Anti-Party Assembly for Seniors Worth it?

The other day before Homecoming at my high school we had an assembly that the seniors and sophomores were required to go to. This assembly was about not going to parties with drinking and drugs, not driving with people under the influence, and not doing drugs and drinking in general. So is the assembly worth having for seniors?
In my opinion no. As seniors we have gone through about 4 years of health and countless assemblies about drugs and alcohol and not doing it. Just because they bring in a new person won’t change the senior’s minds that are still drinking and doing drugs after all the classes and assemblies. They have heard the same thing come from every person that has come to visit and in every class we have taken. Yet, they still choose to drink and do drugs. What makes the school think that will change? Especially as seniors. It would make more sense to make the freshman go to the assembly and possibly still the sophomores but not seniors. The school has shown and taught us about all they can about illegal drugs and drinking and their effects on us. If that doesn’t go through to everyone I don’t know what will. But, I guarantee making them sit through yet another assembly will not make them stop. Seniors should not have to go to the assemblies like that. But, I believe they should make the freshman and sophomores go. They haven’t gone through it all yet and haven’t learned all the school has to teach them. The earlier they learn it the better, and more likely they won’t make the bad decision in the first place.

10 years later... 9/11

In social issue class we talked a lot about 9/11 right around the time of it. We also watched a documentary from the view of the firefighters. It followed them all throughout the tragedy, before, and after. I think the movie was very touching and gave me a whole new perspective on 9/11. I had never really understood what happened that day and the amount of confusion and the thoughts that went through every one's head. I didn't know that at first everyone thought it was a mistake that they ran into the towers and that the fire fighters really didn't know what was going on outside. I also didn't know the amount of people that thought there was no way out so they just jumped from the towers. The video really showed how terrible and unexpected everything was. It also showed the amount of people that really put their lives on the line for other people. It was inspiring that these people did everything and spent countless hours helping and searching for others. It also made me take a step back and re live what had really happened that day but from an older perspective. I really got to understand the event and how terrible and tragic it really was and how people really felt.
The article "The Years Since 9/11: A Lost Decade" from the Nation really put into perspective the amount of lives and money lost because of 9/11. I was really surprised to see that 4,442 soldiers had dies, 415 law enforcements and firefighters, and 2,977 people from the towers and planes were killed, and$1.25 trillion has been spent to try to rebuild the countries that we have been fighting for years all because of 9/11. this article really showed how enormous we have made this event and how big it really is. It also makes a good point, "To salvage something from this lost decade, we should at least try to draw the right lessons from it."(Editors) In order for the war and 9/11 to mean something and for those people not to die in vein we need to learn lessons from it instead of just hate to hate and cause more destruction, like we have.
Personally I have lost a lot of people from the War that was caused by 9/11 both physically and mentally. I have many friends that have gone the Afghanistan and fought for our country and for what they thought our freedom. However, from what they tell me they really don't know why they are there anymore. They are all sick and tired of being there trying to recreate a country that doesn't want to be recreated in the way we want them to be. Most of the people over there fighting believe we are causing more problems than helping them. I also have friends that have come and never beent the same because of what they have seen and done. I actually lost a friend because of it. I think 9/11 was a huge tragedy but we need to move on and try to recreate our country and make our country better because we need it. We need to stop trying to help people that don't want our help and bring our family and friends home.

Do Students Really Have Freedom of Speech?

In social issues class we have recently been talking a lot about students rights and freemdom of speech in school. I quickly noticed that we really don't have that much freedom of speech in school as i thought we did. Sure, we can talk about our personal veiws and what we believe in which is a lot more freedom than a lot of other places. However, we really can't always express ourselves in a lot of ways people want to. For instance, in the Tinker vs. Des Moines case, "as a part of a group against American involvment in the Vietnam War, they decided to publicize their opposition by wearing black armbands to school." (Hudson Jr., David L.)The children were punished and suspended from school if they wore the bands until they agreed not to wear them. Although the court found the innocent and that they should be able to wear them, they were still punished in the first place. The court said, "it can hardly be argued that either student or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the school house gate." The court believes that but we still have a very good amount of restrictions on what we can say and wear. School take away a lot of things that could be found offensive to people. However, anyone can be offended by almost anything. Therefore, there are a good amount of restrictions on what we can and can't wear, and what we can and can't say. The problem is.. where do we draw the line? when do we know if we have to put a restriction on something? the problem is we don't know. There will always be someone with a problem with a rule or what someone says or wears. But what amount of people makes that okay to put a restriction on it? and when does it really become an issue? There lies the problem of schools trying to solve the problem before it even happens, like in Tinker vs. Des Moines, when the school put the restrictions on the armbands before they even wore them. It also causes he schools to create more restrictions that don't really need to be made and just takes away more of our freedom.

Computer Camps

Some people might say that people that go to computer camps (like me) are geeks. Well..., They are right! but we are proud to be. This summer I attended two computer science camps along with about 40 other kids in each camp. They were at major universities and there weren't very many girls. One of the camps I went to there were only 3 girls out of 40 kids. However, the girls knew what we were doing more than most of the guys. But we were all very close. We all had a lot in common and always had something to talk about. It was so fun and we were all able to be our geeky selves. So yeah we are geeks but we are all geeks together. Having fun and doing what we love to do. And one day maybe we could all rule the world together. :)