Issue #1: Sexual Harassment at School

One of the many issues that Thomas A. Jacobs goes over in his book, "Teens on Trial," is sexual harassment in schools. I found that its a very important topic because this comes up in the media quite often whether its student-teacher relationships or sexual assault by a teacher to a student. More recently, this topic has been talked about a lot due to what has happened at Penn State... But I'm not going to get into that.
In the case of gebser C. Lago Vista Independent School District, a 13-year-old girl Alida Gebser and Frank Waldrop had been working together for tutoring purposes. Over time Mr. Wldrop would make sexual remarks to Alida, in the classroom and at her home. The remarks eventually went further as the relationship progressed. It turned into kissing, fondling, and even sex. Alida did not report any of this behavior to an adult and did not tell anyone at all. This was not found out about until a police officer found them having sex in a parked car. Mr. Waldrop was fired and had his teaching license revoked. Alida and her mother then sued Mr Waldrop and the school district, "claiming negligence and discrimination based on sex. Alida and her mother also held the school district responsible for failing to prevent the teachers misconduct."
In the court decision, the Supreme Court ruled the school district not liable because they had no way of finding out. Alida never reported the incidents so there was no way of anyone knowing. The school found out of this once they were caught by the police officer, where Mr. Waldrop was fired immediately after. The courts made their ruling so that the Gebser's would be able to sue Mr. Waldrop for damages, which is what they did.
If the school was informed before hand of the sexual harassment before and did nothing about it, then Alida and her mother would be able to sue the school district. Alida is also at fault because she didn't tell anyone about these acts and let it continue for quite a long time. Once a school had knowledge of such illegal acts, they can be held responsible if no action is taken.
I think that this is very reasonable for the school district and the students. There's no possible way that a district would know that a teacher would be sexually assaulting students if nothing is reported, and if there is no past record then it would not be able to be seen. Alida should have taken responsibility and told an adult of what was going on so it could have been stopped before it had gotten too far. If a school does not treat complaints or problems then they can be sued for those problems and not recieve immunity from the court.

Invisible Children

After watching the rough cut video and clicking through the organizations website, i was at how much Deerfield High School could help. Deerfield is well known for good academics and athletics, but we also do a phenomenal amount of fundraising. The one page of the website, it shows leaders of teams and individuals who have raised the most money. The second top ranked team was a high school that raised 20,000 dollars. Last year Deerfield High School raised almost 100,000 dollars and im very confident that we will go above and beyond that number. Some things that are pushing the students is that its a organization run by the youth, and its for the youth. Also to think that our school would build enough money to have our own radio tower with the DHS name on it would impact everyone in the north shore of Chicago and that radio tower would stand tall with our name on it for a very long time. If we are able to send one student to Uganda and bring back a picture of the tower with DHS on it, it would be well worth our efforts and time.