Affirmative Action

In my personal opinion i think that it's up to the school to decide what kind of student (race,ethnicity, gender) they want to accept into their university. Whatever the university puts into its mission statement is what the university should stand by. If the university decides to only accept Asians into their college then so be it, that's completely up to them because its their university, their rules, so they can make whatever kind of decisions they want whether its fair or not simple because its THEIR university, not the governments or the courts or the peoples university. Someone owns the college and they view their college in a certain way so they are going to have it that way despite what some people think of it. In all honesty why would someone even want to go to a college that doesn't want them... it doesn't make sense to me.

Stepping back though and going back to the main point, I think its more fair for the university's to look at students as a whole, rather than tear them apart and break them down to numbers. I would rather a university look at me as a student with a decent GPA, bad ACT score, a student who has improved through his high school career, an athlete, and an employed student. To me that sounds a lot better than being classified as... 25? 37? 7? Both ways have the possibility of giving the university what they want but i would rather someone be able to tell me I can't go to their university because my scores weren't good enough and I wasn't a dedicated student, instead of telling me i fell 3 points short of being accepted because to me that means absolutely nothing.

side note: I applaud the students who fight university's because they find it unfair that they don't accepted, but the way i see it is that i would much rather go to a worse school that wants me to be there, than a better school that doesn't want me and doesn't think I'm good enough for them




Mr. Kramer i hope you read this

Terrol Swift

On January 17, 2012, Terrill Swift was released from prison for being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. On February 14, nearly one month later the same man came to Deerfield High School to share his story with a group of teen aged students. His story was not only compelling and inspiring, but it also taught me that sadly our rights must be fought for. Terrill's story told me that we can't take our every day virtues for granted, especially our rights. The whole point of Terrill's visit was to teach us about how important it is to know what your rights are because when your in the heat of the moment like Terrill was, you have to know that if you want an attorney with you that you have the right for that and no police officer can take that away from you. Terrill wasn't wrongfully convicted because he was stupid and there was certainly not a lot he could do about the situation/ This man was set up by the Chicago Police because when theres a murder/rape on their table, they have to arrest somebody and in this case that somebody was Terrill. Most 17 year-old boys in Terrill's position wouldn't know what to do or how to act. In Terrill's mind he was cooperating to help find a murderer, but in actuallity he was helping convict himself and this was made possible because his rights were taken away and he had to do as the police ordered. I wish i had the skills to be an attorney beacuse this story taught me how easily a mans life can be taken away. Sadly, I just don't see my future going in that direction.

"If I Were a Poor Black Kid" - responce

I think Mr. Gene Marks is an over thinker... It's obvious he put a lot of thought into his responce. But, coming from a middle class white boy in north chicago, i can say im almost positive no normal student would go out of their way to do all those tasks. How often do you remember wanting to come to school to learn?! I'm not saying kids hate school but school is the base of a teenagers social life. Teenagers across America don't wake up in the morning to learn, they wake up to go see all their friends. I think Mr. Marks agruement is good and makes complete sense and i think a lot of people would be able to succeed by following his advice, but i personally think that no normal student would be able to go through all that work. I think it takes special people with minds to do great things, regaurding your race or skin color. I also think that Mr. Marks just can't come to grip with reality. He says he'd be able to afford a comupter and internet, be able to afford getting to and from every place he needs to go to study and learn, be able to afford the time to learn all these programs and system and codes when he might have to use that time to get a job and work to support his family. This world isn't perfect and your life plans are not going to turn out the exact way you want them to be. Only an adult who has been exposed to all these opportunities would know about them and would know how a young poor kid can succeed. No kid would ever think of think of it on their own.

Am i Racist

I'm glad to say I'm not racist!... said by the Implicit Association Test. After a series of questions and tests my result was, "you have no automatic prefference between African Americans and White Americans." The test is very confusing, but i can see how it works and how its affective. The test matches good and bad with different ethnicities, and you must put the right word or picture in the right spot. The test records how many you get right and when you get it wrong, it looks at why you might have gotten in wrong. Lets say you match up bad words with African Americans when its supposed to be bad words in a different category, the test would take that information and would say that this person identifies African Americans with these bad words.  During the test i was getting frustrated because it was making me feel like i was supposed to be racist, for example when bad words and African Americans were on one side, i was affiliating the two with each other because i had to.
I think that my results from the test are because of how i was raised in my family and in Deerfield. The website, tolerance.org, said that, "Social scientists believe children begin to acquire prejudices and stereotypes as toddlers. Many studies have shown that as early as age 3, children pick up terms of racial prejudice without really understanding their significance." If this is true, then it would be almost impossible to stop prejudice and racism in this nation alone. If we as a nation want to seriously try to put a stop the racism then we need to make many small steps, such as working together in communities to fix the problem.

Issue #4 Can your parents discipline you however they see fit?

Sadly, the law does not protect children from their own parents. "The U.S Constitution doesn't require states to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens from the acts by private individuals." The judge in the case of state v. Arnold said that, "parents right to discipline his or her child 'clearly has his limits.' When they're exceeded, the parent may be criminally liable." The question that we now have to answer is: what is the 'limit" on disciplining a child?

Issue #3 Can you dye your hair or wear a nose-ring to school?

A 15 year old boy Robert Olff was told that he could not go to class until he cut his hair. In the school rule book, their were hair rules for males but not females. The Olff's sued the school for not letting him have freedom of expression. The court ruled in favor of Robert Olff because the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom to determine your own hairstyle and personal appearance. This is also the same with religious expressions because the right to have religious expressions is also covered by the U.S. Constitution. Now here's a quick thought: Should private schools be able to take away more freedoms than a public school?

Issue #2 school drug testing

Students and parents today are getting offended and angry with school districts wanting to randomly drug test athletes. In protest Jimmy Acton sued his school district for wanted to drug test him, the Acton's said that the drug test was an unreasonable search and seizure. The court ruled in favor of the school district because their was probably cause for starting the random drug testing. The goal of the testing was to lower drug use in athletes. something that the book said that i found interesting was, "... the U.S. Supreme Court considereed a student's expectation of privacy. You surrender some privacy when you go to school. Your parents turn over temporary custody to the school, for education and disciplinary purposes when necessary." By trying out for a school team and participating, you are surrendering even more privacy rights because you must give forth insurance information, a physical exam, and change in front of others in the locker room.
Many students believe that drug testing for extracurricular activities is too much as well. The court believes that because these activities are voluntary, it justifies the rule. In my own opinion, just like the students here i would also be angry and frustrated. But, because your volunteering to do the sport(s) for your school, you are  surrendering your privacy and also volunteering to follow the rules.