Outside reading

          For my outside reading book, I read " I'll get there, It better be worth the trip" By John Donovan. This book is about a boy named Davy Ross. He is a thirteen year old boy who had a grandmother that died in the beginning of the book. He lived with his grandmother, so if he didn't want to be lonely, he had no choice but to move back in with his mom in New York. Davy doesn't really like his mom because she is a really bad influence. She likes to tell him about alcohol and drugs a lot. He would always stay in his room with his dog named Fred because he didn't like the stories his mom would tell him. When he went back to school though, he met a lot of friend and things started to lighten up for him. His friends may seem more interesting and things start to unfold into this story about what happened to his grandmother. I didn't like the ending too much though because there was never an explanation of what happened to his grandmother. Overall, I don't really recommend this book, but it was nice to see what it was like.

Research Paper

                                                                  Cyberbullying

            Cyberbullying has been a big problem for a long time and giving it the attention it deserves could really make the world a better place. Cyberbullying is defined in the law as bullying through technology or electronic communication, creating a Web page or otherwise imitating a student, or distributing something that qualifies as bullying through electronic means (Perry). Schools have already had the ability to address cyberbullying via text messages, email or social media that occurs in school, but when cyberbullying occurs at home, there’s nothing the school can do about it.  It is a fact that girls from ages 11-17 are 3 times more likely to be cyberbullied than boys. Teen suicides are 40% more likely when cyberbullying occurs. If cyberbullying were banned in the U.S., the internet would be safer because it would reduce teen suicides and depression.

            So far, 11 states are reviewing proposals to update or implement cyberbullying laws. One of the laws that comes into effect this school year, requires schools to have policies for dealing with cyberbullying that occur on school property or at school events. ‘When it starts to disrupt the operation of the classroom, then it can still be considered. It doesn’t have to be someone in the back of the room with a phone”, said Chuck Smith, the deputy executive director at Equality, Texas. This is a huge step towards protecting kids from any harm. In addition, 45 states now have laws that bar electronic harassment even though many of them don’t refer to it specifically as cyberbullying. Another positive step towards helping with cyberbullying is a help line in which teachers, victims, and parents can talk anonymously with trained professionals (Komolafe).

            “Online bullying is not only driving youth to suicide, but anonymous trolls are celebrating those death to what can only be equated to the chat-room equivalent of snuff videos”, said writer Isabeau Doucet. People are bullied more over the internet than verbally and physically which is causing higher suicide rates among teens. The suicide of a young girl in 2010 has brought attention to this growing problem. Many journalists began writing about cyberbullying, causing more people to take notice and action toward helping prevent future problems. A study completed in 2005 showed that 13% of children reported being cyberbullied more than 4-6 times in the past year. This number has increased greatly in more recent studies (“Cyberbullying has a broader impact than Traditional Bullying”).

            Bullying used to be confrontations, starting rumors, and making snide comments in person. Now it’s as easy as posting a comment on Facebook or tweeting anonymously about a classmate (Komolafe). “In one instant, they can send out thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of messages”, said Professor Catherine Bradshaw at Johns Hopkins. Most schools have policies in place to deal with these situations that occur in school. Teachers and administrators are being trained on cyberbullying and ways to stop it. More organizations are being formed to offer educational program to ensure child safety.

            Unfortunately, not all districts support the new law proposals. “The limited amount of negative response has been from some administrators who didn’t feel it was necessary”, said Chuck Smith. One reason that it is been more difficult to combat cyberbullying is the decreasing education budgets across the states. Because of the budget cuts, schools have been forced to eliminate mandatory training on cyberbullying. These budget cuts should definitely be taken out of other programs, not ones to help prevent cyberbullying. These programs are necessary to help save lives and prevent teenage depression. The telecommunications revolution has created the capability of causing far greater harm to children than the bullying many of us remember from when we were young (Meyerson). This is the main reason we must have these programs in place.

            Since all of this is happening with one cause, why can’t we stop it? A solution to it would be to make cyberbullying illegal and making cyberbullying something to discuss more. Both houses of the Maryland legislature have passed, and sent to Gov. Martin O'Malley, a bill crafted to respect First Amendment principles while making sure that parents will finally be able to protect their children, but cyberbullying is still legal. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that threats of violence, which are outside the protection of the First Amendment (Meyerson).  It may not be that easy to just make this a law, but it has been a long time since this discussion first started and this needs to be ended immediately.

            People all over the world know that cyberbullying is cruel and wrong to do, but these people never take action to it and do something about it. Even though eleven states are reviewing proposals to improve cyberbullying laws, there’s another thirty nine states that can be suffering. My main point is that there needs to be something done about this horrible way to torture people and be done now. “It seems like an evolution of the social bullying that’s been going on for years”, said Mikaela Carson, a cyberbullying victim”.  As you can see, there are plenty of reasons cyberbullying should be stopped. Adults see it happen with their own eyes online and never address it to anyone if it’s not their child. If you see someone getting emotionally hurt, then you should message them or tell a parent. Parents, teachers, and other adults can work together to stop this terrible thing that’s taking away the fun of children’s lives and have it permanently gone forever.

Works Cited

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-1494&artno=0000351216&type=ART

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-641&artno=0000352909&type=ART

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-641&artno=0000351216&type=ART

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-641&artno=0000343818&type=ART

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-641&artno=0000307887&type=ART

Picture links: http://www.jwrc.org/Portals/0/cyberbullying%20graph.gif

25 Random Facts

Twenty Five Random Facts about Jesseca

1.      I Cheer for John Carroll

2.      I love to travel

3.      I went to St. Margaret’s for middle school

4.      I live in Churchville. MD

5.      I’m looking forward to making new friends as a freshman

6.      My favorite Color is Pink

7.      My Birthday is September 3^rd

8.      I hate mornings

9.      I’m shy

10.  My worst subject is science

11.  I love to listen to music

12.  I can’t stand my room being messy

13.  I have one sister in college

14.  I have two dogs

15.  My best friend’s name is Allie

16.   I’m 13

17.   My best subject is math

18.  I like fall and winter better than the spring and summer

19.  Christmas is my favorite holiday

20.  I’m taller than my mom

21.  Seafood is my favorite kind of food

22.  My favorite tv show is pretty little liars

23.  My favorite kind of movies are horror movies

24.  My eyes are blue

25.  I love starbucks

Research Assignment

      The topics I picked for this research assignment were 1) Cyberbullying, 2) Terrorism, and 3) Racism. The first topic/article I picked was Cyberbullying. http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-1494&artno=0000351216&type=ART Cyberbullying is a big issue and it needs to be taken in action right away. I am totally against it because it’s a wrong thing to do and it affects people mentally and physically. From this article, I learned that this has been taken to court many times and it is still not banned in some states. This article is reliable because it shows how much cyberbullying affects everybody in the world. The next topic I picked was Terrorism. http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-2544&artno=0000287524&type=ART I picked this as one of my topics because I think this is horrible how people want to kill us for no reason. It’s cruel and heartbreaking to many people all over the world.  From this article, I learned that sometimes we cause the terrorist attackers to come here. Sometimes, when we stand up for the other countries, the terrorist countries get mad and come over to the U.S. to kill people. This article is reliable because it shows how dangerous the other countries in the world are. The last topic I picked was Racism. http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMD0067H-0-2544&artno=0000304962&type=ART  Racism was a big issue before Martin Luther King, but then he stopped it. In my opinion, I think that racism is growing back up again. People across the nation still refuse to breathe the same air as people that are only a different color than someone else. I also think it’s rude and wrong to make African Americans do more work than others. What I learned from this article was that since we have an African American president, this is being taken to action more seriously than ever. This article is reliable because it tells you what happened in the past with slavery and other racial issues. All of these topics are important in America today because they include things that include life loss and a lot of bullying that needs to be taken into action quickly. These topics are important to me because they could affect my friends, family, and myself anytime. People might disagree to these topics because there could be bigger reasons behind these topics or they could have another side to the story. Looking up these topics taught me a lot about what goes on in the world every day and how the people react to this.

Picture links: http://www.jwrc.org/Portals/0/cyberbullying%20graph.gif  http://www.aaat.com/graphics/articles/terrorist-activity.jpg 

Welcome to My English Blog!

Hi it’s Jesseca! Welcome to my English blog! I can’t wait to share my work with everybody throughout the school year! To start off my first blog, I’ll tell you a little bit about me! English is one of my weak subjects, but I try to concentrate and do my work right. Over the summer, I read Perks of being a wallflower and The Steve Jobs book. I was very happy with those choices and I would read those books again. These books I definitely recommend because they’re not boring and it makes you want the book to never end. Last year, I didn’t read as much, but this year I will try to read plenty of books.  I’m so excited for the next four years of high school and one of my wishes this year is to get good grades in this class. I hope you enjoy my blog because I’m ready to start writing