BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Friday, October 29, 2010

A Public Service Announcement not approved by AJWS

Monday, October 25, 2010

Cyber Bullying - Lets fight it Together

Bullying in Our Schools

Bullying is a problem in most American schools. From what we have looked at in our class is examples of extreme cases of bullying and how they are handled. For the most part the bullying was not handled well by the schools. In the case of Jamie Nabozny, nothing was done for him when he was being bullied for being Gay. Bullying is a problem that when first confronted, it needs to be stopped. Any type of bullying is bad and cannot be brushed off by administrations or parents. When children are not immediately punished for bullying, they get the message that it is okay and will continue to bully or torture one kid. In the case of Jamie Nabozny when his tormentors were first called into the office, they received no punishment, and the Principals response was "Boys will be boys." Jamie's tormentors were no punished even in the least bit for physically and mentally hurting Jamie. This showed his bullies that what they were doing was acceptable and they continued to torment Jamie. No matter what the case, no matter how small the act was; bullying needs to be prevented before or after the first offense. I know that there is always the petty mean girls issues between groups of girls, but I have not heard of anything getting violent. If bullying was a problem in our school, I solution that I would suggest; is bring in a speaker with first hand experience with an extreme case of bullying. In the video we watched about Jamie Nabozny, he was speaking to a school about his experience, this would be a very affective assembly in my opinion. Hearing about an extreme case of bullying from someone who experienced it is way more affective that having
In Deerfield High School, I do not believe I have ever witnessed or heard of any extreme cases of bullying. The only bullying that I have heard of is messing with freshman during Homecoming week. Even so that is not extreme at all and only occurs for one week each year. In my opinion Deerfield does not have a problem with bullying. I have heard from friends from other schools that bullying does occur, but nothing to the disturbing nature of Jamie Nabozny's experience. This would show all students how serious bullying is no matter how little a case of bullying may be.
Bullying is a serious problem that affects most people and need to be prevented to the best of parents and school administrators abilities.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Student Drug Testing

I am a firm believer that suspicion less drug testing in public schools is completely unnecessary. Even though students may be seen in their community as leaders it does not mean that their privacy can be invaded. I believe that the only time student drug testing can be implemented is under suspicion of drug use during an extracurricular activities or a sport. Although drug use may be a problem in some schools it does not give the school the right to invade a students privacy and maybe reveal a hidden issue that a student wanted to keep to him or herself. It is not the schools job to play parent, it is the schools sole job to educate children and prepare them for their future education and job life. If a parent suspects that their child is using drugs then they can drug test their kid, if the school suspects that a student is on drugs; they can inform the parent or talk to the student, not drug test them. "Today's ruling affirms that schools are not constitutional dead zones..." said attorney Adam Wolf on the Savana Redding case. This rings true in any instance in which a students privacy is invaded, everyone has the right to privacy. In New Jersey vs. T.L.O, her purse was searched for cigarettes and when they were found the schools search was done because they had found what they were looking for. When they assistant principal continued searching her purse and found Marijuana, the search was unconstitutional because they were only looking for cigarettes and nothing else. 
       All in all I believe drug testing by a public school is unnecessary and not the job of a school. If school administrators want to play parent, then they should have a kid of their own and drug test him/her whenever they see fit, do not do it to their students.