Death Penalty

The system makes it seem like only the guilty will be executed, but in the end it’s the jury’s decision. If the jury believes they have enough evidence then they will execute the person, so there is still room for error and it’s very possible for the innocent to be prosecuted. At the end of the trial the jury makes a decision on, "whether the defendant’s guilt on the charges has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt." It goes on to say that in some states a judge can veto or overturn the jury’s decision. This goes to show how easy and possible it is to convict the wrong person. The rights of the accused are supposed to be protected my "innocent until proven guilty" and the article repeats multiple times that only the guilty is prosecuted. There is also a lot of time and ways to prove innocence.

After reading the methods of death for the death penalty, I believe that if the actions induce extreme pain to the person it should be considered to be cruel and unusual punishment.  All of the methods could fall under the 8^th amendment in my opinion. Some of the methods like hanging, or putting the executed in the electric chair results in extreme pain, especially if the person does not die right away. I think it is very important that the executed die right away and experience little pain. Even though they did evoke pain on others by killing them, they are dying right now so there is no reason to make their eyes pop, and break their bones. Lethal injection is the best if it is done right. If it’s done by someone inexperienced they can insert the needle wrong and the person would not die right away. I believe the person should die right away and not be in any pain if they want the death penalty to be supported by the 8^th amendment.

I believed that the crimes listed in the capital muder in illinois should be resulted in the death penalty solely because they are horrible crimes. With that being said I dont think death penalty is the best option in any case. I believe life in prison would be more effective, for the person accused and for the family of the victom. If the person found guilty of the crime is sentenced to death, the victoms family had to live with the burden of also killing someone elses son or father. That to me does not seem worth it. It seems better to have that person suffer and die in jail their entire life. Also the death penatly is bad because a lot of innocent people are accused of crimes they did not do. For them to be sent to death is completely unconstitutional

Drug Testing in Public Schools

In both the Acton and Earl cases, the majority ruled that drug testing was not an invasion of privacy because the student being tested is in their own stall privately with the monitor standing outside of the stall listening for the sound of regular pee. Both of the cases said things along the lines of the fact that consequences will only be taken for the activity the student participates in. There will not be consequences taken academically or consequences with the law. In the Earl case it states, "Nor do the test results here lead to imposition of discipline or have any academic consequences." The school is strictly bases the drug test on whether a kid can be a part of an athletic team or a school activity. The Acton cases state, "The results of the tests are disclosed only to a limited class of school personnel who have a need to know; and they are not turned over to law enforcement authorities or used for any internal disciplinary function." The school is now trying to keep the students privacy in their best interest, but isn’t that a bit of a contradiction? they are working to give the student the maximum privacy they can have, but the schools locker rooms have no privacy, "no individual dressing rooms are provided; shower heads are lined up along a wall, unseparated by any sort of partition or curtain; not even all the toilet stalls have doors." Why aren’t the students complaining about this? This is just as much of an invasion of privacy. Other students, teachers, or coaches can see others undressed an exposed. To me the most provocative part of all of this is what student pick and choose to become upset or to fight about. The students already have to "submit to various physical examinations, and to be vaccinated against various diseases." To be on a sport team, athletes are okay with going to the doctor to make sure they are eligible, why can’t a drug test be a part of their eligibility? There are already steps they have to take to be a part of a team that "invade" their privacy just as much as taking a drug test.  

New Years?

Thursday there is no school because of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana- the Jewish new year. I personally observe this holiday and go to temple thursday and friday. For me the holiday is two days not one, and because its two days I end up missing one day of school, this year ill be missing friday. I do appreciate the fact that we get thursday off of school, but to me its still a holiday and getting one day off of school doesnt make sence to me. The holiday is two days. Shouldnt that equal two days of of school? Now I understand that most people at our school do not observe both days, but what about the people that do. Its an improtant day to observe, and for me more important then going to school. Its hard for me to me miss school, but this is one day of the year thats important for me to observe and it doesnt make alot of sence to me that the school basically only "allows" one of the two days for us to observe.

Speech Codes

I was very disturbed by the pictures I saw of the fraternity guys dressing up like KKK members. These frats had a reputation for being inclusion, but they were going against half the people and being extremely disrespectful. It wasn’t a funny joke or a funny Halloween costume. Their Behavior should be banned or punished so they know it’s not okay to act that way. These students dress up as a racial group and disrespected other races. Outsiders could have seen them, and been scared of what those groups of people are known to stand for. It threatens how safe other people feel.

I believe speech codes are necessary to an extent. It’s important for students to understand what an appropriate and inappropriate action is. I choose to look at Indiana universities speech code. According to FIRE they are in the yellow rating for speech codes. I believe it’s very important to be able to say what you believe. It’s important for people to speak out about their opinions and not be worried about getting in trouble. But with that freedom, you need to be respectful. It’s important to be respectful of other people’s beliefs.  One thing I read on FIRE is that Indiana university recently gave a christen group on campus funding. Groups like those should be allowed because whether people like it or not, everyone comes from different religious backgrounds and people should be able to publicly show those. As long as they aren’t forcing religion on others or telling people their views are wrong.

Personally I think the website could be a bit bias. It seems like there is any small speech code in the university they are automatically a yellow rating. There are hardly green ratings. They made it seem like every university has so many problems which I do not believe is true.

9/11

The film we viewed in class about 9/11 was crazy. The people who made the video did not purposely make a video about 9/11. Thats why the footage in the video was absolutely insane and almost hard to watch and believe it was true. They had a plan to make a video about the New York city fire department, and the firefighters. Who would have thought that this is what they would have been the footage they got. on 9/11/11 my dad and I actaully watched the video we watched in class at home. this time at the end of the video it interviewed some of the firefighters thatwere on the video ten years later. One of the firefighters actually died from cancer, which doctors are thinking was caused by the fumes from the towers falling. At the time the firefighters were told that there was no danger in the fumes and it was ok not to wear a mask. now looking back there was a study that showed that people who took in those fumes had a life expectancy of ten years less. It crazy how much those firefighters put on the line and after watching this film I ahve sp much respect for what they did that day

One article I read was about places outside new york and how they were affected by 9/11. Long story short every place in america was greatly affected by the tragedy of that day. Security everywhere has changed, and honestly it makes me feel safer. Its a good feeling knowing that when we go to the airport there isnt a lot to worry about. Airport security is one thing that should have been there more so now that it is its a good thing. Being about 7 at the time, things for me dont feel much different. I dont remember what going to the airport was like, or what things felt like before september 11th. All I can say is I am thankful for the people that risked their lives that day, and now America will do anything to prevent going through that again,

Student Rights

If you were to walk down the halls of Deerfield High School, you might see students wearing drug related clothing or accessories, or you might hear F-bombs being thrown into an average students conversations. At Deerfield, we students get a lot of freedom to express our feelings or opinions, saying that, in my past years here there has never been a situation that could connect to John and Mary Beth Tinkers situation. If you ever heard of the Tinker v. Des Moines case in 1969 you'd know exactly what I am talking about. Those two students decided to wear armbands to protest the Vietnam War., and ended up being suspended for not taking them off. The question is did they have constitutional rights to wear those arm bands freely? Answer: Yes they did. The Supreme Court ruled that the schools policy was unconstitutional.

In my years at Deerfield I have never experienced problems related to free speech similar to that. The question that stands is, could I imagine that happening at Deerfield? Answer: no. Students at Deerfield, whether they believe so or not, have more rights than most schools. The question is, do those students abuse their rights as high school students? Yes there were times throughout my high school career where I thought things were unfair. Some of those times included, not being able to park at school until senior year, or not being able to leave this campus until 3:14 every day, free period or not. Yes at my school there are things I do always enjoy, but the freedom of the students is better than at most schools. Think about having closed hallways, were you have to have a pass in your hand every time you enter the hallway, or study hall instead of a free period, were you had to stay in a quiet room for a hour or more doing nothing but work. What if we had school uniforms, then we would have no freedom to choose what we wore every day.

There are times when teenagers take advantage of all the freedom we do get compared to other school in the area. They are always looking for bigger and better things, and they never stop to smell the coffee. They never stop to appreciate what they have. I am a victim of this also. There are times when I don't appreciate what I have, and I’m not going to lie, before righting this blog I never thought  much about the rights I have as a student, I too, took it for granted.

Students at Deerfield are able to freely express their political views. They are able to wear Obama shirts, or shirts against Obama. Maybe we have this freedom because of the tinker case, but for whatever reason, we do have these freedoms and we shouldn’t take them for granted.

One thing I can think of that is not allowed or that has gotten students in trouble in the past, is wearing clothing that promotes drugs or alcohol abuse. In the Morse v. Frederick case, Frederick did not have the constitutional right to make a sign about drug abuse at a school related event. Here at Deerfield that is probably something that would not be tolerated and should not be tolerated. There are lines that students should not want to or need to cross, and that is one of them. There is no reason to openly make comments like that. It’s important to be respectful of school grounds, so those types of shirts and comments are unnecessary.

Issues Here

My name is Shira Shaoul, this is my second blog, but my first post posting about myself. I am starting my senior year at Deerfield, and I honestly couldn't be more excited. With the excitement comes also comes alot of pressure. I am the youngest of 5 girls. To put that in other words I have 4 older sister. They all got into good colleges, two of them have good jobs, he other two are on their way to having succesful jobs, and I am siting here writing this blog with no idea what I want to do or studying in the next couple years. There is definitely unspoken pressure on me to figure out not only what college im going to head to, but also what im going to major in, and then eventualy what my job is going to be after college. Whether it is my grandma calling me a few times a week with different possible careers, or its my mom stressing me out about deadlines with applications. Even though all the pressure is sometimes hard to handle, I do understand that everyone means well, and therefor it does motivate me to get m applications done as fast as possible, and pick a major that I enjoy the most. College is the biggest thing on my plate right now, and I will report back here with updates  about where I go to college and maybe I'll even choose a major :)