days at school, all in a single day.

Many students need to be informed of the work rules under California law for young workers. There are limits, for example, to the number of hours a student can legally work, as well as how late they are allowed to work on school nights.

That can be especially challenging for students who have to work late and still get up for school the next day.

And it can be even tougher for those students who are over 18, because they are not restricted by child labor laws. This means not only does this person have to be on time for work after a long day of eight hours of schooling, but they also have to go to work with no additional laws against working late. 

For most high school students, the pressures of holding a job are not only stressful, but they can make the job dreadful and tense – to say nothing of the classroom.

“I have never personally been held against the legal times of working but I have found it quite difficult to maintain schooling and working to make my own personal money,” Ty’Anna Burton said.

Burton said it can be especially difficult to both handle her part-time job and also not fall behind academically so she’s on track for graduation.

Jack Ryan, a junior, said he’s never been asked by his employer to violate the terms of his work permit.

“I’ve never personally been held over 10 p.m. on a school night,” Ryan said. 

Some students said they know of other students who’ve been forced to stay on the job beyond the end of their shift, in violation of their state work permit. When those students complain, they’re often told to find another job.

The California Department of Labor is responsible for enforcement of state labor laws. Employers who violate the law can be sanctioned and fined.

The problem, of course, is that a student who complains might have their hours cut or even lose their job.

For some, the years spent in high school can be some of the most stressful. 

Whether it’s school work, social status, college expectations or extracurriculars, the majority of high school students can agree that creating a balance between these tasks is difficult.

In today’s world, teenagers especially are plagued with the looming idea of college – and that reality means students are in a constant state of stress during the school year in order to maintain their grades for college admission. 

In a poll taken on Granite Bay Today’s Twitter account, the results showed that the majority of students face stress when it comes to their school work, the top stressor in the poll. The runner-up for amping up stress? Social issues.

School work is rightfully the issue that makes most people uncomfortable, seeing as high school’s main purpose is to educate students. 

“The younger generation doesn’t get enough credit for how much they have to go through during their high school careers,” senior Nick Parker said, “The harder it is to get into colleges, the more stressed students will become.”

Half of the battle when it comes to mental health is how one students cope with it, and everyone has their own method. While these hardships are usually inevitable, a positive outlook always helps.

“When I’m feeling down, I like to go on long drives,” junior Beau Boyan said, “or I’ll hang out with friends and they’ll cheer me up.”

Along with school and college struggles, young people also statistically worry about how they are seen socially. Teens struggling with self image and acceptance isn’t new, though – younger generations have notoriously been insecure. 

“One of the biggest things I struggle with nowadays is being secure with who I am,” senior Bella Gennuso said, “and I feel like many people my age face this issue too.”

But it turns out that stress is something high school student have in common.

“The fact of the matter is that everyone gets stressed,” senior Ean Mayhew said, “and the most important part is how they deal with that stress and what they make out of it.”