Everyone who was slightly (or completely) out of control in high school has experience with the Dean of Discipline - the one position at a school where the popularity rating among students is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the discipline. When announcements come on, the list of students called to the Dean’s office is always met with a class-wide “ooh”, or sometimes a sigh of relief from those who have been spared for the day. And here at Judge Memorial, walking into school to face the 2012-2013 school year, the student body wasn’t only met with 200 new faces of freshman, but two new faces of discipline: Mr. Olive and Mr. Johnson.
Both men have a history in the halls of Judge Memorial - Mr. Johnson graduated from here in 1995 and Mr. Olive sent his two children here. Mr. Johnson - perhaps an undercover rebel - admitted to “not being perfect” in high school, saying “I see kids trying to get away with stuff I did in high school”. His experience with being on both sides of the Dean’s office helps him create a less authoritarian and more helpful approach to discipline. In fact, his favorite part of the job is when students can treat incidents as “water under the bridge” and still say “Hi” to him in the halls. He believes the trouble students might get into doesn’t have to define them; instead he offers, and encourages, the opportunity for any student to learn from their mistakes.
Mr. Olive’s job title is Community Resource Specialist and entails slightly different responsibilities than Mr. Johnson’s Dean position. Mr. Olive, with 25 years of experience as a police officer is much more focused on providing security to both Judge Memorial and Lourdes as Judge saw a need for this following national tragedies which resulted in the loss of lives in schools. Providing security does not just mean protection against outside threats; it also means dealing with problems within the school.
With certain incidents, Mr. Olive’s and Mr. Johnson's responsibilities overlap. Mr. Johnson mainly has to deal with issues like tardies, sluffs, academic dishonesty, etc. - things that violate our school policy but don’t break any laws. But on rare occasions, the Dean will come across issues that fall into both categories. In the instance that federal or state law has been broken, Mr. Olive gets involved and is obliged to file a report with the police. For example, in the recent investigation of the sale of illegal drugs at Judge, both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Olive were involved.
While many might avoid Mr. Olive and/or Mr. Johnson at all costs, there is no need for fear. Both are incredibly kind and have our best interests in mind. When asked what he liked least about his job, Mr. Olive responded that he dislikes the emotional stress of knowing tragedies can happen in any school. He is here to help keep us safe and he made it very apparent that he takes his job seriously. So if some of us have had bad experiences with the Deans, maybe it is time to give this dynamic duo a second chance.
The ideal woman’s body has been photoshopped and corrected to the point it has become an unattainable goal - a sick dream causing girls and women alike to slap on the makeup, purchase the push-up bras, obsessively visit the gym, and too many times, starve or purge themselves.
The culture influencing our body image, the self-perceived appearance of oneself, is inescapable. It is in action movies, magazines, commercials, billboards, music videos, etc.. And now with photo sharing sites like Instagram, the blast of “perfect” women pictures has just increased. Any major advertising or media conglomerate is guilty of objectifying women to sell a product. But they are guilty of something else too - the devaluing of women. By emphasizing sex and physical appearance over any other trait, the media has forced women to believe this is the only thing that matters. With this perspective, no wonder American women spent an estimated $3.8 billion on makeup and $10.2 billion on cosmetics in 2011 (NPD Group annual report). And while these dollar amounts may seem like an extreme, money is not the only thing women are willing to sacrifice to meet the impossible.
In an anonymous survey by the Bulldog Press, we gathered our own statistics about food issues among women. 63% of those surveyed responded that they were always, usually, or often preoccupied with food. Only 5% responded they were never preoccupied, while the rest chose either sometimes or rarely. A preoccupation with food means different things to different women. Some might worry about everything they have eaten, others keep mental lists of all things consumed in a day. Some might always check calorie and carb counts, only eat less than the serving size, or self-ration when hungry. Whatever it may be, a preoccupation with food is not healthy. Dieticians and health experts do promote food awareness, which is a conscientious effort to make food choices that will be conducive to our health. But this awareness is not to be confused with a constant worry, or fear, of food. A healthy food choice does not cause stress and if it does, this is a healthy pressure to choose the best for one’s body. A food fear doesn’t cause healthy nutrition habits; in fact it does the opposite.
As seen from our survey results, worrying about food is a common feeling in women. This preoccupation in some women can become all-consuming, both psychologically and physically. 9.28% of girls surveyed admitted to vomiting always or usually after eating. That is almost one in ten girls, forcing themselves to throw up food. Even more responded to always or usually having the impulse to vomit after meals.
The rest of the survey asked girls to rank how often they feel guilty after eating, are preoccupied with a desire to be thinner, think about burning up calories when exercising, are preoccupied with the thought of having fat on their body, give too much time and thought to food, are terrified about being overweight, and feel the need to workout if they eat “too much”. Our results had too many girls answering always. And usually. And often. We should not have to fear one of the most basic necessities of life. Our instincts tell us to eat, but society is sending women and girls a different message.
The “American dream” is a term thrown around by gun crazed conservatives and wishful liberals and everyone in between. This idealistic phrase means many things, but maybe the right place to start is what it doesn’t mean. The “American dream” doesn’t mean we live in fear of gun violence. It doesn’t mean school children have to suffer at the hands of homegrown terrorism. No, our nation has moved far away from the track of this “dream”. While we can keep telling ourselves we are the greatest nation on Earth (an arguable fact), we remain number one in one arena: rate of gun violence. If we look around the world at other developed countries, we would see governments who have recognized the power of guns and implemented effective legislation to combat it. Our “American dream” could prosper with a little help from countries who seem to have figured firearms out.
In the aftermath, three separate pieces of gun control legislation were passed in Australia: the National Firearms Agreement, the National Firearms Trafficking Policy Agreement, and the National Handgun Agreement. As our nation struggles after the Newtown shooting, it is important to take note of Australia’s swift and effective policy changes. Prohibited firearms for Australian civilians now include automatic and semi-automatic firearms, self-loading and pump action shotguns, handguns with a calibre in excess of .38 in with only narrow exemptions, semi-automatic handguns with a barrel length less than 120 mm, and revolvers with a barrel length less than 100 mm. Any private automatic assault weapons are banned unless they are held in a permanently inoperable collection. As well as restricting the kinds of firearms available, Australia implemented an in-depth application process. Central to this application is proof of a genuine reason to possess a firearm such as hunting, collection, or target shooting. Personal protection is not considered a genuine reason. Third party character references must also be provided and the applicant must submit to testing and background checks for criminal, mental, physical, addiction, domestic violence, residential, and other records.
To many Americans who are used to our system, which essentially allows an adult to go into a gun store, fill out a form, and leave as a firearm-bearing citizen, the Australian gun regulations may seem a bit restrictive. But they weren’t passed during the reign of a liberal anti-gun government. The prime minister at the time, John Howard, was actually a staunch conservative. And the subordination of political allegiances to ensure public safety is perhaps the piece America most needs to learn from. With bipartisan support, the Australian legislation was passed and implemented within a month and a half of the shootings. Political bickering after a tragedy like this is unnecessary, and as Australia proved, avoidable. They have yet to have any mass shootings since 1996 and gun homicides accounted for only thirty deaths in 2012, compared to the United States’ 11,101. Even taking into consideration population differences, the US’s gun homicide rate is more than twenty seven times higher. These numbers might make many of us scowl, but Australia’s gun homicide and gun related deaths have been dropping for the past decade. They did the work to get these results, and now, it might just be our turn.
And just a boat ride away is a country who hasn’t had to face any mass shootings, or any shootings at all, really. Japan puts any country to shame with its mere eleven gun homicide deaths in 2010 (gunpolicy.org). Taking into consideration population, the rate of gun homicides per 100,000 people is a whopping zero (or without rounding, 1.1 x 10-4). Their guiding legislation on the issue is similar to Australia’s, with civilians having to provide a genuine reason for obtaining a gun as well as third-party character references. Even though the most dangerous guns (fully automatic assault weapons, semi-automatic assault weapons, and handguns) are prohibited in Japan, the government still requires each gun licensing applicant take, and pass, a gun safety course.
Japan has proven that getting rid of the most dangerous guns and teaching civilians how to keep a gun from harming others does decrease gun violence. And once pointed out, their solution seems so obvious. Guns are powerful. But gun control can be just as powerful. As the United States considers restructuring our legislation on firearm control, it might be the right time to take a serious look at other countries around the world. And who knows, “America the great” might just learn something.
We like to think the candidate we support is telling the truth. The “other guy” is the liar. The other party misrepresents the facts. The other candidate’s ads proclaim falsities. But when we step back from our own party lines and warped reality, the harsh realization hits us: both, yes both, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have misconstrued the numbers and lied to us. While even the best fact checker in the world might not change our political allegiances, hopefully it will make us demand better from our candidates. The President of the Unites States shouldn’t be a position fought over by candidates using deception as their main weapon.
Women’s reproductive rights has had its fair share of time in the spotlight, a fortunate thing for Obama who has a more vocal female voter base. Yet in trying to attract more women supporters, Obama has continually promoted that “Mitt Romney believes Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, and backed an extreme proposal to outlaw abortions even in the case of incest and rape.” This is just plain false. Yes, there are Republicans who believe this, but Mitt Romney is pro-life with exceptions for incest, rape, and health dangers for the mother and has never talked about overturning Roe v. Wade. This falsity shown in Obama’s ads, on his website, and in his speeches paints Romney as an extreme conservative and might be said to employ scare tactics on women voters.
But Obama isn’t the only candidate giving us false information regarding health care and policies. Romney and many other Republicans have painted a scary picture around the Affordable Care Act, coined “ObamaCare”. It has been called a “disaster” by Romney, who promises to repeal it if he is elected. But this charge of failure has pretty faulty support as he explains that “with ObamaCare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society,” (mittromney.com). Both parts of this attack on the Affordable Care Act are false. This 50% was calculated by adding up all health care spending - the government and private sector - together. And ceasing to be a free enterprise society? Well according to the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom, the United States is ranked 10th, in front of countries like Japan and Germany. Fact Check actually points out that the health care program Romney signed into law in Massachusetts and “ObamaCare” are more similar than different. Both put nearly the same amount of health care under government control and “both Obama and Romney expanded the private insurance market by mandating that individuals purchase health care coverage,” (factcheck.org). So if Romney wants to say the Affordable Care Act is a disaster, he might also want to do some self-criticizing of his Massachusetts health care program.
Even with fact checking sites (factcheck.org, politifact.org, etc.) and media attention to the candidates’ false claims, both men have continued the practice. Many of the figures we hear all the time - catchphrases the candidates boast while on the campaign trail - don’t have much behind them besides a good delivery during speeches. Realizing the lies the candidate we support tells might just make us cringe, but knowing the facts is better than being blinded by the American Dream promised by both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Layout for a political story I wrote during the Presidential Election. It talked about the misleading information both Romney and Obama used during their campaigns.
The Bulldog Press has a monthly advice column and I am in charge of its layout. It basically covers "advice for the awkward teen" as its author puts it.
This is a layout I placed and graphs I made for our alternate publication of The Bulldog Press, the Senior Issue, which is published at the end of every year for our graduating class and is formatted as a newspaper. The graphs were for my story on comments for the administration with data obtained from a school-wide poll.
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