Nabozny v Podlesny : Bully

In class we watched the video Bullied, the story of Jamie Nabozny. Jamie was physically and mentally abused by classmates from elementary school all the way to high school. When he complained to the school principle in elementary school the Principal did not do anything and no punishment was brought onto the boys. When Jamie reached High School the problem only escalated and when he reported the bullying to the principle nothing was done. Jamie was scared for his life and ran away from home. Jamie parents could not afford a private education for their son and Jamie had to go back to his public school. Jamie was abused throughout his experience in high school and when he graduated he sued the school district for failing to protect him. Jamie won the case and won 1 million dollars. Following up on the event Jamie's courage to stand up to the School district led to the NASP leadership agreeing to sign onto the Amici Curiae Brief along with the National Association of Social Workers and other organizations.

This movie on Jamie Nabozny was a reality check and an important film. I am sure things similar to what Jamie experienced  happen on daily basis but kids are afraid to speak out. The problem is when kids do not express  their problem to either a parent or social worker some will become depressed and others will take their life like some in the past week.

At DHS I believe bullying is not a big issue but it still  may occur. I think at DHS the physical aspect of abuse is not occurring but maybe some emotional and tauting my be occurring. I think the bullying may happen from people joking around but the jokes may offend people. I also think specific groups are not targeted as being bullied but individuals are the one being made fun of.

Finding a solution for bullying is hard to come by as it happens uncontrollable. From cyber bullying on the Internet to text messages there is not a way schools can prevent the problems. Schools can prevent bullying happening in schools by having a zero tolerance for bullies and social workers.

Chile

Today 33 miners of Chile were successfully rescued , after being stuck in a mine for 69 days. What is more astonishing is that no one died. The trapped minors where very lucky that the Chile government knew what they were doing. The government had dealt with Hurricane relief and were successful in quick recovery. I believe America should look at how Chile handles disaster and learn some tips from them. The US has had Hurricane Katrina and the Oil Spill and where very slows to react to the issue. In Chile the government took charge, collected anything they could get from other countries, no matter what country was and had multiple strategies going into rescue mission. 

When Schools go to far in privacy issues

In the 3 articles read, all where major voilations of privacy rights. Some schools got in trouble when they disobey the 4th admentment rights and went beyond there intuall purpose. In the first article about the 13 year old girl who was stripped search for allegelly hiding ibuprofen. She was searched in a manor which was illegal and an embarrassment to the school .  When the court covered the issues they quoted "We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognized that school officials had no reason to strip search Savana Redding and that the decision to do so was unconstitutional". 

In the second article of  the case of cell phone, a girl's phone  was searched and innoportite pictures were found. Privacy again is being intruded. Like the TLO vs NJ case, the teacher who saw the phone is going beyond the purpsoe of the search. 

In the 3rd reading of Burlison v. Springfield Public Schools,Central High School announced over the public address system that the school was going into "lockdown" and that students were prohibited from leaving their classrooms. This also violates the rights of the students (1st admentment) and there lockers where searched which is violating the privaxcy policy.

In all these cases schools have gone too far in searches.

There needs to be a line on what is appropriate for a search and when privacy is being invaded. It is one thing to pee in a cup but another to make a student feel uncomfortable.

drug testing

After days of the debate of drug testing i belive drug testing should be allowed in schools. With drugs only becoming more popular in high schools around America drug testing must be instituted. In schools that have used drug testing the amount of usage has declined and lives have been saved. The debate against a drug test is the testing itself. In order to give a drug test a urine sample is needed. People believe that there privacy is getting invaded when a urine sample is taken. What is the difference of going to a doctor to have a urine sample.School officials may search a student if that official has a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is in the process of being committed or reasonable causes to believe that the search is necessary to maintain school discipline or enforce school policies (NJ v TLO). A punishment for failing a drug test is a suspension from an extracurricular activity. Testing students who participate in extracurricular activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the School District's legitimate concerns in preventing deterring and detecting drug use. By testing for drugs and argument can be that the school is invading the privacy of others (Pink). When kids are at a party they can run away from peer pressure from using the excuse of being drug tested at school. Having drug tests helps get rid of peer pressure.