Continued research on High School Substance abuse

The first article that I found today was from the website http://www.teendrugabuse.us/drugsnschool.html and addressed both the issues of Marijuana use and alcohol use in teens in school. The article gave clear, articulate, and on-sided information about Marijuana usage and the effects that it has on high school students. The article talked about how "The use of marijuana by teens can affect school, sports, and other activities; marijuana also affects memory, judgment, and perception. Teens who smoke marijuana on a regular basis start to lose interest in their appearance and how they are doing in school, at work, and at home." This article also gave information about the immediate effects of Marijuana so that parents can recognize them if their child comes home and appears to have smoked pot. This website also gave statistics of how many students starting in the 8th grade smoked Marijuana. These statistics are credible because this article is a compilation of findings from organizations like the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The alcohol section of this article was just as informative and even better because it gave specific stats of dangerous situations people confront while under the influence of alcohol. Things like: Drunk driving, suicide, sexual assault, and high-risk sex. These things are dangerous for anyone under the influence, but more so for teens because of the lack of full brain development. This part of the article gave facts from the US government studies as well as the British government studies about how teens who drink alcohol have stunted brain development and lose vital brain functions. "The alcohol-dependent youth had greater difficulty remembering words and simple geometric designs after a 10-minute interval." The article made reference to a British article called: "Alcohol and Young People" published by the British Medical Association, I decided to check it out because is shows that teen drinking is not only an issue in America. http://www.bma.org.uk/images/undertheinfluence_tcm41-190062.pdf part of this article addressed the rising numbers of young people who are drinking and intentionally getting drunk, this article also talks about how the vast amount of alcohol advertising has had an affect on the numbers of teens drinking.
The purpose of my research today was to look into effects of alcohol and Marijuana usage on teens. While doing this I stumbled upon how alcohol miss use among teens is also an issue in Britain.

Issues Final Project: Substance Abuse in High School

For my final project in Issues I will be looking closer into the topic of substance abuse in high school. The main substances that I will be focusing on are the two major ones the have affected a good majority of high school students in one way or another: Drinking and Marijuana usage. These two substances are the most abused by high school students and most people have had experiences with both of these substances. What I intend to research is the statistics that go along with these substances: like amount who use or have tried these substances, deaths, penalties, what can be done to lower amount who use, and so on. This topic has intrigued me because as a high school student I can connect with it more so than I can with a topic about revolts overseas.  
I began my research by going to http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/ which is one of the most recognizable organizations that combat substance abuse in teens. The above the influence website gave detail descriptions of what Marijuana and alcohol contain and what the negative side affects are (but others may see as good.) This website had great information, but obviously was extremely biased.
I also looked at the website http://journals.lww.com/journaladdictionmedicine/Fulltext/2011/03000/Gender_Differences_in_Adolescent_Marijuana_Use_and.10.aspx which contained in ti an article with a detailed study on Connecticut high schoolers and their thoughts and uses of Marijuana. It stated that out of 4523 adolescents that 1655 participants (40.4%) endorsed lifetime marijuana use and 1004 participants (24.5%) endorsed past 30-day use (participants could be members of both the lifetime and past 30-day marijuana use groups); 2442 participants (59.6%) denied lifetime marijuana use. This website broke down and analyzed different reasons as to why someone would use Marijuana and who is more likely to smoke pot. This entry also went into the long term affects of Marijuana on adolescents.
As I continue my research I want to include the affects of legalization and lowering of drinking age limit to see if at all this could affect the amount of kids who abuse these substances.

Race in America

The discussion of race in America is a ridiculous and cliche conversation. Although our country has a terrible history with race relations, the conversation now is just plain old, old. I do realize that there still are and always will be racist in the world. But now we live in a progressive modern time. I believe that race means nothing, the color of someones skin should not mean anything at all,but a classification. We do live in an era that white people are more privileged than other races, but this is quickly changing. As a relatively young country we have made great strides since the beginning. When America was founded 235 years ago we had slavery for 163 years before that and only ended it about 100 years after our founding. And Black people have only really had civil rights for about 50 years. In our short existence as a country we have made great leaps in full equality. Because the generations from the civil rights era are still around there may still be animosity towards people of other races, but this is soon to change, with the baby boomers slowly dying out, the younger generations are taking in leadership roles. The younger generations are the ones who are more excepting and will make even more strides in ending our self imposed segregation.
What surprises me most about when people talk about race is how stereotypes drive their statements. When people talk like this the separation just becomes greater. If we want to truly end segregation we need to look past and ignore the color of someones skin. Race means nothing, it is the person that counts. That person can contribute greatly to any conversation and any society.
If places are truly wanting to be diverse they need to ignore color. Everyone from every race is capable of great things. Diversity should not be forced upon an institution, but eagerly brought in unintentionally. This means that taking people in for who they are not what they look like. I know people may need assistance due to their living situation due to the still on going racism in America; this should be the only thing that should be considered with race. It is true that the majority of minorities in America are not as privileged as white people. With this being true financial assistance is the only thing that should be based off of race and need.
As a progressive society with the younger generations as the front men/women, we should fight to unintentionally bring diversity to American institutions, as in ignore the color of someone and accept them for who they are not what they look like.

Mock Trial Recap and Response

1. For the sexual harassement case I agree with the outcome of the trial. "Kevin Murphy" made many comments and did many actions of a sexual nature that made Elise very uncomfortable and sexually harassed. I believe that the result of this case was just and deserved no one no matter how productive they may be in the office is exempt from punishment for sexual harassement. Even though he claimed it was all "in good fun" it was still taken as hostile by Elise and there for I agree with the outcome of the case. The most compelling facts of this case are that both Kevin and Elise recognize that all of the statements and actions occured. This was enought evidence to convict, the defense did not really make a good argument defending Kevin all they did was try to establish that Elise's transfer was due to her work ethic not a demotion. A: that really had nothing to do with defending Kevin's actions. The most informative facts were that no one in the work place assisted Elise, her supervisor knew what was going on, but looked the other way because Kevin was a good lawyer. In order for me to think that the case deserved an opposite outcome, the defense would have had to prove that Elise was filing a law suit out of spite or jealousy. In the instance of "David Jones" vs. "Susan Williams" I totally disagree with the outcome of the trial. It was a very simple and clear cut  case. Susan said no and David disregarded her wishes and date raped her. No means no, no matter how it is said it still means the same thing. The most informative facts were that in the testimonies of both Susan and David they said that Susan had said no when David first tried to have sex with her. That is all that is needed because she said no and rape is when one party does not consent to sexual intercourse. In order to get an opposite outcome the jury would have had to realize that he was not going away for life, just a small amount of time. They said the only reason they said not guilty was because they thought he was going to get a life sentence for this one tragic mistake.
2. I believe that both of these issues are very serious cases. Date rape and sexual harassment are actions that have long standing consequences to both parties. With sexual harassment it could make it so someone does not want to come to work or out of their house, leaving them socially crippled. While Date rape have both physical and emotional consequence. The raped could suffer from serious trauma because of the one incident. People really need to know that neither of these things are okay. It is mainly a male issue towards woman, so men really need to learn/be taught respect and impulse control so that both of these situations can be prevented. At Deerfield High School I have never heard of an incident with date rape or rape so I do not believe that it is a problem here. But with sexual harassment I have no doubt that it goes one. But not to the extent of creating a hostile environment. To the extent of one or two comments about someone or a lude gesture. Nothing really serious in nature occurs on a daily basis here at DHS.

President Obama's State of the Union

This year in President Obama's state of the union address the main thing that he stressed was although we are a bipartisan system we can work together for a stronger America. The first was he emphasised this was he did not have the regular seating assignments for the House of Representatives they all sat intermingled: Democrat next to Republican. President Obama stressed that we need to amp up our education program because we are falling behind countries like China. He gave various examples on how small people are doing big things. But all of President Obama's suggestions and desires will require cooperation between both parties. This is a very hopeful dream, but in my opinion is futile. You could see in the crowd that whenever President Obama made a slightly more Democratic suggestion members of the Republican party would give a half-hearted clap. As a country we have primarily always been a two party system and operated that way. Even throughout the years it is easy to see that Democrats and Republicans do not necessarily agree on every policy. Overall I was very pleased with President Obama's state of the union address because it spoke towards what America really needs right now; to get in gear and change with the ever changing world society.
The thing I was most shocked with was Congress Woman Michelle Bachmann's response to the address for the Tea Party. What I was shocked about was why would the Tea Party chose a woman who barely knows basic American History to give their response to the address. What she spoke of was literally what President Obama was saying, but she gave graphs and ripped on the President.

Zeitoun: The Final Pages

Fortunately after a month of Zeitoun's wrongful incarceration he was set free due to efforts by a lawyer and his wife and friends. This book sheds light on how ineffective our Government can be during a time of crisis. While an entire city was underwater with people suffering, the law enforcement agents were more concerned with a Muslim man in a canoe. The legal system was also messed around with to keep Zeitoun from his even basic rights like a phone call to his family. Reading this story was a huge blow to my faith in our Government, the reaction time to Katrina was so slow and unprepared, but we easily conjour up the money to fight a futile war across seas. We live in a country based off of basic rights and freedoms, but the people of New Orleans were not even treated like citizens of America, but refugees in a foreign country. Zeitoun's story is one of many unfortunate ones, but it sheds light on the ignorance of American society and how botched and terrible it was during and after hurricane Katrina.

Zeitoun: Fourth set of 68 pages

After reading these pages in the book Zeitoun I am furious with the reaction of the American Government and American people towards people of Middle Eastern decent. Zeitoun was taken captive solely on his looks. When he was arrested he was not in the process of committing a crime or had committed a crime in the past. The only cause of his arrest was his race and religion. This is what infuriates me about American society after 9/11 and the wars in Iraq, Americans have this belief that all Muslims are bad people, just because the KKK existed it does not mean that all white Christians are terrible people. It is a horrible injustice that many American Citizens are subjected too. Zeitoun is not even told what he is charged with, he gets ideas on the charges when he is referred to as al Quida and Taliban by racist soldiers. I am just very angry that in a time of need for Americans, the aid they are supposed to get is going towards arresting innocent Muslim men solely for being Muslim.

Zeitoun: Third 68 pages

These third 68 pages of Zeitoun focus mainly on Kathy's mental struggle when she cannot get in contact with her husband. During this time Kathy is playing out all worst case scenarios while getting desperate calls from Zeitoun's family in Syria. Personally I cannot even fathom what Kathy is going through, to deal with the emotional stress of not knowing the well-being of ones spouse must be extremely stressful. It is actually so stressful on Kathy that she starts developing mass amounts of gray hairs. She also has to stay strong not only for herself, but for the sake of her children. I cannot stress enough how much I cannot even imagine going through this kind of emotional suffering. We later find out that Zeitoun has been in fact arrested. This gives Kathy some peace at mind knowing that he is indeed alive, but now she has to worry about her husband being imprisoned. This is another emotional roller-coaster that I cannot fathom riding. I am very impressed with Kathy's will power and ability to stay sane during those trying two weeks of not knowing. I am very excited to continue on reading the novel.

Zeitoun: Second 68 pages

The second 68 pages of Zeitoun speak toward the actual hurricane and the days to come afterward. I can totally understand where Zeitoun is coming from when he decides that he will stay home to ride the storm out and maintain their house. Zeitoun feels that as the man of the house that it is his duty to stay behind and protect his home of many years. This is very understandable, like what we saw in the move "When the Levees Broke" many people who have lived in New Orleans have lived through many tropical storms with no damage to their property or lively hood. Zeitoun had this exact mindset. But as we all know the hurricane itself was no so terrible for New Orleans, but it was the levees breaking that destroyed the city. Zeitoun experiences this when the entirety of the first floor of his house ends up underwater. Surprisingly Zeitoun stays calm and moves upstairs what he can before his house is completely flooded. It is amazing that Zeitoun goes around in his old canoe feeding dogs and strangers his food. What Zeitoun does for people of New Orleans is simply stunning and selfless.

Zeitoun: First 68 pages

The beginning of Zeitoun is very interesting and captivating. The beginning of the Novel gives a great brief summary of both Zeitoun and Kathy's childhoods and how they came about meeting. The book starts out with describing the life Zeitoun has made for himself as a Muslim-American in Louisiana. Zeitoun runs a very successful painting and carpentry business. It describes his and his wife's brief brushes with Americans view on Muslims and how it has and mainly has not affected their lives. But I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the beginning to this book. I am very much captivated by the story being put in place in front of me. I would truthfully suggest this book to anyone, it has a great story so far and the writing is great that it is easy to keep reading while not feeling like you are reading something for an eighth-grader. I am excited to continue reading this book and am kind of bummed out that I did not start it earlier. 

Abortion

Since the decision of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 the debate between pro-life and pro-choice has been a constant battle. NARAL-Prochoice America  and National Right to Life are two of the leaders in their side of the debate. When researching each website and reading each article it was easy to see that Nation Right to Life had a better argument. On the site they had detailed information telling the whole abortion process, of course with some bias. While NARAL-Prochoice America gave a brief synopsis of an issue and said how pro-life legislation wants to shut it down, they did not go into great detail on very much, unlike the pro-life website. Based on the websites it is hard to tell which side of the argument is winning, but based on the movies and literature we saw in class it seems that it is a very close debate, but it is leaning towards the pro-life stance. After reading both sites my opinion on the matter has not changed, I am very pro-choice and will remain so because I believe that it is the woman's right to chose and her choice should not be based on peoples religious or personal beliefs. In addition I believe that any piece of legislation that is backed even a little bit by religion should not be permitted in our constitution because we separate Church and State.
As a 17 year old High School Student I believe that the parent deserves to know if their child is getting an abortion, but I do not believe that as a requirement to receive the abortion the parents must be notified. I believe this because the child my be embarrassed due to the nature of her getting pregnant and my be set on getting an abortion, but does not want her parents to intervene and try to convince her otherwise. They also should not have the right to decide for their daughter because it is her body and her life so she has the choice. With the father being notified I believe he should be contacted to know what is going to happen to his unborn child. I believe he should have a say, but not have that be the deciding factor in whether or not a woman gets an abortion.
I mostly agree with Illinois' position on abortion. I agree with the legislation that is permitting woman to get an abortion, but they have put up some stumbling blocks like parental and spousal consent. They also made it not allowed to use insurance for abortions as well as no state funding for abortions. Because I am so pro-choice I would get rid of the spousal and parental consent laws. The website gives Illinois a B- on their scale which is good, but it could be better for helping women get abortions.

More Death for the Death Penalty

Stages of the Death Penalty:

The Stages of the conviction process in court are somewhat designed to protect the accused. The whole process is set up to almost be fail proof because all evidence must be conclusive as well as the witness statements. Also the Jury is carefully selected so that they will not hold a bias towards a defendant and so that they can make the right/fair decision. I do not believe that the system is set up to only convict the guilty. I believe this because there is always human error that can mess up an entire case and convict an innocent man/woman.

Methods of Execution:

Of the five methods that were discussed the most human seems to be lethal injection. This is so because it puts the prisoner asleep and has marginal room for error. It is also the most human because with most the body is seriously harmed with defecation and eye balls popping out. The gas chamber, electrocution, and hanging could be considered the most inhumane because they seriously harm the body during and after death. Also they can cause the prisoner to feel extreme and prolonged pain.

Death Penalty Conclusion and States:

From this data one can conclude that the south has the most deaths with the death penalty and the most inmates on death row. One can also conclude that many states have inmates on death row, but do not execute due to all of the issues that revolve around it. These trends show that justice may not always be served. Because maybe someone was not guilty, but convicted anyways. Also it shows that the families of the victims my never see justice because the inmate who is on death row my not be executed.

Death Penalty information Center:

This information presented has changed my opinion greatly. I never thought of the death penalty as a race issue, but the information clearly shows that when the victims are white, the defendant is more likely to get the death penalty. Also I never new how much it costs to kill someone, I always believed that the death penalty could be more economic because you do not have to care for the inmate, but it actually costs more to kill them. This brings me to the conclusion that we need to make the death penalty more cost effective i.e. a single bullet to the head. From this given information from The Death Penalty Information Center I would say that they are against the death penalty, most of the carts and evidence given is in opposition of its use. This website is very convincing because it gives valid information that shows how costly, ineffective, inhumane, and unjust the death penalty is. Some additional information that I would like this source to provide is what kind of crimes got the death penalty and what kinds did not. And also circumstances of the defendant.

Clifford Boggess to be or not to be exacuted

Originally when I heard about Clifford Boggess's case I was one hundred percent for his execution. I believe that serious offenders should be sentenced to death because society would be better without murderers and rapists. I felt very differently about Clifford Boggess, after hearing about his transformation I was convinced that he should not have been sentenced to death. For the most part, people get meaner and more violent while in prison because they are in a survival of the fittest world. But Clifford Boggess was different, he did a total one-eighty and seemed to because a calm human being. I am not a supporting that he should have been released, but that he should have just gotten a life sentence in jail. I believe from what I saw that he was no longer a threat to society; he had come to terms with his demons and repented and asked for forgiveness. Every one's life has value and no one person has more value than another, but in some cases a life needs to be taken for the betterment of society. This was not the case with Clifford Boggess, he was a two time killer, but no longer a threat to society because he was behind bars. The victims families would have gotten justice no matter what happened to Clifford Boggess, he had lost his freedom forever and the justice system did not fail in his case. It is a sad and horrible thing for people to wish for the death of another person no matter what the circumstances are. In essence Clifford go the easy way out because he did not suffer and he got to chose everything about his death. This should have brought more discomfort to the families because it really is not fair compared to what their loved one went through.
All though the death penalty is an effective tool for serious offenders, it was miss used in the case of Clifford Boggess. He was a mostly rehabilitated man who was no longer a threat to anyone. I believe that he should not have received the death penalty for his actions.

A Public Service Announcement not approved by AJWS

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.

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.

Freedom of Religion a Useless Debate

There is no question about it, America is a free country in which our Constitution clearly states the freedom of Religion. In order to have complete freedom of Religion, there must be a complete separation of Church and State. This is why I see all debates about Religion that involve the Government as useless and a waste of time. Unless the institution is Religiously affiliated, Religion should not be brought up unless it is talking about History. I realize that people are in titled to speak their mind about Religion, but Government institutions should not be able to force Religious opinions on the public. At my school during my Freshman year, the administration tried to force a "Moment of Silence" on us during Homeroom as a time for personal thoughts and prayer. This was a direct slap in the face to separation of Church and State. 
 There should never be debate about Religious rights in a Government institution, it is clear- do not mix the two.

7 Days in September

The film 7 Days in September was very powerful and caused me to think back to how I felt nine years ago. The terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th occurred when I was only in third grade. Back then I could not really put two and two together and fully grasp what had happened; and up until seeing this film I had never thought about or really researched Sept. 11th 2001. The film provoked so much emotion out of me because at this age I can fully comprehend the after math of the attacks. The movie nearly brought me to tears when to footage of the second plane stuck the second twin tower. What I was most amazed by from watching this movie was how New York banded together as one to help restore the area around ground zero and to help the injured and emergency personal. I was surprised at all of the public debates that erupted between complete strangers and were resolved with a hug. Overall this film opened my closed eyes to the true and horrendous events that unfolded around 9/11.

Scare Tactics: 7 Reasons to Leave a Party

This past Monday (9/13/10) our school had an assembly on seven reasons to leave a party. Pretty much it was a giant scare tactic for the Seniors and Sophomores of Deerfield High School. The seven reasons were the worst case scenarios. They included: No money, no time, death, no privacy, no trust, Criminal record, and no Car. All though very possible the examples they used would only happen if everything possible goes wrong. I am not promoting hardcore partying because that could be dangerous. But the assembly was disorganized and horribly presented. It was forty minutes of two judges rambling about two or three horrible incidents. The worst of all is that there was no debriefing just, "Oh, we're out of time, go to fourth period." They left us with an image of a girl who was hit by a drunk driver. Even in homeroom today we had no time to discuss what went on and how to handle it because we were hit with announcement after announcement about irrelevant issues.
Overall the assembly was poorly handled.