Teens Hidden Struggles

Feelings
Internal feelings can be the strongest feelings to have, but also can be the most dangerous feelings to keep balled up inside. Not everyone knows when there is something wrong with someone but if they learn to communicate with one another, everyone can help and make a difference in that persons life. Having a death in the family or outside of the family is the hardest thing to deal with. It takes a toll on your life and can be difficult to move on from it. Without having people around you to calm you down, help you throughout your struggles in life, or even just to listen to what you have to say from time to time, that silence can lead someone into their own unwanted funeral.

My Perspective
I had many friends in high school and most of them had pretty normal lives, as so I thought. There were always arguments being talked about within ones family or friends and also many issues with themselves as a person but it never got to the point of leading them to their own death. One particular friend I had was always so bright and very energetic. Her name was Angelica Garcia and she was 16, leading herself into a great future. Every time I would see her she always seemed to be in a great mood, unless she had problems with a boyfriend or girl drama which was normal in high school. She was always in every party, loved going to the movies with other friends, and was a wonderful cheerleader for Chancellor High School. Her days seemed so busy but still looked as fun as she made it seem.

Sexual Assault
Many young teens struggle with being sexually assaulted and live with those horrible memories forever. It gets hard to talk to people about things like this because not everyone has been through it and not everyone can truly understand how bad it hurts. Angelica was sexually assaulted when she was just in third grade, at such a young age she had to learn how to move on from that bad experience and it wasn't easy. "Trying to seek for help, her mother looked for a psychologist or any doctor that might be able to help her out, but no doctor was accepting new patients and therefore made it even more difficult to find someone else to go to (Zitz)." Without the help Angelica needed throughout the years depression took over her body and her negative thoughts won over the positive ones that she needed. She sensed that no one wanted to pay attention and she wasn't taken seriously.

Depression Facts
"A depressive disorder is a disease that affects the mood, thoughts, and behavior. With the right treatment it can help more than 90% of those who suffer from depression (NMHA & DHHS)." According to the National Mental Health Association and the Department of Health and Human Services, "experts estimate that 5% of all teenagers will suffer from depression, but only 20% of depressed teens are appropriately diagnosed and treated. Depression in children and adolescents is associated with an increased risk for suicidal behaviors. This is treatable, a comprehensive treatment plan can be used that may include psychotherapy, ongoing evaluation and monitoring, and in some cases, psychiatric medication."

Poland Syndrome
It seemed that Angelica kept receiving more downfalls in her life and wasn't given enough time to recover through the struggles she's had before. As she got older she was diagnosed with Poland Syndrome which caused her to loose one of her breasts . "Poland Syndrome is a rare birth defect that lacks ones chest muscle from one side (Zitz)." Knowing her for a couple years, which you would think is a while, and not knowing certain things like this that she was going through is tough, not only for Angelica but also for the friends that would've supported her if they knew and would've made her feel more comfortable about the imperfections that we all have. Once again Angelica and her mother strived to look for more assistance to see what could be done with this issue. The only doctor they finally found that could've engaged in helping her only made her feel worse. "She said the doctor was so uncaring about her situation and told her that plastic surgery couldn't have been done until she was 18. The doctor didn't give her any other recommendations or at least some advice about her problem which made her really upset and she ended up crying after she left the doctors office that day (Zitz)."

Suicide Facts
According to David Satcher, M.D., former Surgeon General of the Untied States, " Suicide is a national public health problem" and "Suicide is our most preventable form of death." "More teenagers dies from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined (National Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action, 2001)." "Females are known to think about and attempt suicide about twice as often as males. Before the 1960's, suicide by adolescents happened only rarely; but today, nearly one in ten teens contemplates suicide, and over 500,000 attempt it each year. While suicide rates for all other ages have dropped, suicide among teens have nearly tripled (Gregston)."

Her Suffering Ends
It's hard to accept your own issues and to grow from them, but it seems that it's even harder to find someone that can understand you and make your issues a learning obstacle. One day Lisa Garcia, the mother of Angelica found that she had hung herself in her bedroom. One of the most horrific things to see is that the child you gave birth to had took her own life away. Lisa did everything she could to help Angelica and as many other parents would agree, they would do anything to keep their child safe and sound. "Jane Wallace who worked with Lisa at Re/Max Bravo was inspired when Lisa said, " As a parent you try to protect your kids from drugs and alcohol and you do what's necessary to protect them from other children, but you don't think you have to protect them from themselves." She explained this when they had lunch together a couple days after the incident of her daughter passing away. Jane said, " I thought that was so profound and well stated. It made me think differently about my responsibility as a parent (Zitz)."

Your Surroundings
Reaching out to people who need help is necessary, leading everyone to a healthy life is even a greater way to lead yourself in that same direction. The more positive people you surround yourself with the greater your outlook of life will be no matter what you've been through. Angelica needed that push, she as any other teen with similar or worse problems searched for that attention and the right thing to do in her situation. Although her story does not end well she still remains a powerful woman, and her family has been given a lot of support to stay strong and continue to live a happy life.

Work Cited
The Free Lance Star by Michael Zitz http://fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2010/072010/Angelica-Nichole-Garcia/index_html?page=1

Facts made available by the National Mental Health Association, DRADA, Department of Health and Human Services http://www.thebalancedmind.org/learn/library/facts-about-teenage-depression

Figures from the National Center for Health Statistics for the year 2007 All rates are per 100,000 population http://www.speaneohio.org/about-teen-suicide-and-depression/youth-suicide-facts

"Teen Suicide Facts You Need to Know" by Mark Gregston http://blogs.christianpost.com/parenting/teen-suicide-facts-you-need-to-know-3176/

Fighting Away the Violence

School Violence has never been permitted nor wanted but still hasn't become less of an issue in schools today . Being in High school there were always videos you had to watch about bullying and classes you had to take about how to be helped when violence is being placed on one another. Programs where held associating with troubled students or helping certain students who aren't as focused in school as they should be because of not just problems in school but also problems at home. There are all these helpful associations and programs being made but still today violence in school has been more of an issue than before. If the law itself doesn't want to address the situation profoundly and take it seriously to end such violence, then we the people need to begin to reach out to these students to make that difference happen.

Stats on School Violence

• In 2011, 20 percent of high school students were bullied at school, and 33 percent reported being involved in a physical fight in the last year.
• In one month, nearly 6 percent of high schoolers stayed home because they felt unsafe at or on their way to school.
• More than 7 percent of 9th through 12th graders reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once in the last year. An additional 6 percent admitted to bringing a weapon to school for protection.
• In 2010 there were more than 800,000 nonfatal school victimizations of children and teens ages 12 to 18. Almost 500,000 of these occurrences were thefts.
• Risk factors for youth violence include violent histories, drug or alcohol use, poverty in the community, poor grades, association with troubled peers, and troublesome home life.
• Students aren’t the only ones in danger of school violence. Almost 7 percent of teachers reported being threatened or physically injured by a student from their school.
• Only 39 percent of schools in the 2009-2010 school year took serious disciplinary action against a student for special offenses. Actions included out-of-school suspension, expulsion, or transfer to a specialty school.
• In the U.S., 33 school-associated violent deaths occurred in the 2009-2010 school year including homicides, suicides, and legal interventions. 18 of these occurred on school property.
• Youth and school violence can lead to depression, alcohol and drug use, suicide, anxiety, and fear.
• In recent years, assault by weapon, cases of intimidation and bullying, and alcohol possession have all more than doubled on school properties.
• Drug possessions at school more than doubled from 2005 to 2011. Teachers confirm that violence may not be spiking, but records are being kept much more accurately than in the past.

Most of the time school violence consists of small groups of people fighting amongst themselves. Although this can be considered good news because most students are not involved, it is only a matter of time before the violence bleeds into the general student population and innocent students are injured. This false sense of security made 96% of students in the Class of 2000 feel safe at school. However, 22% of them knew of students who carried weapons to school. Approximately 53% of the students surveyed said they believed a Columbine-like shooting could occur in their school.

How to prevent School Violence

• Anger management- child becomes violent whenever he/she gets angry. So schools should start classes on anger management. These kinds of classes will tell students about the ways of controlling anger.
• Conflict management- these kinds of classes will tell students that the conflicts can be resolved by talking as well. Fighting, threatening and beating are not the only ways of solving conflicts.
• Talk with your child, keep a well understanding of what they do day by day in school and outside of school. Create that bond so that when things do happen it can be easier for the student to be able to be comfortable with telling someone.
• Pay attention to all the warning signs a student gives, including sudden low grades, being lonely or antisocial, behavior issues at home and at school, sleeping problems, or eating problems.
• Being involved in school is a biggie. The more one knows about a certain school the better their understanding is going to be. Teachers, parents, counselors, everyone should be participating in getting to know more about the students and how well they cope with each other.

What Punishment for School Violence really consists of

Most students who were involved in school violence weren't punished enough to stop doing it once and for all. When getting caught fighting in school, the most a student would receive is an out of school suspension that could be from only days out of school to being expelled from that school for the whole year. Another punishment would be to get in school suspension for a matter of once again, only days. Bullying in school got the punishment of having the bully being talked to by the principal and only warned or being "written up". Knowing that bulling has become the first most common issue in schools why is the punishment still the same. These minor punishments are the reasons why school violence needs to be addressed in depth and needs to have more drastically changing rules to prevent this from occurring as often. Having more strict consequences for the action of violence that includes students dealing with what court can show them and what could happen if they keep being violent can send the right message.

Fixing the Problem

Once there is a complete understanding of school violence an act should occur. Learning more information not only about which school is better for your child but more about how to help those schools who aren't known to be so great is a better way of leading our country into a safer place. Getting involved more with your own community and sharing your knowledge with former teachers, neighbors, other parents, and even your own children can also decrease such violence. Communication is the key to success, being able to understand an issue and the person with the issue can be the start of helping fix whatever is going wrong. Helping to stop school violence is a must and we can't only depend on others to fix the issue that we all related to or been through at one point in time. Having secure protection and more eyes focused around these students will prevent this downfall that is happening in schools. The more believers and strength, the easier it will be to change an important unwanted factor, School Violence.


Work Cited
http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-school-violence
http://nssc1.org/more-about-school-violence-statistics.html

Leading Factors for my Blogging

It doesn't take a lot to just write a blog but it does take time and effort to write a blog on something your very passionate about and know or want to know more about. Its been kind of difficult for myself to get the hang of this writing style but with research and learning a lot from other blogs, it has created an easier path to lead me into becoming a better writer.

A great blog can consist of many things but it's how you put those things on paper, or in this case how you type your writing correctly in an understandable way for your audience. I went through a couple blogs writing about similar issues, concerns, or information about the court and found that many had different writing styles which kept a good variety in what was eye catching and wasn't boring to read.

One particular blog was all about the Bronx court system which was informational and gave an insight of what type of organizations are being held to try to change the lives of former citizens living in the Bronx, New York. Many videos and photographs are shown that tie in with each blog being written. Specifically, there was one blog about the graffiti clean up which explained when, where, who was involved, and what time this event occurred. It gave a before and after picture of the wall they were working on to show how much better the city streets can make their state look like improvement is being made. It also consists of many quotes from people who have been involved or simply just seen the progression in their state, stating how successful these events have been and supports all the main issues that have been broken down by the people of New York. It's interesting to me that the quotes are even put in a different color than the other writing which is done in order and makes it easier to pull out of the text. Finally, how the text was written is well organized, broken down in nice sized paragraphs, and given with a lot of information. There are also links on the right hand side that give extended information for readers to see.

Blogs are exciting and are another way that can teach you about what's going on in the world and what new information is out there that can be easily understood. With the right techniques, word choice, images/videos, subheadings, research, and information about the topics being written, blogs can be the new fashionable and interesting way of describing your own opinions and facts about a situation.


Work Cited
http://changingthecourt.blogspot.com/2013/08/mid-summer-community-service-dream.html

Different Races, Different Rules

Considering that I myself am Hispanic and speak Spanish fluently, even though I was born in the U.S. I've seen what not only my family and friends have gone through, but also how others have struggled with the court to try to make a better living for themselves in a country that according to the law "Isn't there's and therefore they are not permitted in it."

Working at a fast food place I got to meet a lot of immigrants who have sneaked into the U.S. all for the same reason, to have a better life. I started to become really close with one of the cooks that I work with and at the same time I learned more and more about the struggle she goes through. She was Born In Mexico and came to the U.S. when she was only fourteen years old. She left everything she had including her family to attempt to find a better life, instead of living day by day searching for food in the streets and watching her back at all times. She found a job at Wendy's through a friend and from there her new life began. She learned English and had a lot of help from one of the managers who sadly past away about a year ago from a sudden heart attack. This was fatal news to her even though they only worked together, she looked up to him and saw him as another father figure. She even met her future soul mate which later on gave her the blessings of three children, a nice two story house, and his love. He also was born in Mexico but had been living in the U.S. for a longer period of time. At the time that I met her she was about eight months pregnant at twenty six years of age and a very hard working polite woman at that. Her life seemed complete but it all came crashing down about a month later on a regular busy work day, when five police officers surrounded our job trying to arrest her for somehow finding out that she was an immigrant living illegally in the U.S.

This woman's background is completely clean, not one felony, never have driven a car but rather takes the bus everyday and walk far distances to stay away from getting in trouble. She works at Wendy's every single day with eight hour shifts and sometimes longer when they needed her and has one other job which she works another eight hours giving her a total of sixteen hour work days. This wouldn't be the correct way to escort someone out of their job, in hand cuffs gripping tightly because of a common un harming reason. They couldn't arrest her because at the time she was pregnant. So she had court dates to go to which prevented her from "trying to escape." The court knew she didn't have a license nor anyone who could take her all the way to D.C. when she live in Fredericksburg, and still they told her if she doesn't appear in court she will be sentenced time. I offered to take her to court and I'll never forget how upset the look on her face was that day. Her palms were sweaty and I could tell she was nervous. She looked at me and said, "Why me Catherine all I do is work hard to provide for my children and stay away from causing any harm to anyone else why has God punished me." I honestly had no clue what to say but to just hold her and cry with her and explain that with good times there will be bad times and we all just have to run through them and be strong.

In a court room your not suppose to talk unless spoken to, nor allowed to argue with anyone but somehow this judge had so much respect for others sitting in the room besides all of the Hispanics that were present. He constantly kept getting frustrated with my coworker, telling her how she needed to be seated, how to respond, and how to act in front of him the way he wanted while others did the exact same and didn't get punished at all for it. The judge gave her another court date and basically made her show up just to see she hasn't escaped. Having her show up constantly is just giving them more time to figure out what crime she has made, but she has a work permit and hasn't caused any trouble in the last fifteen years she has been living here which speaks a lot in her favor.

Why is it that it's reasonable to have someone who wasn't born in the U.S. get married with someone who is and easily granted their rights to stay here but when an immigrant only comes with no intentions of ruining this country, they make their process so difficult to become a citizen. On July 10, 2013 there was a video posted in which George W. Bush said, "We must remember that the vast majority of immigrants are decent people who work hard and support their families, practice their faith, and lead responsible lives." What Bush said is honestly the real truth, not all are good but not all are bad and by that I mean every human being. Why can the government only focus on what the law says about immigrants instead of focusing on how they can change the law to help out those immigrants who are trying to make a living here. As also said in an article about the immigration system and it's unfair immigration policies, "The United States government should urgently reform its unfair immigration system to uphold the basic rights of non-citizens and provide a path to legal status for the country’s unauthorized immigrants." That path must occur, and since it has not been taken care of as it should be people still remain mistreated without a proper cause. My former coworker is not only such a humble person but is also just another human being trying to make it in this country. A change needs to happen to stop this unfair system they have set on immigrants.


Work Cited
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/07/10/bush_the_laws_governing_the_immigration_system_arent_working_the_system_is_broken.html
www.hrw.org/united-states/US-program/unfair-immigration-policies

Personal Space

How would you feel if your whole life story was put all over the internet for everyone to see? The Fourth Amendment states the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Privacy is such a big issue nowadays that there is an amendment for it, which should be taken seriously. You're not allowed to walk into someone's household without their consent or a warrant out on their arrest, but your able to look them up on the internet and pay monthly payments to view their criminal records, possible sex offenders, and their current and previous address. Basically their entire life is being recorded on the web. I understand that it is good to know about certain people you live around or want to get extra information about but it's not clicking to me as to why it is ok for anybody that doesn't have a licensed authority to bring up your criminal records in defined details with pictures, other family members names that have nothing to do with their crime, certain dates, approximate times, variety of areas in which their crimes took place, and more.

As I search online about background checks the only reasoning behind them are for Job purposes. In fact, 20 percent of organizations conduct criminal background checks on job candidates because they are required to do so by law. If I was a manager for a very high ranking company I would like to know about the person I'm thinking of hiring also, so that alone gives me a good enough reason to find out their history. But judging a book by its cover isn't fair, and if I did mess with the law a couple years ago and changed my ways why should it make it more difficult finding a job, a wife or a husband, or even a nice home in a reserved neighborhood. These are some of the reasons as to why it's hard for people who have made mistakes in the past to move on with their lives without looking back. Random people paying to read into your business without a good enough reason can break people down. If that person is not looking to hire you, bring you in their personal life, or planning on helping you with things that require that type of information, he or she should not be able to access any personal records.

1 in 32 grownups in the U.S. has a criminal record, so that means that there can be at least two people on each street of a nice sized community with a criminal record. Does it really mean that each of these people with a not so great history can really put you and your family in danger to the point where you have to isolate from that person and search them up online? What about ones with a clean slate, are they excluded from ever being a danger to the community just because their files aren't recorded? How can anyone change if in order to change, others need to accept and bring you in to help you change. There are beliefs that a background check could result to illegal discrimination based on the past of a person or the people he or she is associated with in the past. At what point will the line be drawn when dealing with ones invasion of privacy?


Work Cited
www.courtcheck.com/pros.pdf
criminalsearch.wordpress.com/.../pros-and-cons-of-a-background-check/