Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201280407
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
MORE TEENS WORKING OUT OF NEED
Some things change, some don't.High school kids still flip burgers, tear movie tickets and bag groceries. And they do it to save for college or clothes or a car. That hasn't changed much.
What has changed are some of the new reasons kids now work - some for better, some for worse.
Better: Some kids earn high school credits by working part-time jobs through their school's marketing program.
Worse: Others work after school and on weekends to help their parents pay the bills at home. Tougher yet, some of them are already starting families, married or not, but setting up their own households and must support themselves and finish school at the same time.
There were no statistics to back up what educators see as a trend, but some area guidance counselors and teachers say more kids are working these days and more are doing it out of necessity.
"I've got a couple kids who come in here and lay the bills out on the table. We're talking phone bills that they're paying for their parents," said Gary Leah, a teacher at Patrick Henry High School.
Some of Leah's students are married and some have a child of their own. A few have two children.
That leads to work weeks of 40 hours or more for those students. For others who are helping out their parents and for those who just want to earn a lot of money, working while in school is more of a norm than society may be ready to admit.
"Most of the kids today want to work as many hours as they can get their hands on," Leah said. "Twenty hours is nothing to them."
"I've found now that they're working for necessities, not luxuries," said William Fleming High School guidance counselor Sandra Woodford.
But the problem with those long hours is that students often forget that school is their first job, Woodford said.
"We have a lot of students working 25 to 30 hours a week and I'm concerned about those students," she said. "I'm also concerned with the students who work to midnight and after on a school night, and we do have a lot who do that.
"I know that the student who's working 35 hours a week, his classes are suffering."
Woodford estimated that more than 50 percent of Fleming's students are working part time. "I think I'm most disturbed by the number of 14- and 15-year-olds who come in looking for jobs," she said.
There is no legal limit on the number of work hours for a student who is 16 or older. But during the school year, 14- and 15-year-olds can work only 18 hours a week, up to three hours per weekday and can't work past 7 p.m., according to state child labor laws.
Gary Sheffler, student representative for the Virginia Employment Commission, said employers are more cautious and hiring fewer 15-year-olds because of a crackdown last year on child labor abuses at fast food restaurants.
But overall, the recession has spared the teen work force. Some guidance counselors say adults, desperate for work, are taking a few jobs away from teens by accepting jobs for which they are overqualified. But Roanoke's diverse economy with a large and relatively stable retail market, offers plenty of low-skill, minimum-wage jobs for students, Sheffler said.
That's pretty evident at Showbiz Pizza on Electric Road near Tanglewood Mall. About 50 of its 56 non-management employees are high school students, said manager Tammy Cuddy.
Cuddy was a Patrick Henry student when she started working there three years ago as part of the requirements of the school's marketing education program. She liked it so much, she stayed and worked her way up.
Cave Spring High School senior Scott Meredith, 18, is working there to save for a truck. He works about 20 hours a week, takes home about $80 and has saved $1,500.
He has to keep a 2.5 grade point average (out of a perfect 4.0) or he loses the job - "That's what my mom says" - but he usually gets off at 10 p.m. and has an hour or two for homework.
Meredith said it's a fun job, he's made friends there and he's learned about the work world and managing money.
Part-time jobs may threaten school work, but at least students are learning, said Nancy McCoy, a William Byrd High School guidance counselor.
"It gives them a work ethic. They know they have to be responsible. They have to be on time," she said.
That's important, said the VEC's Sheffler, because businesses haven't been pleased in recent years with students' work ethic.
"They're becoming slack, if you want to put it in plain words," Sheffler said. "Some companies don't want to hire students anymore because they've had bad experiences."
Schools have worked to address that recently with job skills training - especially with a concentration on communication.
Communicating is an important part of any job. But schools are just now catching up on that.
Noel Saunders, head meatcutter at the Kroger supermarket at Lakeside Shopping Center, said dealing with the public is an everyday part of his job, explaining his meats and seafood to customers.
The high school students he supervises need to know that. He says he can teach them the physical skills, but schools need to teach the mental skills to back that up.
Saunders was in high school when he started at Kroger 18 years ago. He wasn't interested in going to college but easily advanced in the company. Kids can't do that these days.
"When I graduated from high school, it wasn't as critical to have a college education as it is today," he said. So teens need to figure out early what they want to do, he said. Part-time high school jobs can give them that exposure to the job market.
"If they don't," Saunders said, "they're going to be left out."