CBS News documents student stress

CBS films students in the main quad to address student stress.

On Thursday, April 8, a CBS 5 cameraman and reporter visited the school to film a short news clip about student stress.

The cameraman filmed students walking around campus during and after fifth period. The CBS 5 reporter spoke to senior Sarah Loebner and counselor Judy Prothro about their thoughts regarding student stress.

Prothro believes that CBS 5 came to the school because the results of the survey are so shocking.

The short film clip emphasized the overwhelming amount of stress placed on students and how academic competitiveness causes students to lose out on sleep, cheat and feel burned out.

In congruence with the segment run on television, CBS 5 published an article on their website which was titled “Study Finds Stressful Climate at Los Altos High,” which outlined the same ideas presented in the film clip.

The results from the student stress survey were taken from the survey conducted by the Girls for a Change club last spring. In partnership with Stanford University, which started the Stressed Out Students project in the hopes of countering academic stress, the club surveyed 1,400 students with questions regarding their life at home and at school, extracurricular activities and stress.

“It’s definitely newsworthy,” Prothro said. “Look at what’s going on. There’s the statistics.”

The results showed that, of the students participating in the study, 49.5 percent experience regular difficulty sleeping, 32.8 percent sometimes cheat on academic endeavors, 57 percent feel burned out often or daily, 43.7 percent participate in extracurricular activities because they look good on college applications, and 80.8 percent claim time management is more difficult in high school. “The results are definitely significant and clearly indicate that students at our school are very stressed,” Prothro said.

Sophomore Aaron Berube, who is currently involved in several honors and AP classes, feels that the results of the survey are accurate.
“Am I surprised? Not at all,” Aaron said. “[Some students] overbook their classes or have really low expectations.”

In order to combat student stress, the Girls for a Change club has formed the Challenge Success Team, a group dedicated raising awareness about and lessennig the effects of student stress.

“These are our teens,” Prothro said. “We care about them.”