Bullying across the nation

Everyday schools are enacting new rules against bullying. This is not to mention that just a mere year ago the government passed a law against bullying. Now the act of bullying, or aggressive behavior intended to inflict harm on its victim either physically or mentally. Bullying is a serious problem and the victims of it feel its affects long after the actual bullying ends. The most bullying occurs during middle school years but that is not to say that bullying stops at any age. Just recently there was a story in the newspaper about people in nursing homes bullying each other. The problem of bullying occurs everywhere and with all ages.

                Some people claim that bullying is just part of life and the victims of the cruel acts just need to deal with it because that makes them grow up and the government should not get involved. To these people a history lesson must be taught that what is now called racism, sexism, and homophobia were once only considered bullying. Millions of people have been bullied and continue to be bullied today.  Bullying is a big issue especially in Middle Schools across the nation. Some kids are bullied so bad they think taking their lives is a better option than staying in school and dealing with the bully’s. There is now the issue of cyber bullying which is where teens bully each other behind the mask of the computer. Bullying is an issue across that needs to be addressed in schools and stopped.

                  The issue of bullying in schools has increased over the years. 1 of every 7 students from kinder garden to Grade 12 has been a bully or has been bullied. The people that have been bullied have an increase in anxiety, loss of friends and a drop in grades.  Kids that have been bullied are also more likely to commit suicide.  Schools have taken steps to decrease the amount of bullying that occurs. One step taken to prevent bullying is making it a criminal offense to bully. If you’re convicted of bullying you can be put in jail for up to 10 years.  Another step schools are taking is having a no tolerance bulling on school grounds or on line. Schools will suspend and expel students that bully.  Schools are taking steps to prevent and decrease bullying in school.

                New rules are being enacted against bullying. Cyber bullying has become a big issue that schools have to deal with and prevent. There are also different kinds of bullying; you can bully physically or mentally. A lot of bullying occurs in the 6^th to 8^th grade. All kids have had to deal with bullying whether they were the bully or the victim. People are bullied because of sexual orientation, race and religion as well as being considered unpopular. The issue of bullying is decreasing but it is still a problem in society today.

boston marathon page assignment

The two bombers took away the security we all felt but they didn’t succeed in taking away our pride in our city. This is something Boston can and will come back from and is already in the process of doing so. The victims of the Boston marathon will recover and are receiving support from people across the nation. The tragedy that took place on Monday April 15^th and in my opinion strengthened the city in a time when others would have been weekend.

Boston Marathon Tragedy

      On Monday April 15^th two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Boston Marathon is a 26 mile course around Boston with the finish line by the Boston public library. The bombs were planted by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It took four days to catch the suspects resulting in the death of Tamerlan and the hospitalization of Dzhokhar. 

     The casualties of the Boston marathon included death and loss of limbs. Hundreds of people are in the hospital recovering from the wounds inflicted by the bomb. Luckily Boston has a lot of hospitals that could treat the massive amounts of victims. One thing people did to try and help the victims was after finishing the marathon the participants continued to run to the nearest hospital to donate blood. The wounds inflicted by the bombing were both physical and emotional.

    The emotional toll of Boston being attacked was huge. People felt a range of emotions from unsafe to patriotic. The fear of another attack and the suspect still being out there caused people to stay inside and hope that another attack wouldn’t come. The fact that the suspect was taken in to custody 4 days after the attack caused the feeling of pride that we are “Boston Strong” and can come back from anything.

       The two bombers took away the security we all felt but they didn’t succeed in taking away our pride in our city. This is something Boston can and will come back from and is already in the process of doing so. The victims of the Boston marathon will recover and are receiving support from people across the nation. The tragedy that took place on Monday April 15^th and in my opinion strengthened the city in a time when others would have been weekend.

AP Biology Changing

On May 13^th thousands of high school kids across the U.S. will sit down to take the advanced placement biology exam to try and get college credit. This year the exam has changed from past years as well as the curriculum that is going to be on it. Previous years the exam has consisted of 100 multiple choice and 4 long response essays. This year there will be 63 multiple choice a new math section consisting of 6 grid in problems, 2 long response and 6 short response essays. There is a greater weight on writing and multiple choices this year than in past years.

Mr. Henry is the AP bio teacher at Norton high school. This is his 3^rd year teaching the course but the first year the curriculum has changed. When asked if he enjoys teaching AP biology he responded “I do. It’s probably my favorite course to teach”. He also teaches regular and honors level biology, honors anatomy and physiology and honors biotech.  Mr. Henry knows what’s changed in the new curriculum and how it has affected the way teachers have to teach the course.

Not only has the test format changed but the material as well “they are getting away from memorization of the course. It’s looking more at the big picture and understanding how things connect. Focusing on science practices” said Mr. Henry. Another change is the labs “It has been a little challenging especially designing labs to be more inquiry based”. The new curriculum has caused teachers to adjust to the new test.

The teachers have had to adjust and change their lesson plans to teach to this new curriculum. “I dislike the unknown of what the new test will look like. There has been some indications but without any released tests, there’s some uncertainty of what changes there will be to the test” Jason Henry. The adjustment and uncertainty has been difficult for the teachers but they plan on having their students ready to pass the test come May 13th.

Capital Punishment? Heck no!

Capital punishment is when you sentence a prisoner to death for the crimes they committed. Prisoners who receive this sentence usually committed the crime of manslaughter. These people shouldn’t die for their crimes because it is more of a punishment to live the remainder of their lives in jail with no chance of parole. Spending time in jail isn’t fun they would spend the remainder of their lives behind bars with gross food. Instead of spending a few years in jail with a death sentence they would be spending more time in jail knowing they were going to die there. Another reason to not sentence prisoners with capital punishment is that it’s morally wrong. The person committed a terrible crime but killing them doesn’t make us better than them. Killing a person is wrong whether they committed a crime of not. Capital punishment shouldn’t be an option because jailing for life is a harsher punishment and it is morally wrong.

Sun Chronical assignment, Lil Poopy

I think the police are over reacting. Lil Poopy's videos are not appropriate for a nine year old but that doesn't necessarily have a direct correlation with his home life. The boy is just acting in his music videos and shouldn't be punished for that. The police are overreacting with Lil Poopy's case.

Introduction

Hi my name is Madison this blog is for my Journalism class. I am a Junior and I will be posting interesting stories about whats going on at my school and in the world.