Declaration of Independence

I.                   Declaration of Student Rights

We, as students of Grosse Pointe South High School, deserve basic rights as young adults. Being in a public school, a student deserves freedom while maintaining discipline. The student should have the right to dress, express, and act the way they want to, as long as it is appropriate for a school environment. The student should be able to make decisions for their own self that benefit them and the school.

Academically, with the vast majority of classes offered, the student should be able to take whichever classes they want, as long as it goes along with their ability level. The student has to complete certain academic requirements, but the electives are their choice, it all depends on their interests and expression. If the student chooses to take seven academic classes, it is their right. If the student chooses to take the bare minimum of academic classes and the rest classes of their choice, it is their right.

With extracurriculars, the student has the right to participate in whichever pertains to them. From orchestra to choir to sports to clubs, there is about everything offered to interest a student. No administration should have the right to stop these activities; the students have the right to keep them ongoing for as long as they choose.

Being in high school, open campus should be an automatic right for the student. For lunch especially, it allows the students to choose wherever they want to go that interests them. When it comes to attendance, the student should be allowed to take full advantage of the open campus while respecting the attendance policy. As long as approved by the parent, the student should always have the right to leave if sick, injured, or for other reasons. Going along with attendance, the student should always have the right to have the weekends off, holiday breaks off, and occasional regular school days off. Constantly having homework and work to do is not always to the student’s interest, so these breaks are necessary.

When it comes to teachers and counselors, the student should always have the right to communicate with them, whether it be for help or other reasons. Teachers should always be willing to accept the student for their personality and behavior, and to create a good relationship with each one of them. Students have the right to talk to them and counselors, to figure out what is best for them, for help, whatever it best for them.

A student of Grosse Pointe South should have many rights, being a public school. The student should have the right to express themselves academically, through sports and activities, and whatever other ways they choose. School should be a place to benefit the student, give them rights is the best way of showing it.

II.                10 Complaints

I.        Start time- The start time is just too early. It is easier to get up when it is lighter out. The extra half hour that we could add to the start time would increase the attendance in school. It would increase the attendance because the students would most likely get up on time and not skip their first hour. This would boost the grades of the students in the school.

II.      No free period like other schools- Other schools, like Ligget, have a free period when you can do what ever you want. We should also have designated rooms where students can take naps, like in China at some work places. This free period would recharge students’ brains, and work harder. This period could not only be for taking naps, but you can catch up on work, or go get food. Students will not sleep as much in class because they know they have a nap coming up.

III.    Homework on weekends- Homework on weekends is rarely done. Rather than wasting the assignment, we should be given the homework during the week. The undone or half-way done assignments bring down students grades. There is no point to assigning work that will not get done, because without doing the homework, students will not understand the topic. Without understanding the topic, students will not do will on the test that teachers will subsequently give.

IV.    No snow days- Snow days are rarely had here in Grosse Pointe. Even if the entire state and surrounding states are not in school, we still have school. It should not matter that we do not have buses; some of us still need to get rides to school. If there is enough snow to close down most schools in the surrounding areas that would mean that it is too cold to walk. Also, it is very hard to drive in those conditions, so students could be late to school because of difficult driving conditions.

V.      Electronic use in classrooms- The electronic policy is pretty strict. Students should be allowed to use their iPods or other devices after they finish a test, or while homework is being done in class. If they are not disrupting the other students, it should not be a big deal. IPods help some people be more focused and get more done faster. If students got their homework done faster in school, then they would have less at home, and it would be more likely to get done, and not be a zero.

VI.    Lunch too short- The time we get for lunch just does not cut if. If a student wants to go across the street to Subway, then they barely have time to eat. By increasing the lunch period by just ten minutes, it would give the students a chance to go somewhere to get food and to enjoy it. It would also give students minds a break, and have a chance to recharge. Being rushed during lunch is not fun, so adding the extra ten minutes would make it more of a relaxing period.

VII.  Attendance policy- Students are not allowed enough absences. Ten absences are not very many for an entire semester. There are sometimes issues with illness, doctors’ appointments, and even custody. It makes it very hard for students to feel like they can stay home and recover from an illness, when they feel they might miss too many days of school. Even just making the days absent to twelve would greatly improve the attendance policy.

VIII.                        Food/Drink policy- Teachers do not want their students leaving class for any reason, so if drinks were allowed in class, it would take away one reason for students to leave. Also, sometimes students do not get a chance to eat breakfast in the morning. So, being allowed to eat in a classroom would be very helpful. As long as the foods or drinks are not mess or distracting there should not be a problem. Eating and drinking can also help some students concentrate, which would lead to higher grades and test scores.

IX.    Tests and Quizzes on Mondays- Having a quiz or test on a Monday makes life more difficult. Some students will forget over the weekend, and some just will not study, because it is the weekend and they do not feel like it. It is very difficult to have a quiz or test on a Monday because the student did not have the review day the day before, they had it three days before. The extra night to prepare if the test was on a Tuesday, would give the students who did study over the weekend a chance at a better grade. Tests and quizzes on Mondays are harder to concentrate on, because it was just the weekend, where students stayed up late, and are now tired.

X.      Unnecessary required credits (computers, art, health, etc.)- Some required credits are just unnecessary. Some students are not very good at computers, or art, and just do not want to know about health. Not doing well in these classes that they have no interest in taking will just bring down their overall grade point average. These classes are sometimes mundane to students, and serve no real purpose. Some students want to take an arts class, or computer class, and they should be able to, but it should not be required that every student do so.

                         

III.             Concluding Statement

The students are the majority of the population at Grosse Pointe South. Therefore it is only fair that the student body make most of the decisions, or at least get a say in the matter. Instead we are forced to go to a school where we don’t agree with half of the rules and policies. We, the student body, are taking a stand. The student body is revolting against the school, the board and Mr. Provenzano. We are told as teenagers that we need at least 8 hours of sleep that is hard to do when school starts at 8:00 A.M. we should be able to come to school at a reasonable hour. We deserve a free period every day, just a single hour a day where we can do homework or anything within reason. The weekend is a time for students to be relieved of stress and take a break, we are swamped with sports, drama, and homework all week, the student body deserves to have no homework over the weekend. The fact that we have one snow day a year is preposterous! It can be below zero degrees and we still must come to school, when schools like L’Anse Cruse have two in a row, we must get more then one snow day. There should be and acceptance of electronics in class rooms, high school students are old enough to be able to use a cell phone in class. Students go to school for approximately eight hours a day, it should not be too much to ask to have a longer lunch. When you are legitimately sick you should not be penalized, you should still be getting credit for taking the class as long as you get the work done. We get to eat once a day, that is it! We are not allowed to eat or drink anything in class, and that is just not fair because teachers can eat what they want when they want it and the students just have suck it up and be hungry. When there are tests and quizzes on Mondays it makes it difficult to get a good grade because you cannot ask questions and no teenage wants to have to worry about studying all weekend. When we are forced to go to school we should be able to pick what classes we take, not be forced to take unimportant classes such as computers. It is the student’s school; therefore the students should make the decisions. We will not cease until our new requirements are met. It is time for the students to take a stand. We will no longer be walked over and bossed around. Our demands must be met or there will be consequences.

The Crucible Epilouge

    By: Dahlia Holbrook

   

      A short while after the Salem witch trials Abigail Williams hitch hiked to New York. She was much of a gold digger, and still trying to get over the love of her life, John Proctor. She was living in beautiful Mansion with anything and everything she could ever want. She did not do anything except lay around her house all day admiring all her beautiful belongings. It is said she felt actually guilty, but who knows if that’s actually true. Everyone in Salem had a large grudge against Abigail. The people of Salem said that if she ever showed her face in Salem again they would hang her.

           Abigail was so much of a coward that she couldn’t even face the last few people she murdered. She used a rouse to get a ride on people’s buggies. When they didn’t let her let on she did one of two things. One she would sneak on somehow, or murder who ever forbid her to ride with them. So her craziness never left her, it very much followed her. When she finally arrived she had murdered 6 people that didn’t allow her to ride with them. The sixth person was quite an experience. At first she hid in the back of the buggy so she was not seen, but all he had to do was look behind him and see her, which he did. When found out she was caught she jumped off and grabbed the buggy, to grab a huge rock, which she bashed the passengers head in. Then the buggy was all her own.

              Once she got to New York, she had absolutely nothing to her name, except for the clothes on her back. So therefore she had to do something to survive. And being the beautiful girl she was, used her beauty to her advantage and became a prostitute. She did that for quite a while. Sometimes she even got an urge to kill, because by this time she could be classified as serial killer. So after sleeping with a man, sometimes she killed them. It’s ok though because they deserved it, sometimes they didn’t pay her enough, sp then its okay to murder a person, right? Wrong, there should really and truly be an alright time to take another person’s life. She met a man, and he fell in love her, and then they were married.

                      His name was Henry, Henry Beckett. She didn’t really love him, just his money. He was very, very wealthy. Henry was a great deal older then Abigail, but he was still considered handsome. His hair was gray he always wore the nicest clothes money could buy; he was a rather important person in New York. Abigail got everything and anything she ever wanted. She lived a charmed life, she had beautiful clothes, had some of the finest food. Abigail spent the majority of her days lounging around Henrys gorgeous mansion. It really truly was beautiful. The outside had a garden with dozens of flowers, all different types. There was a huge gate in front of the house. Inside there was eight chandelier’s through out the house. It had 10 bedrooms, 2 dinning rooms, and 5 bathrooms.  The bigger dinning room was full size and could fit 15 people, the other one was a little smaller, it could only fit 10 people. Each bedroom had silk curtains and a king size bed. The bathrooms had marble floors in each one. He had maid service and a cooking staff to wait on the couples hand and foot.

                         Abigail turned out alright, she had some rough times, but everything tuned out okay. But the fact is that urge was creeping up and she tried to fight the urge to kill, so you have to give her some credit for trying to fight it. That only lasted so long; she ended up giving into her urge. In the end she murdered her husband. She was caught by the authorities and hanged; finally that was the end of Abigail Williams.

The Crucible Essay

       The Crucible by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem Massachusetts. The Salem witch trials was a horrific time. The Three most responsible charecters for the trials are Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Judge Danforth. Not all of these charecters caused the witch trials but they kept pushing them forward. They did not stop it, even though they had the power to do so. Abigail is probably most responsible, because she is the one that gave people up, in modern day society she could be classified as a serial killer. Reverend Hale, towards the end tried to put and end to the trials but failed. And Danforth seemed as though he just never wanted it to end, he had a million opportunites and did nothing. He would believe anything Abigail told him. Each and everyone of these people is responsible for the Salem witch trials.
        Abigail Williams is the number one person responsible for the Salem witch trials. If she would not have faked witch craft all those people would still be alive. Without her all of her "followers" would have been to scared to say anything. Everything always comes back to a power struggle. "I saw Goody Osbourne with the Devil!... As she is speaking Betty rises from the bed... (Miller 48)." This is the scene that Abigail get's the idea to lie, and name people supposedly a part of witch craft. Betty is sitting up to start naming people as well, because she got the idea from Abigail. And if Abigail does so must all the girls. Though Abigail is most responsible to the trials she did not do it by herself.
        
         Reverend Hale though he tried, towards the end, to stop the witch hunt contributed to it. Hale was the one to decide if a person were a witch or not. For a very short amount of time he did his job, until it was practically given to Abigail and he did nothing to stop that from happening. And if he had would the situation gotten so out of hand? "You are God's instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil's agents (46)." At this point Hale is talking to Tituba and we can see how he practically gives his job away. Hale is held responsible for the trials because he allowed the hunt to go on, when he had the power to stop it. Again, not all the blame goes to Reverend Hale, a lot of it is distributed to Judge Danforth.

         Judge Danforth is in second place for most responsible. He would believe anything that came out of Abigails mouth, without question. No matter how ridiculous or impossible he believed it. It was almost like he wanted to kill innocent people. "This child would murder your wife (104)?" Danforth has a hard time believe anything agaisnt Abigail, he needs much more evidence then he normally would for anyone. It seems as though he enjoys humiliating people, and getting them killed. Which is why Judge Danforth is responsible for the trials.
 
          Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Hale, are all responsible for the Salem witch trails in their own way. Abigail is responsible becuase she accused so many people and got so many people killed. Reverend Hale is responsible for not trying to stop it so early in time. Judge Danforth is responsible because he was so ignorant and naieve. All 3 were the most responsible.
         

Would You be Willing to Lie?

     I hate to say it, but if it were a matter of life and death I would probably lie and say that I believe something I didn't. Because people in this society were so judgemental that if you were in any way different in your beliefs you were basically burned at the steak. It was a tough time. You can still have you beliefs and believe what you want but I personally would keep it to myself. I wish I could say that I would stay true to be beliefs, but when it actually comes down to it, and if I were in danger because of my beliefs I would lie. It is a scary concept, the matter of life and death, and I dont know how I would or could cope with the decision. Why I would lie is because even though it would unfortunate to hide my beliefs but I just do not think I could die for them. But it also depends on the beliefs, if people are getting killed that is different story. I could not let innocent people die.