Massachusetts school eliminates dances due to alcohol problems

A Massachusetts high school has taken action against teen drinking by eliminating dances, according to an article in the September 28, 2008, Boston Globe.

By KEITH O'BRIEN
Boston Globe

BELMONT - Of the dozen or so students who had to be pulled off the dance floor for being intoxicated at the Belmont High School's Hoedown last March, principal Mike Harvey recalls one 18-year-old senior in particular.

Unable to reach his parents, administrators placed the wobbly student in police custody - not to be charged, just to be watched until his parents could be located. But once at the police station, according to authorities, the student made a clumsy effort to escape, pushing an officer, garnering criminal charges, and ultimately influencing Harvey to make a bold, if disappointing, decision.

Dances this fall are canceled in Belmont. Harvey, a square-jawed wall of a man, said he had no choice but to take drastic measures. In doing so he joined a growing number of school administrators who are cracking down on the state's pervasive culture of underage drinking.

Following recent incidents at football games at Westwood High School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, administrators at those schools have not only suspended students but changed school policies, restricting what students can bring to games and even requiring them, on one occasion, to be accompanied by chaperones.

A growing number of high schools are now using breathalyzers at school events, testing students they believe to be intoxicated or sometimes testing every single student to make sure no one has been drinking. At Winchester High School dances, parents are required to sign in their students at the door. And many schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies.

If you're a senior at Woburn High School, for example, and you get caught drinking at the prom, you can forget about collecting your diploma on time.

"You're cooked for graduation," said Woburn High School principal Bob Norton, noting that violators must enroll in a counseling program that lasts about two months. "We don't put anybody on a fast track. If you get caught at senior prom, you don't graduate."

Even though Massachusetts' rates of underage drinking overall have fallen in recent years, state and local officials are troubled by what they're seeing. The state still has one of the highest rates of underage binge drinking in the country, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

In 2006, more than 11 percent of Massachusetts youths ages 12 to 17 reported binge drinking - defined as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting - during the prior month, according to the survey. For underage drinkers age 12 to 20, the rate was more than double: 23 percent. And the number of high school students reporting any drinking in the previous month, according to 2007 state data, is even higher.

"It's 46 percent," said Michael Botticelli, director of the state Bureau of Substance Abuse Services. "Forty-six percent of high school students have drunk alcohol in the past month. That's not reassuring data to me."

What's troubling, Botticelli said, is the impact that alcohol can have on a young person's life. Research has shown that adolescent alcohol use can have long-term effects on the brain and lead to higher rates of alcoholism. And according to a 2007 report from the US surgeon general, alcohol is a leading contributor to death from injuries - the main killer of people under 21. Annually, the surgeon general said, about 5,000 people under 21 die from alcohol-related injuries, including 1,900 in car crashes.

Such statistics often aren't persuasive enough to keep youths from drinking. But they're enough to keep parents up at night, wondering if their children will make it home safe. And the numbers - as well as the mounting incidents of drinking on school grounds in Massachusetts - are certainly getting the attention of administrators.

Last spring, after what happened at Belmont High's Hoedown, Harvey said he knew it was time to make a change.

"I was sitting there thinking, 'What am I doing here?' Really questioning why we do dances in general," he said.

"We've been very lucky that nobody's been seriously hurt, I think. We've had a lot of luck. And I don't want to be around when the luck runs out."

Concerned about underage drinking, high schools, including Newton, Wellesley, Westwood, and others, started turning to breathalyzers several years ago. A majority of high schools now use the devices in some way, according to Noel Pixley, president of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators' Association.

Principals say they just work.

"How many schools can tell you they've had 18 consecutive proms - junior and senior proms - and haven't had a single issue with any students in possession, any bottles, any kids smelling of booze? None?" said John Brucato, the principal of Milford High School who began using breathalyzers at school events nine years ago. "We just haven't had issues."

Such testimonials are just one reason why Reading Memorial High School is considering using breathalyzers. In the next month, principal Joe Finigan hopes to present a breathalyzer proposal to the School Committee. Other schools, meanwhile, are stiffening breathalyzer policies already in place.

Unhappy that more than a dozen students showed up drunk at the junior prom last spring, Whitman-Hanson Regional High School administrators, who already owned a breathalyzer to be used just in case, purchased more devices and will be testing every student who attends a dance.

"My feeling was if I could keep students from drinking alcohol until 11:30 or until the end of the program, they would be inherently safer for the rest of the evening," said Whitman-Hanson principal Ed Lee.

But some school administrators say breathalyzers - while legal to use in schools - offer a false sense of security. They can drive some students away from dances; that only means, critics argue, that students prone to drinking could be drunk elsewhere. And some school administrators are just philosophically opposed to using breathalyzers.

"If that's the route you go, you're kind of admitting defeat," said John Ritchie, the principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, where alcohol tainted the school's first football game of the season this month, leaving at least one student hospitalized, four cited by police, and seven suspended.

"If that's all you're doing, you're not dealing with the problem. That's like saying, 'People in prison are well-behaved.' "

Ritchie hopes to convene a meeting of Lincoln-Sudbury's school council this week to discuss adopting stiffer penalties for alcohol use, including, possibly, banning violators from the prom and other dances for the rest of the year.

Action is necessary, he said, given what he has learned in recent weeks students at his school: Drinking is far more widespread than he ever knew; water bottles don't always contain water; and students have traditionally seen the first football game of the fall, as well as other occasions, as a chance to get "juiced up."

Ritchie said he is intent not just on cracking down, but on changing the school's culture. And with his cancellation of dances in Belmont, Harvey hopes to do the same. For years, Belmont High School students say, there's been a tradition of drinking at the school, at least among some.

"I don't drink personally," said junior soccer player Josh Nelson. "But if you come back after the weekend, on a Monday, you hear stories about parties that happened and what people did. And if parents aren't going to be home the next weekend, people start planning then. You hear it."

In the spring of 2005, five students had to be hospitalized after showing up drunk to a dance. Harvey, who became principal the following fall, soon enacted a policy requiring students to sign a pledge not to drink before dances - and that worked for a while, he said. But with the Hoedown last spring and the arrest of one student, whose charges were later dismissed, it became clear, Harvey said, that something more needed to be done.

News that Belmont will have only two dances this year - the semiformal in the winter and the prom next spring - shocked students when Harvey announced it this month. Katie Christensen, a junior, called it "a wake-up call." And though many students were disappointed, they also understood.

Senior class president Deana DiSalvio said she supports Harvey's decision. It's time for students to understand that they can't drink and expect that the tragedies will always happen to someone else, she said.

"Thank God "we haven't had an accident."


1. Using examples from the article describe the tactics being used by school administrators to handle alcohol problems at dances.


2. Can crackdowns such as the ones described in this article actually change the habits of teen drinkers?

Principal shuts down student newspaper

A Redding, Calif. principal has shut down the high school newspaper for the upcoming school year after publication of a flag-burning photo.


The following article is from the Redding Record Searchlight:
By Rob Rogers Tuesday, June 10, 2008 
The adviser calls it sabotage, the principal finds it embarrassing and the superintendent is offended. The students see it all as a matter of freedom of speech.


Shasta High published its last issue of the Volcano, the student newspaper, before the end of classes last week with an image on the front page of a student burning the American flag and an editorial inside defending the practice. 


"The paper's done," said Milan Woollard, Shasta High principal. "There is not going to be a school newspaper next year." Shasta had been looking at cutting the paper already -- funds are tight as the school anticipates receiving fewer state dollars from Sacramento this fall, Woollard said. 


"This cements that decision," he said. Judy Champagne, the Volcano's faculty adviser, is upset that some of the students decided to use the newspaper as a platform to engender controversy during the last week of school. Planned for the paper was coverage of Shasta's prom and announcements of scholarship recipients and other news. 


Those items made the paper, she said. The editorial and image of flag burning were added at the last minute. "I think that the students were sabotaging what should have been a positive last issue," shesaid. "I think it's very sad that we're not going to have a paper." 


Upsetting to Champagne, who's been the newspaper's adviser for years, is what she called a lack of news judgment from some of the students on staff. While flag burning may be a salient national issue, nothing has happened in the north state to make it a current, local issue. Until now. "I thought it was bad journalism," she said. 


The editorial, written by Connor Kennedy, who graduated Friday, explained that a person has the right to burn the flag, that it's protected speech under the first amendment. Kennedy did not return a phone call made to his home Monday. Administrators at the school and district level said students have a right to run the photo and print the editorial under the same right. But all of them called it poor judgment. 


"I think that they misused it (their freedom of speech)," Champagne said. "I think this was a game for them." Mike Stuart, Shasta Union High School superintendent -- a U.S. Army veteran and paratrooper -- said just because the students have a right to defend and run the image doesn't mean the administration has to approve of it.  


"Personally I find it offensive," he said. "Especially the last newspaper of the year. It's like a parting shot." Stuart said it showed the students' immaturity. "I think it was especially self-indulgent," he said. "I don't like it at all."


Kennedy, who won an award from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution earlier this year for an essay he wrote, was president of Shasta's student union and helped organize a demonstration on campus last fall to protest the high school's decision to combine its junior and senior prom and the vote that led to the decision. 


He and other students successfully argued the matter in front of the school board and forced Shasta administrators to hold a campuswide revote on the issue. Woollard said he believes Kennedy and other students placed the photo and editorial in the paper simply to get a reaction. And it's what they've got, he said. "I'm just embarrassed that the thing was ever done," he said.


1. Using examples from the article, tell why the flag burning article was so controversial.


2. Was the principal right in his decision to close down the student newspaper?

The effectiveness of teen curfews

Many communities have curfews in place to keep teens off the streets and out of trouble, but do they succeed in accomplishing that goal?
An article from the Jan. 16, 2007, Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian questions the tactic.


When you have finished reading the article, return to this page and type answers to the following essay questions:


1. Describe the main arguments for and against curfew laws.


2. How do the teens quoted in the article feel about curfews?


3. Explain Sgt. Hovis' thinking about what steps should be used to prevent teen crime.

New ways to ask someone to prom

It appears approaching a girl and asking her if she wants to go the prom with you is too boring these days. The whole thing has become a grand production number, according to an article in thie San Diego Union-Tribune.


Read the article , then return to this page and answer the three questions below:


1. Name three unusual ways students asked other students to the prom?


2. Which definition best fits the word "stealth" as used in the 19th paragraph of the article?


A. Participating in illegal activities


B. Sly or secretive


C. Flashy


D. Invisible


3. Which definition of the word "surreal" best fits its use in the 16th paragraph?


A. Strange


B. Exciting


C. Dreamlike


D. Enchanting

Teenager sneaks off to Iraq

By Jamie Malernee, Kevin Smith and Karla Shores
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 1, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-  He was born into money and privilege, the son of immigrants who came to this country from Iraq looking for freedom and a better life.

They found it, amassing wealth that gave him a home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, tuition to a prestigious prep school, and a $50,000 Infiniti for his 16th birthday.

But Farris Hassan, a lanky, 6-foot-2 straight-A student who loves to debate world politics and shuns typical teenage hangouts, didn't want it.

He left his bedroom unadorned, kept his friends few and, two weeks ago, stunned those who knew him by walking away from his life here. The teen boarded a plane to the Middle East alone, knowing the journey might kill him. His ultimate destination: Baghdad. His plan: to stand with those struggling for democracy in Iraq.

As family and schoolmates awaited his safe return from Baghdad this weekend, they described a young man who feels guilty about the comfort he enjoys, who is brilliant but foolhardy, a boy brimming with idealism and the desire to make a difference.

His father, Redha Hassan, an anesthesiologist, said Farris spent two weeks traveling from Kuwait City to Beirut to Baghdad. He interviewed soldiers and everyday citizens to understand their plight before walking into a war-zone office of Associated Press. The news agency called the U.S. Embassy, which was already on the lookout for Farris.

Officials took him into custody Wednesday and put him on a plane to begin the long trip home Friday. The U.S. State Department warns Americans against traveling to Iraq, although it is legal.

"He wouldn't take it from anyone else. He had to see for himself," said his mother, Shatha Atiya, a therapist, who said she was furious and terrified when she learned where her son was headed.

Members of the media gathered outside Atiya's home hoping for interviews with the family. The BBC, FOX News, ABC World News Tonight and Teen People all wanted to know who this young man was.

Family and classmates said Farris was a junior at Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale prep school that is often a gateway to the Ivy League. He is enrolled in several Advanced Placement classes, is a member of the debate team and the Renaissance Club, and is a vocal Republican.

"He was kind of unusual," said Chris Rudolf, 17, who eats lunch with Farris. "He wasn't really popular, but everyone knew him. He was shy about most things until you started talking about something he was passionate about. He was very passionate about the war in Iraq."

After leaving for the Middle East, Farris sent an e-mail in opposition of terrorism, saying more people needed to get involved in the Iraqi struggle for democracy, people like him. He wrote:

"To love is a not a passive thing; When I love, I do something, I function, I give myself. When I do that, I am freed from guilt. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience every day."

Farris is a Muslim, and his interest in Iraq grew from his family background; his parents were born there; and his voracious appetite for books and current events. The only reason he joined the football team his sophomore year, his uncle said, was to round out his college resume.

"He's not your typical teenager," Ahmad Hassan said.

The youngest of four children, Farris is unusually independent, said his eldest brother, Hayder Hassan. His siblings went off to college; his parents divorced.

"Basically, he grew up doing everything for himself, and I think this was all to show us he could do this too," Hayder Hassan said. "It was to prove something to us; that he's not a little kid."

Former football teammate Michael Matthews recalled that before Farris got his driver's license, he would take taxis to practice. Matthews said the teen's parents were frequently working or traveling. Farris' parents also gave him money to trade stocks, which he did successfully. He had his own credit cards.

"He's very much independent and on his own and self-confident," Matthews said.

When rumors about his trip began to spread at school, Farris skipped a week of classes before winter break started; classmates were dubious.

"We thought it was a little joke. I mean, we get in trouble for sneaking out of our house to go to the movies," said Anjali Sharma, who had classes with Farris last year.

When students realized the story was true, some said they didn't know whether to think Farris was extremely brave or extremely stupid. Earlier this year, schoolmates said, he was assigned to write an essay on something he felt strongly about, and he also learned about immersion journalism. That's what he was doing in Iraq, they said.

"Some people thought it was just so cool that he wanted to get involved, and others were scared because it was such a dangerous trip," student Tulsie Patel said.

Farris' father said Pine Crest in no way encouraged his son to go to Iraq. Redha Hassan said that he had planned to take his son there this summer as an extension of a school project, but that his son was too impatient and took off on his own.

Once Farris arrived in Kuwait City, Kuwait, he tried to cross into Iraq by taxi, his father said. When Farris found the border closed, he called his father, who says now that he was furious but gave his son the option of coming home or staying with family friends in Beirut for a week until the border opened and private security could be arranged.

Redha Hassan said he was lenient because of the boy's passion and his own past, which could not be verified independently. The elder Hassan said that when he was 14 and living in Iraq, he became active in a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein, including an assassination attempt on the now deposed leader.

Records show that in 1985, Redha Hassan, living in South Florida, was charged in connection with a scheme to print false Iraqi passports and military identification cards. A judge later dropped the charges. At the time, Hassan told the Sun-Sentinel that his brother had been executed and family members were kicked out of Iraq without papers, and that he wanted to help others similarly dispossessed.

Redha Hassan said he didn't want to kill his son's passion to help the democracy movement. "He wanted to show he was braver than me," Hassan said.

Once he learned of Farris' plans, Hassan said, he arranged for the boy to fly into Baghdad and be met by private security and taken to a local hotel so he could fulfill his quest. But when the boy entered the Associated Press office Tuesday, he was alone and said his parents did not know where he was, the news agency reported.

In contrast to Hassan's story, a U.S. government official speaking on the condition of anonymity to Associated Press said it was the U.S. military who kept Farris safe.

The teen left Baghdad on Friday, said Navy Commander Robert Mulac, who works in the Multi-National Force Iraq Press Office in Baghdad.

When the boy arrives in South Florida, he will face a media circus and punishment for his unapproved trip. His mother said she was going to ground him and take away his passport and credit cards. He also faces a disciplinary hearing at Pine Crest for missing school, though he won't be expelled.

"Obviously there have to be consequences," school President Lourdes Cowgill said. "He could have gotten himself killed."

1. What best explains why Farris went to Iraq?

 

A. Farris wanted to join the insurgency and battle against Americans.

 

B. Farris felt guilty because he was comfortable in American while his fellow Iraqis were suffering.

 

C. Farris won a trip to Baghdad on a game show.

 

D. Farris was bored and learned about the situation in Iraq by reading an article on the Internet.

 

2.  Describe how Farris' father found out about his son's trip and what his reaction was to it.

 

A. Farris' father took away his son's cellphone and MP3 player.

 

B. Farris' father joined Farris in Iraq where they could both fight alongside their countrymen.

 

C. Farris' father was proud of his son because his son was fighting against Saddam Hussein just like he did.

 

D. Farris called his father from Kuwait, and his father was furious.

 

3. What phrase best characterizes the students who attend Farris' high school?

 

A. The students are wealthy with parents who tend to be conservative.

B. The students care deeply about each other, and would do anything for their friends.

C. The students tend to get deeply involved in school projects, sometimes going a little overboard.

D. The students are rich and spend most of their time in malls and movie theaters.

4. In the first sentence, it says "he was born into money and privilege." Which of the following best explains what that means?

A. He had his own bedroom and Nintendo.

B. His family had money and a good life.

C. He lost his privileges by being grounded.

D. He was born in an expensive hospital.

Strip search of girl tests limits of school policy

Follow this link to New York Times story. When you have finished the story, return and answer the following questions on paper.


1. Which of the following best describes Savanah Redding's days at the school immediately following the strip search?


A. Students made fun of her


B. Cyberbullies created a website about her.


C. She was called into the office several more times.


D. She did not return to the school.


2. What caused school officials to conduct the search?


A. Savanah had been suspected of serving alcohol to other students.


B. She had been caught with drugs on an earlier occasion.


C. It was a random search and she was the one who was picked.


D. She won a contest.


3. In what way did Judge Wardlaw disagree with the other judges?


A. He believed school officials had no right to search Savanah.


B. He believed school officials had a good reason to conduct the search.


C. He thought school officials should have obtained a search warrant.


D. He could see both sides of the issue.


4. What does the word "inebriation" mean as it is used in the article?


A. bad behavior


B. getting carried away


C. being rowdy


4. being drunk

Brooklyn malls try to stop teen loitering

Brooklyn malls have taken a new approach to handling problems caused by teens. Check out the following link.

Too much emphasis placed on reading and math

March 26, 2006 By SAM DILLON SACRAMENTO — Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it. Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks. The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who test below grade level. The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art. A nationwide survey by a nonpartisan group that is to be made public on March 28 indicates that the practice, known as narrowing the curriculum, has become standard procedure in many communities. The survey, by the Center on Education Policy, found that since the passage of the federal law, 71 percent of the nation's 15,000 school districts had reduced the hours of instructional time spent on history, music and other subjects to open up more time for reading and math. The center is an independent group that has made a thorough study of the new act and has published a detailed yearly report on the implementation of the law in dozens of districts. "Narrowing the curriculum has clearly become a nationwide pattern," said Jack Jennings, the president of the center, which is based in Washington. At Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School in Sacramento, about 150 of the school's 885 students spend five of their six class periods on math, reading and gym, leaving only one 55-minute period for all other subjects. About 125 of the school's lowest-performing students are barred from taking anything except math, reading and gym, a measure that Samuel Harris, a former lieutenant colonel in the Army who is the school's principal, said was draconian but necessary. "When you look at a kid and you know he can't read, that's a tough call you've got to make," Mr. Harris said. The increasing focus on two basic subjects has divided the nation's educational establishment. Some authorities, including Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, say the federal law's focus on basic skills is raising achievement in thousands of low-performing schools. Other experts warn that by reducing the academic menu to steak and potatoes, schools risk giving bored teenagers the message that school means repetition and drilling. "Only two subjects? What a sadness," said Thomas Sobol, an education professor at ColumbiaTeachers College and a former New York State education commissioner. "That's like a violin student who's only permitted to play scales, nothing else, day after day, scales, scales, scales. They'd lose their zest for music." But officials in Cuero, Tex., have adopted an intensive approach and said it was helping them meet the federal requirements. They have doubled the time that all sixth graders and some seventh and eighth graders devote to reading and math, and have reduced it for other subjects. "When you only have so many hours per day and you're behind in some area that's being hammered on, you have to work on that," said Henry Lind, the schools superintendent. "It's like basketball. If you can't make layups, then you've got to work on layups." Chad Colby, a spokesman for the federal Department of Education, said the department neither endorsed nor criticized schools that concentrated instructional time on math and reading as they sought to meet the test benchmarks laid out in the federal law's accountability system, known as adequate yearly progress. "We don't choose the curriculum," Mr. Colby said. "That's a decision that local leaders have to make. But for every school you point to, I can show you five other schools across the country where students are still taking a well-rounded curriculum and are still making adequate yearly progress. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask our schools to get kids proficient at grade level in reading and math." Since America's public schools began taking shape in the early 1800's, shifting fashions have repeatedly reworked the curriculum. Courses like woodworking and sewing joined the three R's. After World War I, vocational courses, languages and other subjects broadened the instructional menu into a smorgasbord. A federal law passed after the Russian launching of Sputnik in 1957 spurred a renewed emphasis on science and math, and a 1975 law that guaranteed educational rights for the disabled also provoked sweeping change, said William Reese, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of "America's Public Schools: From the Common School to No Child Left Behind." But the education law has leveraged one of the most abrupt instructional shifts, he said. "Because of its emphasis on testing and accountability in particular subjects, it apparently forces some school districts down narrow intellectual paths," Dr. Reese said. "If a subject is not tested, why teach it?" The shift has been felt in the labor market, heightening demand for math teachers and forcing educators in subjects like art and foreign languages to search longer for work, leaders of teachers groups said. The survey that is coming out this week looks at 299 school districts in 50 states. It was conducted as part of a four-year study of No Child Left Behind and appears to be the most systematic effort to track the law's footprints through the classroom, although other authorities had warned of its effect on teaching practices. The historian David McCullough told a Senate Committee last June that because of the law, "history is being put on the back burner or taken off the stove altogether in many or most schools, in favor of math and reading." The report says that at districts in Colorado, Texas, Vermont, California, Nebraska and elsewhere, math and reading are squeezing other subjects. At one district cited, the Bayonne City Schools in New Jersey, low-performing ninth graders will be barred from taking Spanish, music or any other elective next fall so they can take extra periods of math and reading, said Ellen O'Connor, an assistant superintendent. "We're using that as a motivation," Dr. O'Connor said. "We're hoping they'll concentrate on their math and reading so they can again participate in some course they love." At King Junior High, in a poor neighborhood in Sacramento a few miles from a decommissioned Air Force base, the intensive reading and math classes have raised test scores for several years running. That has helped Larry Buchanan, the superintendent of the Grant Joint Union High School District, which oversees the school, to be selected by an administrators' group as California's 2005 superintendent of the year. But in spite of the progress, the school's scores on California state exams, used for compliance with the federal law, are increasing not nearly fast enough to allow the school to keep up with the rising test benchmarks. On the math exams administered last spring, for instance, 17.4 percent of students scored at the proficient level or above, and on the reading exams, only 14.9 percent. With scores still so low, Mr. Harris, the school's principal, and Mr. Buchanan said they had little alternative but to continue remedial instruction for the lower-achieving among the school's nearly 900 students. The students are the sons and daughters of mostly Hispanic, black and Laotian Hmong parents, many of whom work as gardeners, welders and hotel maids or are unemployed. The district administers frequent diagnostic tests so that teachers can carefully calibrate lessons to students' needs. Rubén Jimenez, a seventh grader whose father is a construction laborer, has a schedule typical of many students at the school, with six class periods a day, not counting lunch. Rubén studies English for the first three periods, and pre-algebra and math during the fourth and fifth. His sixth period is gym. How does he enjoy taking only reading and math, a recent visitor asked. "I don't like history or science anyway," Rubén said. But a moment later, perhaps recalling something exciting he had heard about lab science, he sounded ambivalent. "It'd be fun to dissect something," he said. Martín Lara, Rubén's teacher, said the intense focus on math was paying off because his math skills were solidifying. Rubén said math has become his favorite subject. But other students, like Paris Smith, an eighth grader, were less enthusiastic. Last semester, Paris failed one of the two math classes he takes, back to back, each morning. "I hate having two math classes in a row," Paris said. "Two hours of math is too much. I can't concentrate that long." Donna Simmons, his mother, said Mr. Lara seemed to be working hard to help Paris understand math. "The school cares," Ms. Simmons said. "The faculty cares. I want him to keep trying." Sydney Smith, a vice principal who oversees instruction at the school, said she had heard only minimal grumbling from students excluded from electives. "I've only had about two students come to my office and say: 'What in the world? I'm just taking two courses?' " Ms. Smith said. "So most students are not complaining about being miserable." But Lorie Turner, who teaches English to some pupils for three consecutive periods and to others for two periods each day, said she used some students' frustration to persuade them to try for higher scores on the annual exams administered under California's Standardized Testing and Reporting program, known as Star. "I have some little girls who are dying to get out of this class and get into a mainstream class," Ms. Turner said. "But I tell them the only way out is to do better on that Star test." Do the following three multiple choice questions. Choose the best answer to each question. 1. How does Margaret Spellings feel about No Child Left Behind? A. She feels it risks boring children with too much repetition and drilling. B. She feels it reduces education to just "steak and potatoes." C. She feels it is raising achievement in thousands of low performing schools. D. She feels there should be more emphasis on history and science. 2. No Child Left Behind requires schools to improve scores in: A. Reading and writing B. Math and reading C. Math and writing D. History and science 3. What approach are many schools taking to improve scores, according to the article? A. Increasing the time spent on the primary subjects and decreasing time on the rest. B. Hiring better teachers so the scores will increase C. Emphasizing all courses equally so students will know about all of their subjects D. Snorting fritos and shouting "Bring on the dancing girls!" every 30 minutes. 4. (ESSAY QUESTION)  Describe the methods the Bayonne City Schools in New Jersey are using to increase low test scores and compare those methods to the ones being used in the Grant Joint Union High School District.

Middle school bullies and their victims

By Michelle Pippin
mpippin@joplindaily.com

Norma White, mother of the seventh-grade boy accused of entering Memorial Middle School on Oct. 9 with a rifle, said she wishes now she had done more to help her son when he came home with complaints, and even injuries from other students. She said her son's complaints of bullying began when he entered the sixth grade, and continued - in fact, escalated - into his seventh-grade year.

"He came home once limping; he had been kicked by an older kid in the halls," she recalled. "He came home once with a huge welt on his head from someone slamming his locker door on his head when they passed him in the hall. His hand was injured once too.

"He did suffer from bullying. He would come home crying, begging us not to send him back to school."

White spoke to his teachers about the problem only a couple of times - during parent-teacher conferences - but never made a formal complaint to the administration. She said she advised her son to tell his teachers, but he often insisted nothing would be done about it.

There are others

White's son was not alone in his thoughts that nothing would be done. Aaron Harper, a 13-year-old former Memorial student, said he too suffered at the hands of bullies.

"I never went and told anyone, because it doesn't seem like it will do any good," Aaron said.

In one incident on the school bus, Aaron was assaulted by another student. Aaron said the bus driver never even knew it happened.

He described the incident.

"Some kid sat on top of me, which was kind of weird," he said. "And then started punching me. He was trying to punch my face, but I put my arms up over my face, so he only hit my arms."

Aaron's mother, April Harper, did speak to her son's counselor, who explained, although the school does make every effort to address incidents of school bullying, the sheer number of students, compared to the number of faculty, makes it difficult.

"Our conversation turned toward my son's disciplinary issues," Harper said. "Aaron was kicked off the bus for cussing out the bus driver, and mostly we talked about his behavior.

"I know kids cuss - particularly at this age - but I just can't imagine Aaron cussing out a teacher or bus driver or any authority figure."

Harper said she'd never had these types of disciplinary problems with Aaron at home - not in church or at the Bridge, where he commonly goes with his friends. So she doesn't understand why he would behave this way at school.

"The counselor said she finds that sometimes, otherwise well-behaved kids will be influenced by bad behavior around them," Harper said. "In frustration, she said, kids will do things they normally wouldn't."

Harper said she understood the counselor's assessment of her son's and the other kids' behavior, "but how does that help my son?" she asked.

Aaron said most of the bullying occurred in between classes as kids were making their way through the halls.

"I got pushed into my locker all the time," Aaron said. "Kids would just slam you into your locker for no reason when they'd walk by."

The fine lines between horseplay, bullying and assault

A Memorial seventh-grader, who spoke to JoplinDaily.com on the condition that he not be identified, said he could attest to the behavior Aaron reported, but wouldn't have classified it as "bullying." He said it's just kids rough-housing.

"That's a game for us; we slam our friends into the lockers. We hit each other all the time. We're not violent; we're just messing around with each other," he said. "Like, 'Oh - I'm gonna get you now - the teacher's not looking. I'm gonna hit you with my book.'"

The seventh-grader spoke of one boy, "Timmy" (JoplinDaily.com changed this student's name to protect his identity) who is relentlessly teased by other students, "because they can get a rise out of him."

"There's this one kid that everyone knows they can get to because he gets so mad - he just starts crying," the seventh-grader said. "He gets hit all the time. They slap him. Once, he got shoved into the water (in a small retention ditch on school grounds). After a while, it just gets so fricking annoying. He just cusses everyone out. We all make fun of him.

"I just tell him to shut up because I get sick of it. When he hangs out with us (at lunch), I don't really care because I'm eating and talking to my other friends. But when he starts talking and stuff, I just tell him to shut up."

The seventh-grader said not all kids are bullied. Just "certain people, like 'Timmy' because he gets aggravated easy, and starts, 'Wa, wa, wa (crying).'

"People usually only bully when they can make (someone) aggravated - like 'Timmy' - because they know their weaknesses," the seventh-grader said. "'Timmy' doesn't really care if I do it; just when everyone else does it."

Addressing the issue - correcting the problem

Memorial Middle School Principal Steve Gilbreth said he's not been made aware of the "bullying" described by the Harpers and Mrs. White.

"Do kids get into fights? Yes. Are there kids who are bullied? Yes," Gilbreth said. "If something is reported to me, I deal with it, but I know nothing about (the types of assaults) you're talking about."

Since the shooting incident at Memorial, however, the Joplin R-8 School District is implementing a new anti-bullying program.

"It's called 'Just Tell It,' and it's already begun at Memorial," Gilbreth said. "Teachers are (taking special) classes, and then giving presentations to the students. We're teaching the kids the difference between telling and tattling. The program teaches kids not to suffer in silence; to tell someone what's happening. Tell a teacher, a counselor, the principal or their parents. Tell someone who can help, and we will help."

Gilbreth said the school has strict procedures for dealing with students assaulting other students.

"The (bully) will go home for 10 days, and we file a complaint with the police," he said.

Dana Sanders, chief Jasper County juvenile officer, said her office doesn't receive many referrals for school bullies.

"I don't have any hard numbers to say just how many we receive, but there's not a lot of referrals to our office for bullying," Sanders said. "Most often, the schools handle their own discipline for these situations."

Sanders said there are two things, in particular, that understandably frustrate parents when a child's bullying case is referred to her office.

"We have only so many (juvenile officers) to deal with so many kids, and the victims, of course, always want something done," Sanders said. "But what gets very frustrating (for parents) is that we're not a punitive-based system. We are a rehabilitation-based system."

Meaning, the Jasper County Juvenile system is designed not to punish the bully, but to rehabilitate him or her. Sanders explained. If the system can rehabilitate the bully, and stop the behavior, then more children are helped. The bully gets put on a path of appropriate behavior, and this helps the child being bullied and other potential victims.

"We look at what is the best course of action to get (the bully) back on track," she said.

Protecting the children

Harper said she withdrew her son from Memorial Middle School three weeks ago and is now home-schooling him.

"After the school shooting, I understand the district is doing more to address security," Harper said. "But, honestly, the last thing I'm worried about is someone coming into the school with a gun. I worry about what these kids are dealing with day to day - day in and day out.

"I've watched Aaron crying at night - begging us not to make him go back to school. I listen to Mrs. White saying that her son also cried and begged not to go back to school. I realize how much her story sounds like ours."

Asked if she wishes she'd done something differently, Norma White said, "You cannot imagine."

"I wish so much I'd never even sent him (to school)," White said. "I was so afraid of the laws that say our children have to have adequate education. Private schools are pricey, and I wasn't sure about the home-schooling thing. I just didn't know what to do."

Gilbreth said, like the bullying recounted by the Harpers and Mrs. White, if he is not made aware of the bullying, he can't fix the problem.

"I'm doing the very best I can to run a safe school," Gilbreth said. "If the students and parents tell us what they're dealing with, we will investigate every case. Every single one."

Norma White offered the same advice to students and parents.

"If an adult was bullied this way when they went to work every day - with people throwing things at them, hitting them - how long would they deal with it before they quit or snapped?" she asked. "There are a lot of kids under this kind of pressure, and I wonder how many parents don't know it. We have to ask ourselves, 'Is my kid being bullied? Is my kid a bully?

"It could be your kid."

After Flight Back from Iraq, Teen to Be Grounded

Read the following story, then answer the three multiple choice questions and essay question at the bottom of the page.

 

By Jamie Malernee, Kevin Smith and Karla Shores
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 1, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-  He was born into money and privilege, the son of immigrants who came to this country from Iraq looking for freedom and a better life.

They found it, amassing wealth that gave him a home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, tuition to a prestigious prep school, and a $50,000 Infiniti for his 16th birthday.

But Farris Hassan, a lanky, 6-foot-2 straight-A student who loves to debate world politics and shuns typical teenage hangouts, didn't want it.

He left his bedroom unadorned, kept his friends few and, two weeks ago, stunned those who knew him by walking away from his life here. The teen boarded a plane to the Middle East alone, knowing the journey might kill him. His ultimate destination: Baghdad. His plan: to stand with those struggling for democracy in Iraq.

As family and schoolmates awaited his safe return from Baghdad this weekend, they described a young man who feels guilty about the comfort he enjoys, who is brilliant but foolhardy, a boy brimming with idealism and the desire to make a difference.

His father, Redha Hassan, an anesthesiologist, said Farris spent two weeks traveling from Kuwait City to Beirut to Baghdad. He interviewed soldiers and everyday citizens to understand their plight before walking into a war-zone office of Associated Press. The news agency called the U.S. Embassy, which was already on the lookout for Farris.

Officials took him into custody Wednesday and put him on a plane to begin the long trip home Friday. The U.S. State Department warns Americans against traveling to Iraq, although it is legal.

"He wouldn't take it from anyone else. He had to see for himself," said his mother, Shatha Atiya, a therapist, who said she was furious and terrified when she learned where her son was headed.

Members of the media gathered outside Atiya's home hoping for interviews with the family. The BBC, FOX News, ABC World News Tonight and Teen People all wanted to know who this young man was.

Family and classmates said Farris was a junior at Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale prep school that is often a gateway to the Ivy League. He is enrolled in several Advanced Placement classes, is a member of the debate team and the Renaissance Club, and is a vocal Republican.

"He was kind of unusual," said Chris Rudolf, 17, who eats lunch with Farris. "He wasn't really popular, but everyone knew him. He was shy about most things until you started talking about something he was passionate about. He was very passionate about the war in Iraq."

After leaving for the Middle East, Farris sent an e-mail in opposition of terrorism, saying more people needed to get involved in the Iraqi struggle for democracy, people like him. He wrote:

"To love is a not a passive thing; When I love, I do something, I function, I give myself. When I do that, I am freed from guilt. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience every day."

Farris is a Muslim, and his interest in Iraq grew from his family background; his parents were born there; and his voracious appetite for books and current events. The only reason he joined the football team his sophomore year, his uncle said, was to round out his college resume.

"He's not your typical teenager," Ahmad Hassan said.

The youngest of four children, Farris is unusually independent, said his eldest brother, Hayder Hassan. His siblings went off to college; his parents divorced.

"Basically, he grew up doing everything for himself, and I think this was all to show us he could do this too," Hayder Hassan said. "It was to prove something to us; that he's not a little kid."

Former football teammate Michael Matthews recalled that before Farris got his driver's license, he would take taxis to practice. Matthews said the teen's parents were frequently working or traveling. Farris' parents also gave him money to trade stocks, which he did successfully. He had his own credit cards.

"He's very much independent and on his own and self-confident," Matthews said.

When rumors about his trip began to spread at school, Farris skipped a week of classes before winter break started; classmates were dubious.

"We thought it was a little joke. I mean, we get in trouble for sneaking out of our house to go to the movies," said Anjali Sharma, who had classes with Farris last year.

When students realized the story was true, some said they didn't know whether to think Farris was extremely brave or extremely stupid. Earlier this year, schoolmates said, he was assigned to write an essay on something he felt strongly about, and he also learned about immersion journalism. That's what he was doing in Iraq, they said.

"Some people thought it was just so cool that he wanted to get involved, and others were scared because it was such a dangerous trip," student Tulsie Patel said.

Farris' father said Pine Crest in no way encouraged his son to go to Iraq. Redha Hassan said that he had planned to take his son there this summer as an extension of a school project, but that his son was too impatient and took off on his own.

Once Farris arrived in Kuwait City, Kuwait, he tried to cross into Iraq by taxi, his father said. When Farris found the border closed, he called his father, who says now that he was furious but gave his son the option of coming home or staying with family friends in Beirut for a week until the border opened and private security could be arranged.

Redha Hassan said he was lenient because of the boy's passion and his own past, which could not be verified independently. The elder Hassan said that when he was 14 and living in Iraq, he became active in a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein, including an assassination attempt on the now deposed leader.

Records show that in 1985, Redha Hassan, living in South Florida, was charged in connection with a scheme to print false Iraqi passports and military identification cards. A judge later dropped the charges. At the time, Hassan told the Sun-Sentinel that his brother had been executed and family members were kicked out of Iraq without papers, and that he wanted to help others similarly dispossessed.

Redha Hassan said he didn't want to kill his son's passion to help the democracy movement. "He wanted to show he was braver than me," Hassan said.

Once he learned of Farris' plans, Hassan said, he arranged for the boy to fly into Baghdad and be met by private security and taken to a local hotel so he could fulfill his quest. But when the boy entered the Associated Press office Tuesday, he was alone and said his parents did not know where he was, the news agency reported.

In contrast to Hassan's story, a U.S. government official speaking on the condition of anonymity to Associated Press said it was the U.S. military who kept Farris safe.

The teen left Baghdad on Friday, said Navy Commander Robert Mulac, who works in the Multi-National Force Iraq Press Office in Baghdad.

When the boy arrives in South Florida, he will face a media circus and punishment for his unapproved trip. His mother said she was going to ground him and take away his passport and credit cards. He also faces a disciplinary hearing at Pine Crest for missing school, though he won't be expelled.

"Obviously there have to be consequences," school President Lourdes Cowgill said. "He could have gotten himself killed."

1. What best explains why Farris went to Iraq?

 

A. Farris wanted to join the insurgency and battle against Americans.

 

B. Farris felt guilty because he was comfortable in American while his fellow Iraqis were suffering.

 

C. Farris won a trip to Baghdad on a game show.

 

D. Farris was bored and learned about the situation in Iraq by reading an article on the Internet.

 

2.  Describe how Farris' father found out about his son's trip and what his reaction was to it.

 

A. Farris' father took away his son's cellphone and MP3 player.

 

B. Farris' father joined Farris in Iraq where they could both fight alongside their countrymen.

 

C. Farris' father was proud of his son because his son was fighting against Saddam Hussein just like he did.

 

D. Farris called his father from Kuwait, and his father was furious.

 

3. What phrase best characterizes the students who attend Farris' high school?

 

A. The students are wealthy with parents who tend to be conservative.

B. The students care deeply about each other, and would do anything for their friends.

C. The students tend to get deeply involved in school projects, sometimes going a little overboard.

D. The students are rich and spend most of their time in malls and movie theaters.

 

Strip Search of Girl Tests Limit of School Policy

Follow this link to New York Times story.