Teenage Drug Abuse

Teenage Drug Abuse
A Growing Epidemic
Teens more likely to become drug-addicted than adults.

Most drug-addicted teens will not see a problem with their behavior. Drugs make them feel "wondrous" and are a way to relieve the stress of school, problems at home, disagreements with friends, and other pressures of growing up. Teens can become addicted to substances more quickly than adults according to a study from Yale University. Many people do not realize that teens can obtain drugs very easily, whether it is alcohol from their parent's cabinet or drugs from a drug dealer down the street. In 2000, it was estimated that 54% of American youth tried an illicit drug before they finished high school. More than 50% of 9th graders and two-thirds of 12th graders used alcohol and other drugs in 1998, with alcohol being the drug of choice, followed by marijuana, amphetamines, and illegally obtained prescription drugs. 10th graders report having consumed alcohol and greater than 40% report having used marijuana in 2001 according to a study from Hibell. Drug abuse is a growing dilemma in our nation. Not only does drug abuse affect the United States, it affects teens in many countries as well.
As many as 65 to 75 percent of substance abusers are between the ages of 12 and 29. Furthermore, 33 percent of teenagers experience problems stemming from substance abuse. Consequences for teens who abuse alcohol and other drugs have the increase likelihood of becoming involved with crime, delinquency, and truancy. Also, the abusers have a greater probability of engaging in unprotected sexual activity, experiencing problems at school, and evidencing psychological distress and depression. Other situations can happen such as driving while on drugs, using dirty needles, arrests for disorderly conduct, or stealing to support a drug habit.
People who abuse drugs not only affect their life, but the people close to them. Their family or friends get so worried, that they would do anything just to get the person out of being addicted. They just don’t realize it because they focus only on themselves and not others.
J.P. a freshman at South East High School started smoking marijuana five months ago. Nobody got him into it, he just wanted to try it out for himself. In his first experience J.P. said, "I didn’t feel weird, the weed never hit me, but I got the munchies after." He usually smokes every weekend with his friends in an alley next to his house. He said, "I get the weed from a friend’s friend." J.P. has not been caught by anyone because he says he is "Low Key" about it. J.P. plans to stop later in the future because he said “I can stop whenever I want”, but he does not feel like it right now. So as you can see, teens always say they can stop when they want to. They can say the next day, and the next day turns to the next week, and etc. They cannot see the problem they truly have.
The primary motivation of the teenage brain is to seek pleasure, a thrill, and a rush. Many illicit drugs raise the level of dopamine in the brain producing euphoria which is a feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being sometimes exaggerated. At the same time, serotonin, the brain’s naturally occurring mood stabilizer, is at its lowest level during the teenage years. Low levels of serotonin causes young people to act impulsively and engage in risky behaviors.
Many teens want to be accepted in high school. They try to get accepted by doing illegal drugs. Peer pressure can also happen when teens choose not to do drugs. It's a problem that can be found in many schools across the nation. If this problem is not solved, then it will escalate into a growing epidemic.

Teachers vote on  

Furlough Days

A proposal is made about a five-day shorter school year

in LAUSD schools, which will be decided by votes.

                 

                  A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to shorten the school year by five days is creating panic among educators. Teachers rejected LAUSD pay cuts for furlough days, which is an absence of students in the school. Many students don't know this, but this can be harming their education. Though teachers have a saying in this. Mr. Ramirez, a teacher at South East High School said, "My vote would be yes to save money and to save teachers from losing their jobs." But he also said, "I am not happy about this because we lose ten days of education which is a disadvantage, though I like the fact that this will save jobs " So as you can see, this decision is very difficult to come up with.

Teachers voting will take place starting on April 7-9 before school and during lunch in Mr. Islas classroom. If this proposal passes, California would save $1.1 billion for when California faces a budget crisis. Teachers will also lose an estimated 2.5% of their salary. The proposal would save more than 2,000 school employee jobs. South East High School’s schedule is a 4x4 block schedule, students will end up losing a lot of education rather than just losing five days of school.

            District officials said other cuts would remain in place because of the deficit. The elimination of summer school, reductions in bus services, cuts to arts programs and positions in the districts central offices would happen because of these budget problems.

            Teachers have voted and the furlough days have passed. This situation is not only happening to SEHS, it is happening to all LAUSD schools. Roughly 600,000 students will be affected.

            Students should not be happy about this, because it’s going to affect their education, and they are not getting all of it, that they should receive. The student’s education has been already been affected by the budget cuts, and it does not seem to stop. 

Jaguar Baseball Embarrasses the Sea Kings

On March 5, Cesar Carrillo gives up one

hit against Palos Verdes High School.

 

Cesar Carrillo, a senior and pitcher at South East High School, threw a one-hitter on March 5. The Jaguars played the opening game away, against Palos Verdes High School. Carrillo started the game with a first pitch ball.

            Before the game, Carrillo thought they were not going to be able to beat Palos Verdes. He said, “I heard they were good, and they won league last season”.

Before games, Carrillo likes to focus, listen to his iPod, and doesn’t like to throw until after he warms up.

            During the game, Carrillo threw only two pitches; a change-up and a fastball. He said, “That was all I needed. My technique was to go inside out, then throw some speed.” The team and fans cheered Carrillo on during the game.  In the last out of the last inning he said, “My hand got numb, I couldn’t open it.” But, he was able to get that last out with a fly out to center field, and get the Jaguars their first win.

            At the end of the game, Carrillo threw 106 pitches, and only gave up one hit. The Jaguars pounced on the Sea Kings as the final score was 2-0. He said, “I couldn’t believe it. We actually beat them. I didn’t think they were going to be difficult, until we started playing”.

            The starting shortstop, Armando Rodriguez, a junior, said, “I believed Cesar would have been able to pitch the whole game. He started out in the beginning very good and he kept going.” Rodriguez also said, “I couldn’t believe he threw a one-hitter, it surprised me and everyone. I was really excited and proud of Cesar”. Rodriguez believes Carrillo can do it again because he has discipline and “what it takes” to finish the game. He also believes Carrillo can possibly throw a ‘no-hitter’ this season. 

Seniors, “They Should Know Better!”

“Seniors haven’t cleared their detentions yet and the

End of the school year is right around the corner.”

One problem that some seniors have is detentions. Jonathan Felix is a senior at South East High School that has that problem. Felix has detentions because he said, “School starts so early”. Although, he was being very sarcastic about his answer, most students get detentions because they are late to school.

That wasn’t the only reason he had detentions. He also got a few by misbehaving in class. People might say, “He’s a senior he should know better!” He actually got those detentions in his junior year. Felix said, “I had around 15 detentions before, but now I have about 11 detentions”. Felix got those few detentions cleared by going to the referral room after school and by going to tutoring.

Felix is not able to clear the rest of his detentions at this moment because baseball season is here, and he has to go to practice after school. He plays first basemen for our school’s baseball team. But he said, “I’ll be able to clear them when season is over”.

Felix said, “I’m not stressing right now about the detentions I have, but I know later on through out the year it is going to be stressing me out”. For some seniors detentions might not seem like a big deal right now because they use the excuse of saying there is a lot of time. But everyday time passes by and that time gets shorter and shorter. Then in a couple of months, seniors go crazy trying to clear all their detentions in a short amount of time.