Seniors, Teagan Clark and Karissa Murdoch, two Shadow Ridge High School students, took a significant step in advocating for their peers by traveling to Carson City during spring break to testify in support of a proposed bill aimed at limiting how late high school students can work on school nights.
Clark emphasized the importance of adequate rest for students, “Students need to be well rested to perform academically and maintain their mental health.”
The bill, introduced in the Nevada Legislature, seeked to address concerns about the impact of late-night work on students’ academic performance and well-being. Clark and Murdoch’s testimony, delivered at 1:03 PM on March 19th, 2025, highlighted the challenges faced by students balancing employment and education.
Murdoch echoed that statement, ”Late-night shifts interfere with sleep, which is crucial for our development and success in school.”
Their advocacy underscores a growing recognition of the need to balance work and education to ensure students’ overall well-being. The proposed legislation planned to establish guidelines that protect students from overworking during school nights, allowing them to prioritize their academic responsibilities and overall health.
Clark stated, “In my experience, working late shifts on school nights sometimes until 10 or 11:30 PM, has put me in difficult situations. Driving home alone at night as a relatively inexperienced driver has safety concerns. While my job provides meals during shifts, my peers don’t have the same privileges which forces them to stay up later just to eat. The exhaustion from working late shifts has made waking up for school increasingly difficult, leading me to cut corners in my morning routines. Skipping breakfast, forgetting to pack lunch and wearing unwashed clothes from the previous day, and rushing out the door has become my new morning routine. I often found myself speeding to get to school on time, further putting myself and others at risk.”
As the legislative process continues, the testimonies of students like Clark and Murdoch play a pivotal role in shaping policies that directly affect students across Las Vegas.
Murdoch added, “By the time I got home, ate dinner, showered, and maybe got around to some homework, it was 1:30 to 2 am when I went to bed. Monday through Thursday my day was jam-packed. I got up, went to school, went to work and went to bed, repeat every day. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, except this is what I have to do to make ends meet, and I didn’t realize how bad it had truly gotten until I stopped scorekeeping. I went from a straight-A student who rarely turned in a late assignment, who never slept in class, and never had trouble waking up for school, to an A and B student who almost never turned in an assignment on time, couldn’t stay awake in class, and- most of the time- slept through my alarms in the morning.”
According to Nevada State, Assembly Bill 215, which prevents students from working between 11 pm to 6 am, is now headed to the senate and awaiting review.
