Category Archives: Opinion

Voting age should be lowered to 16

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By Wilfredo Portillo-Quinones

We learn in school that voting is one of the most important rights of citizenship. Yet most high school students are not allowed to vote because they are under 18. I believe that 16 and 17-year-olds should have the right to vote. As a teenager we have fresh perspectives with new thoughts and ideas that can add to what our government already has in mind for the country.

Our current government is run primarily by older people. When the two main candidates for President are the oldest to ever run in history, it feels like we’re lowering our standards. There needs to be a better mind at our highest office of government, especially when we’re making enemies out of other countries and military forces. I think if teenagers could vote, we would vote for a president with an open mind and someone who can relate to our ideas for the country.
Our country needs a leader who has an open mind about things and isn’t quick to make enemies. We as teenagers could support our government with ideas and feel better about our government if we knew we had a president who could relate to us.

There are claims that young people don’t care or even think about our government power and that is false. A lot of young people care about our government, as studies show. According to the website youthrights.org, people of the age of 17-18 vote more than people ages 20-40. In 2014, Chicago allowed their youth to vote and 75% of eligible people ages 16-17 voted compared to 54% of people ages 20-50, showing us that our youth care at least as much as older people do. In Baltimore, we let our youth vote for our mayor in one election and people of the age of 17 voted 35% compared to 36% of people 18 and older, showing us that teens will vote at more or less the same level as older people. This proves that our youth care as much as older people do. The same website also shows data that shows that contrary to popular belief, high school students actually know more on average about the government that older people. This makes sense when you consider that we are learning about government in school and the information is fresh in our minds. Despite some people’s claims that teenagers are too ignorant to vote, the truth is that youth have open minds, are as well-informed as other age groups, and should have the same rights as other Americans. We also care about our country and who our leaders are.

There are many organizations fighting for youth rights and they’ve proven the facts that teenagers have the right ideas for our country. We should support and fight for teenage voting rights. Voting rights for teenagers would create many new opportunities for us to become active citizens and make our country better. I hope these specific facts will convince you that teenagers above the age of 16 do care about our country and should be given the right to vote.



High School Choice: Why you should care about it as a student and why I think it should be gone 

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By Jayzanay Blessett, Junior at Patterson High School and Diversity Chair of the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City

Baltimore’s School Choice was established as a program in 2002. It determines whether or not you get accepted into the school you chose by considering your composite score and your academic performance during your Middle School years. If you do not get into the school you would like to go to, then you are typically placed in your zoned school or your other choices. Certain schools require special application requirements, such as Polytechnic Institute, Baltimore City College, etc. In this article, I will express my opinion on why I believe we should put an end to this and why, as a student, you should care.

My Story

As a middle school student you constantly hear your teachers drill thoughts into your brain like, “Go to Poly”, “Go to City”, or “Make sure you do the best you can so you can get accepted into Poly and/or City”. Hearing teachers consistently say that makes students feel pressured that they have to go to those said schools and if they don’t it’s bad or is not “acceptable”. Putting this kind of stress on 12-14 year old children is not healthy whatsoever. 

The idea that only those two schools you will give you the best education is a terrible idea. From a personal standpoint, my School Choice year was during the pandemic. My virtual school year was bad and I was struggling with many mental health problems just like every other student. I was so scared to miss the deadline for my School Choice and I was nervous that I was not going to get into the school that I wanted to, which was Baltimore City College. Once I got my results, I cried, because I got into one of the supposedly “worse’’ schools in the city, Patterson High. 

For the majority of my 7th grade year, I heard so many stories about why Patterson, Mervo, and honestly any school that was not Poly, City, Western, and or BSA was bad, so getting into a school that was not on my list was embarrassing for me because every time I would tell anyone about the school I went to/was going to, I was told I would be “too smart for that school’’ and that I need to transfer to get the education I deserve. 

The Issue

Understanding High School Choice from a student’s point of view, I will now give some reasons why I believe School Choice is an ineffective program and why the District needs to stop doing it. Baltimore’s School Choice creates equity issues, a hierarchy among schools and students, and transportation struggles.      

The Baltimore City school system has long had an equity issue. I feel as though School Choice will hinder us from solving this problem. When I took a look at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute’s website I noticed that they state, “Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (“Poly”) is a citywide magnet high school for Baltimore City Public Schools that emphasizes a rigorous college preparatory curriculum in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. With a student body of more than 1,600 students and 85 teachers, Poly is committed to ensuring that all students have access to college and post-secondary opportunities.”

Viewing the part where is says “Poly is committed to ensuring that all students have access to college and post-secondary opportunities’’ threw me off because all schools in the city do this. You should not have to go all the way across the city because you only have maybe 2 schools that have a “rigorous college program”. Every school in Baltimore City should have equal robust classes dedicated to help them get into college. Being a Patterson student, we are not offered many of the classes that schools like City have, which makes it difficult to receive the education I need to compete with other students for college.

Having a program like High School Choice also creates a hierarchy between the students because you will get shamed for going to a school that’s not highly liked. It also creates an issue with transportation. If we focused on giving each school the same resources and opportunities, students would not need to transport themselves all the way across other parts of town to go to school. 

We could have school busses that take kids to school because no school would be better or worse than the others and students could just go to their zone school, but in the system that we currently have, we push all “high achieving’’ kids into one school and kind of just push out the other students. If you take a look at Baltimore County’s public school system, they are outperforming us because they don’t have something called “School Choice”. They have zoned schools with each school properly allocated equal resources and robust class courses. 

Taking Action

If students speak up on this issue a lot more, we could possibly make a change in some way. Imagine going to a school that has everything you need to be successful and pursue higher education without having to pick a school and maybe get rejected. Every single school in Baltimore need to have robust science, math, and English courses. If one school offers AP in Freshman year, then all schools need to that.

Yes, I understand that School Choice is an important tradition for Baltimore City, but the System is setting us up for failure and as a student, you should care about this too. As the student Chair of the Diversity Committee for Baltimore City Public Schools, I plan to advocate on the issue to the best of my ability.

Can new technology make our school safer? (OPINION)

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By Elijah DeBerry

In this article I will be writing about the safety of our students and our school building as a whole. 

Some concerns about safety at our school are the possibility of weapons being brought into the school building and those weapons being used on students and teachers present in the building at the current time. The school leaders are taking precautionary measures to ensure that the school is safer, such as implementing a new weapons detection system, which is mainly focused on detecting weapons rather than all metal objects like the old metal detectors did. 

In my personal opinion, I believe the weapons screening machines were functioning as intended. But recently they replaced the screeners with the old system: metal detectors. While I believe the screeners were temporary, as a sort of test, they worked great while they were implemented into the school’s security plan. I believe that the school should just stick to one thing, instead of switching back and forth. The screeners made entering the school quicker and possibly safer for students, whereas the metal detectors are too narrow for students to pass through easily. I say just stick with the screeners as they’re quicker and more convenient.

In conclusion to this article, I believe the leaders of Patterson High School, over the summer, should consider further implementing the weapon screenings system into the school to ensure that students are feeling safer with the screeners, rather than the metal detectors we originally have.

students share their dreams for essay contest

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Patterson students are participating in the fourth “Dream Big” essay contest, hosted by the Model Lyric. In honor of President Barack Obama, the Modell Lyric is asking students to share the important dreams they have for their lives, communities, and families. Students in grades 5th-12th living in Baltimore City and Baltimore County are eligible to enter the contest with either a 300-word essay, a one-page poem, or a 60-second edited video. Between 5-10 selected finalists will have the opportunity to share their work and receive a $100 honorarium.

Here are some of the essays Patterson students have submitted so far:

DeJanae Moore

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is something good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Baltimore, Maryland, our murder rate is very high. People in Baltimore kill over dumb things. Bullets have no names at all. I believe everyone should learn how to forgive and forget and not hold grudges. Families lose someone they love very much, because people hold grudges over others, but “there is evil in the best of us and good in the worst of us” (Martin Luther King, Jr.).

People hold grudges and take people’s loved ones’ lives away. How is that fair? How is that right? People are like this, because of the bad childhoods they have. They get upset and take it out on anybody – shooting bullets with no names!!! Earlier this year, I lost a close friend to gun violence, because some boys held a grudge towards him instead of forgiving and handling it correctly. They took his life and it all starts at a young age. I really wish everyone knew how to forgive. I lost a very close friend because of it and it hurts me the most. If everyone in the city would squash their problems and childish beefs, the murder rate wouldn’t be how they are now honestly. People wouldn’t have to lose their loved ones if everyone learned how to forgive.

Our problems aren’t all about violence we had a presidential election and our former president held a grudge towards our new one. Many people know this story. Donald Trump, our former president, did things that could have led to WW3 – many supported him and many did not support him. When election time came around, Trump lost to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Trump refused to accept defeat.

He is holding a grudge towards Biden for winning the election and becoming our next president. Political problems and violence are not the only problems in America today. There are many more – racism, human rights, etc. Everyone knows blacks were once slaves; some blacks still have not forgiven the whites which can cause much violence, etc. For example, white cops killing young black men and young black children, because of the past with blacks and whites. If they were able to forgive and forget, all of these things that are happening today would not be happening.

In conclusion, I agree 100% with what Martin Luther King, Jr. said about forgiveness. There are so many problems with the world today, because people don’t know how to forgive and forget. There are some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. This quote is so true. There are many bad people in this world with so many good intentions; there are so many good people with bad intentions. It shouldn’t be like this in this society.

Hailey Guerin

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best
of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

ln the quote above, Martin Luther King Jr. explains how we should learn to accept the failure of others and see more good in people. I think accepting others and realizing that no matter how bad we may have messed up, there is still good in everyone.

I believe it’s important to have the ability to realize that we all make mistakes and shouldn’t be held accountable forever. Forgiving others doesn’t mean we are pushing aside what they may have done, however it means that we are accepting the fact that something conflicting happened, and if we don’t move on from it, we’ll never grow or find the good in things. Finding the good in people and things can be really hard sometimes” And there are
some circumstances where that person is too evil to see good in, but that doesn’t mean you betray them, instead you portray kindness to them. Although they may have done something horrible to you, that doesn’t give you the right to do the same to them. “Two wrongs don’t make one right. Two wrongs won’t right a wrong.” Said by Benjamin Rush. When we’re seeking revenge, we’re making a mistake, because it’s only going to make you feel better in that
moment. Not in the long run. ln my city, Baltimore, Maryland, we have an extremely high murder rate. lt’s like everyone’s out to kill each other for no reason. Just the other day, someone got shot on the corner of my street. When I was little, I could play outside with my friends, feeling safe, secured, home. Now, I can’t even go on my porch without seeing some kind of suspicious activity. lt’s really sad to see the city I grew up in go downhill so fast. Why is everyone so angry at one another? Why do people think that murdering someone is going ta solve the problem? lnstead, it’s going to make it worse.”

We all deserve love no matter our skin color, religion, etc. Under no circumstance should anyone be treated differently for something they can’t control. When the election was going on, there was a lot of protesting. The two main debates that were being protested were Trump or Biden, but with these names came along with lots of stereotypes. For example, voting for Trump basically meant you were racist, against LGBTQ+, Trans rights, and the BLM movement. And voting for Biden basically meant you supported LGBTQ+, Trans rights, and the BLM movement. I’m not saying that these stereotypes are true nor false, however, I believe that everyone has a voice. Everyone deserves to be heard. Why is it that we can’t have our own opinion, without having to protest? Around my neighborhood, protesting turns into rioting, and killing. lt turns dangerous. I don’t think we should have to protest about basic rights, or even politics. We as
individuals need to learn how to accept the fact that no one is perfect. Even the most put-together people aren’t quite put together all the time.

ln conclusion, learning to seek good in the worse is so important for many aspects of not only your life, but others too. lf we all take our time and slowly learn, we will come together as a better community.

Amari Dukes

An important dream I have for myself is to become a doctor and help many kids and adults with cancer. I’ve always had this dream ever since I was a little kid. I always wanted to help sick patients, sick people that have a disease, and sick people that have a disease that may or can kill them. The reason why this dream stuck with me is because I’ve seen many kids suffer in hospitals, because of cancer – especially babies. Babies can’t do anything when they’re sick. They can’t talk to tell you what’s wrong so it’s really sad. They have to sit and suffer until someone who can help them really helps them.

I want to become the first African-American female doctor to ever find and make a cure for cancer. The reason why I want to become the first female doctor to ever find and make a cure for cancer is because the kids won’t have to suffer anymore. Those doctors who fight for their own lives or risk their own lives just to help sick patients won’t have to worry about it anymore. I personally don’t like seeing people suffer even if they did something bad in their
past life. That still doesn’t give them the right to suffer. At a time like this, we don’t need the
extra pressure.

This is my dream. I hope everyone takes my words and use them as an inspiration to others in different cities and in different countries around the world. My dream for my family is to get them out of this cruel world once and for all. When I get my money from being a doctor, I will buy a big house for all of us. I will make sure that the area that we live in is a better place and more importantly a better environment for all of us. It will be more peaceful, no drama, no violence, and most importantly no gun violence. Hopefully, I will inspire others with my words and my dreams.

Satrina Thomas

I have many big dreams in my life and for my family. First off I hope in the future I become wealthy and very successful in life. I want my family and me to be in good health. I wish for the future to be better than today. I wont to hove a nice house, a kid, and be married to the love of my life.

My dream job is to be a veterinarian and for that to happen I need to do hard work for thot to come true. Hard work always pays off. There is this vet show I watch and its called Dr. Pol and he inspired me to help animals and show animals that they con hove a second chance in life. I used to walk my dog every day until she got this lump on her pow and I don’t want her to walk so much. I hove a strong connection with animals and I toke core of my dog every day but I do not toke core of other people’s dogs. I don’t wont my dog to suffer as much.

I want to be able to provide for my family for whatever they need. I want to help out the poor and to just be a good person. I want to make a change in the future and be a role model for anyone and for kids to look up to me and be like “Dang, I wont to be like her one day!” l just want to be the best person I hove ever been before. I want to make the world as peaceful as it con ever be. I want love all around the world and to show people who they truly are. That there is always a person that truly loves them and never gives up. This is my big dream for me and the future.

Alpha Camara

A dream I have for myself is to be able to buy anything I want for myself as a teen. I want to have a car and an apartment for myself. I’m going to do this by investing, getting a job, and managing my money in a responsible manner. I want to have my own car by the time I am 19-21 and I want to have my own house by 20-22. I want to have a job that pays me well so I will live comfortably as an adult.

I dream of buying my mother a house and car as well. I want to invest in the stock market and one day get a job in it. I want to be able to vacation like a cruise in the Caribbean, the tropics, Mexico, Japan, and/or some cool place in Europe. As an adult, I want to live somewhere in the US where there are palm trees like Florida and Arizona. I also want to live somewhere where it is hot, there is a beach, and where I can buy a nice house/condo for myself.

I dream of donating a lot of money to a legitimate charity. I want to get one of my dream cars “a foreign” and I want to have a dog, probably a pit bull, a German shepherd, or a Rottweiler. I want an overall comfortable, chill life as an adult. What I need to do right now at 14 years old is focus on school, starting to make money, and learning how to manage my money. My plan right now is to start a bank account, try my hand at stocks, buy things that I want/need during my high school career, and upgrade to making this a job.

Overall, I want to have a successful adulthood. My main goal is to be happy and comfortable as my life goes on. I plan to make this dream reality within a few years, and not to have to worry about being broke or depressed.

Ivyanna Anderson

Dreams don’t always come true in the world unless you push yourself to work hard and study hard for what you want to do in life.  My father loves to work with cars.  He had to work hard in school for it.  He had to work hard, study, and push through all the hard, difficult times in life just to become what he wanted to do without college.  A huge dream of my stepmother was to be in a medical field.  She had to study hard, get good grades, and go to college getting her degrees to be in the medical field.

My dream is to spend at least one day with my father as a daughter Daddy date with no interruptions.  For my dream, I just want to be able to be a teenager, go out, have fun, and do stupid stuff as teenagers should.  I don’t want anything more but to be a physical therapist and to be free in the world.  A big dream is to have a family and be happy with a loving husband.  My dream is for all the bad memories and nightmares to go away.  I wish for no financial problems and no health issues in my future.  My dream is to have a job with good pay, a home with no problems, and a family with no broken pieces.

Where do I start with my dream for my community?  Let’s start with how people should stop killing people over stupid stuff such as a dollar.  An example of a real life situation: my best friend Ty’quoin Jones died from gunshots over a few dollars at the age of 14.  I dream for kids to be able to play outside – for kids to be kids and not want to be gangsters.  I don’t want these girls growing up being “thots” and used for their bodies.  What many people call life is not life at all.  Where is the happiness?  Where are the hard working people?  I’m tired of people dying, because they’re smart or because of nothing.  I’m tired of kids not able to be kids, because of all the killing, robbing, sex trafficking, and abuse.  When do kids live?  When do kids have fun in life?  I dream for racism to go away.  I wish for black culture to be able to be free and live their life till they can’t anymore.

A dream poem: I dream for a world with love, hope, and care.  I dream for a world we all can share.  I dream for love, peace, and harmony for a world you can live and be free.  I dream for highs to be goals and lows to be nos.  I dream for people to see with their eyes but all I see is people don’t care that other people die. We scream, we shout save our lives but no one hears our suffering cries.

Jabria Allen

Hey, my name is Jabria Allen and I want to talk about more of what I want to do and what I do. I have been doing hair since I was 10 with my mom but I really started taking this seriously when I turned 12. I have been receiving clients from then to now I still have the clients from then. I want to say that I’m very thankful for my clients and that I’m proud of myself and my braiding skills.

So let me tell you about braiding: you would have to make sure the parts are straight in neat and when you get clients you have to make them feel comfortable have nice conversation make them give you good reviews because of how you treat them and how you did their hair. Also, when you do hair you can’t like do it when you feel like it so when you start you are going to have people coming to you DMing you saying they need you to do their hair.

More about my business: when I get older I will build a hair studio and have good workers in my shop that do good hair and I’m planning on working on my my business with my mother since she does good hair and she’s been doing this for over 13 years, so I really look forward to doing this with my mom. If there are any girls that would like to do braiding class with me, I could show you how to do it. And not only that–starting this year I will also have books that you can look through and it will help. I’m also looking forward to start everything starting in 2021: new year and new beginnings.

Because of the pandemic it has been a little hard for me to reach and achieve my goals, but no matter what the situation is, I’ll never stop what I am doing. I dream that one day I will wake up and say “I made it–my dream came true!” I will never let down my supporters who been with me from the start. This is something I look forward to. I’m going to make my mom and dad proud, make them feel like I’m not just growing up to do anything. I want to achieve my goals and I dream that one day I’ll have best clientele.

Jordan Blair

My name is Jordan Blair.  My dream is to become a police officer, have a family, and be happy.  I want to live in California, go to the beach, enjoy life, have fun with my family, take care of my Mom, teach my kids right from wrong, and go out and chill with my friends.  I want to be something important in life, give back to my community, and the homeless people.  My community is bad.  Every day someone gets shot or killed for nothing.  You can’t walk outside in peace.  It’s always someone trying to hurt you, when you leave your house.  You got to watch your back, don’t tell strangers where you live, and don’t let people know you have money.  That’s the reason I go to school – to get an education to make my family proud and have a better life.

Becoming a police officer gives me an opportunity to help to uphold the law and help the community to become a better place.  Watching the news every day and seeing all of the crime in the community I’m always thinking of ways to help in the community – going to outreach centers and community centers and showing the young people there is a better way than committing crimes.  One of the hardest things is getting people to trust you and understand.  Corruption is very high in the police department and the only way that will change is hiring people that are honest, committed, and faithful that will help to change the police department.  We have to come up with homicide strategies by keeping recently arrested felons from returning to the streets.

Change the path: Preventing school dropouts

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By Naomi Hodge


For generations now, people have lost interest in bettering their lives through education. It has been an issue faced by teens and has risen higher and higher throughout the years. Dropping out of school should never be an option if all school does is bring good things to a person and helps in gaining more knowledge of what is out in the world. We should all be trying to figure out why students feel the need to drop out and how do we get them to stay.

In 2018, the dropout rate for African Americans in the United States was at 16.2%, whereas the dropout rate for 2017 in Baltimore, Maryland was at 17%. One reason why kids turn to dropping out is because of family problems, whether it’s money or something worse. It could also just be that they simply lost interest in the educational system thinking that it wouldn’t be able to help them.

I want to educate people on why students feel the need to drop out of school before fully accessing all the knowledge they can in high school. But not only to tell them why kids drop out but also to help others find ways to get the students to want to stay and gain this important experience/knowledge they will need in their futures. I don’t want people to keep pushing away this problem but instead learn and change. Kids need to know that there are people looking out for them. Encourage students to join various after-school extracurricular activities. Some examples of extracurricular activities kids could join include school sports teams, club sports, community volunteering, and so much more. Not only school extracurricular activities but also ones provided by the community.

Schools should have a job fair for students that need work to help support
their families where they get introduced to different local jobs and learn how to write a resume. All kids should want to get an education, they should never lose interest in gaining knowledge.

Parents/guardians should check in with their child’s teachers to make sure they are engaged, but also check in with your child to make sure the teacher is giving proper information. Parents/guardians should also check on a school’s environment to make sure their child is well taken care of.

We rely on future generations to help the world become a better, safer place but that can’t happen without the knowledge of how to do so. No one seems to be discussing this very important topic and that need to change. We need to educate people on this issue before it is too late to fix. Pick the path that is better for you and for the people around you.

Naomi Hodge is a student at McDaniel College and a graduate of Baltimore City Public Schools.

Weapons do not belong in school

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By Moses Jeuronlon

In school, one of the most important things next to education is the safety of the students, teachers, staff, and administrators. But how do they protect themselves? Should the teachers carry guns in school? Should the students carry guns as well?

Well, that sounds like a very reliable way for them to protect themselves. However, that solution has its own drawbacks, such as the misuse of the guns and the mayhem it could cause.

“Teachers would not know how to use the gun properly and if a gunman came in the school, they would panic and start shooting everywhere”, said Jacob Itner, a senior at Patterson High School.

We always hear the news about students shooting and killing people in their schools. If the students were prevented from bringing a gun to school in the first place none of that would have happened.

Not all students in schools are mature and responsible enough not to misuse the weapon they may have for self-defense. Some school shootings can result in people dying an unfair death. School should be a place where students should go and learn in peace and leave in peace. The safety of the students and staff should be taken into consideration by the school board to ensure they are learning in a safe environment.

 

Internet is keeping teens up (OPINION)

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Using an iPhone to access the internet

Smartphones make it easy for teenagers to access the internet from anywhere. (Photo: J Haymesisvi Photography — CC)

By Moses Jeuronlon

Teenagers all over the country are using technology everyday for many different reasons, but is technology affecting how teens perform in school and at home?

In my opinion it is. Teens are mostly tired in class, falling asleep on the bus, and running late to class. It is mostly because they stayed up late at night surfing the web. Also when the teacher is teaching, they take their phones out and start to text each other and get distracted. Then, when a quiz comes based on the lesson, they fail it.

According to the computer science teacher at Patterson High School,  Mr. Nicholas Yates, “the internet provides information for students, but it also provides an easy source for distraction”.

Teenagers are a group of young adults who have taken a half a step into society. Yes, the internet gives us entertainment, but it also has its negative effects. Taking the internet or technology as the top priority of a student’s life and only giving 5% of their time to his or her education is abysmal and it will lead to that student destroying his or her future.

Teens and students need to be responsible for their lives and balance the amount of time they spend on the internet and the time they spend preparing for school.

“Sometimes the internet provides distraction because it makes us lazy and keeps us away from actual work”, said Josine Mamno, a Patterson student.

When students have homework or classwork, they can rely too much on the internet and it can make them too lazy. Then, when they really need to solve a problem and the rule says no phone is allowed, they may not understand the work and fail.

There’s no law in the country that says people should not be on their phones, but teenagers can make their own set of rules about when to be on their phones and when to put them away and get serious.

 

Is keeping animals in zoos a good thing?

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By Sartre Ndebaneza,

The San Diego Zoo contains animals from around the world, including this giant panda named Bai Yun. (Photo: Matthew Field)

The San Diego Zoo contains animals from around the world, including this giant panda named Bai Yun. (Photo: Matthew Field)

We are all familiar with taking a short walk in a park, visiting zoos, and even taking some food to feed those poor animals. How about giving your loved ones a visit to a Sea World show? How about protecting animals and providing them with good healthcare and feeding them? There are a lot of significant reasons to consider in order to keep these animals behind bars. But what is the purpose if we do all these things for our own interest?

It has been said that we need to protect the environment, but we still hear some leaders say that climate change is hoax. Big corporations polluted the air but noone can point fingers at them. Government agencies and private organizations seem to care about nature but many people do not. So why do we really keep animals in captivity?

First, people started the open parks for wild animals. Then, so sea animals were not left behind, people took them from their world in order to keep them in pools. Is pool water better than ocean water? Were the jungles where those zoo animals used to live worse than those little shelters people enclosed them in?

If you are a true world-saver think about this: An African elephant covers about 80 kilometers (around 50 miles) a day. Is there any comparison that we can make with these elephants locked in zoos? It is better to take care of animals and love them but why do we deny them the right to live naturally?

For instance, at the San Diego Zoo, trainers trained animals, including dolphins, to do tricks. Trainers make animals do tricks by rewarding them with food. It sounds good but this is a technique to change animals’ psychology, and when animals act differently trainers call it rebelling or bad behavior. We know that when those animals lived in jungles or in oceans they ate when they were hungry, not when they did tricks. And they got food by hunting, not by being fed by people’s hands. What would you do if you found out someone was changing your lifestyle in a way you don’t like?

There may sometimes be good reasons to keep animals in captivity, such as helping endangered species to breed, but most of the time wild animals are better off in their natural environment, not locked up for our entertainment.

EDITORIAL: Immigration ban is illegal and wrong

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Protest at BWI Airport Over Trump's Executive Order on Immigrants, Refugees. (By Deb Belt) Patch.com

Protest at BWI Airport Over Trump’s Executive Order on Immigrants, Refugees. (By Deb Belt 0

By Sartre Ndebaneza and Amadou Bah,

Most Americans are questioning if President Trump’s executive order restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries is legal or illegal. The order appears to be illegal because it puts limits on a particular group of people. Trump’s order is unconstitutional because it targets only one religion. The editors of the Patterson Press believe that everyone should be welcomed and treated fairly in the U.S. regardless of their religion, ethnicity and national origin. The beauty of the U.S. is its diversity. Immigrants also contribute a lot to America’s economy. What is still not understandable is why Trump kept people from those seven Muslim countries from re-entering the country when they were legal residents who already had green cards and had not done anything wrong.

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