1994-1995 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest

Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling With Limited Resources
Teacher: Patricia Dobbs

David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

1st Sravanthi Devabhaktuni   2nd Joyce Compton     3rd Alison Faden

“Children have a value system of their own. They are becoming rebels against a society that does not give them a chance. One peculiar value is demonstrated by a teen-ager who prowls Manhattan's Upper East Side in search of eyes to gouge. To date, he has made known attempts on a bus driver, a journalist, Egyptian tourist, the son of former Manhattan Democratic Party Leader Edward Costikyan and others. We are facing a society where standards have been lowered and blurred. The traditional and constraining institutions of family, church and school have lost much of their authority."
Jodie Lewis, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “Studies have also shown that teen-agers get smarter as they get older. The proportion of females that report using oral contraceptives increased from 25 percent at age 15 to 51 percent at age 19. Another thing to credit teenagers is that even though they are having sex, they are not doing it all that often. While 44.9 percent of women ages 15-19 are sexually experienced, only 28 percent have had sex in the past month, and only 15 percent have been consistently active during the past 12 months. A 1987 survey of young women obtaining abortions indicates 40 percent were using a birth control method during the month conception occurred. This detects a fault not in the product, but in the knowledge of the user of the product. This is where education must play a large role so that those that want to protect themselves, can."
Kimberly Redd, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

“When a kid goes to jail or a juvenile center for the first time with a knowledge of only the one crime he has committed, he comes back into the world later with knowledge of how to do other crimes as well because he has talked with more experienced offenders"
Brian Claybrook, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"The disturbing truth is that we have been doing all that we can to put criminals behind bars. In the past three decades, America has become the world's No. 1 jailer, and right now, there are not enough cells to go around. In the 80's, we went through a stage of harsh drug penalties and pushed the U.S. incarceration rate to 455 per 100,000 citizens, causing a $21 billion dollar tab. As the nation's inmate population grows and expands, we find ourselves having to let some criminals out before they have served all of their time."
Kara Krauskopf, Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “Charles King, director of a Phoenix school, which provides therapy and schooling for thirty problem kids, thinks that inconsistency of family treatment is more damaging to children than unrelieved harshness. He explains if a parent strikes their kid, then lavishes gifts on him, the child has no way of telling right from wrong."
Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “To have comrades is a reason for [belonging to] gangs. Just to keep from being alone, [kids] choose [other] kids in the same predicament."
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “Many gang members express a desire to distance themselves from inept or uncaring home environments which lack even the most rudimentary family structure."
Jodie Lewis, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “Kids that have a low self-confidence level, and lack love and attention at home, are the gang members that we see today."
Melanie Malone, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 “In a child's life there are two major pillars: family and school. This is where the kid finds his heroes and company. When one of these are missing something substitutes: Gangs. What the kids don't get from their major pillars they get on the street. The streets don't teach you how to survive in society and certainly not how to do well with the workforce."
Ashley Wilson, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas    

"People seem to have the idea that without their contribution the governmental and educational systems will run fine. But this is far from the truth. The People is what our government is based around, and without their opinion or voice, the people have to accept what their government proposes. This is why, in our democracy, we must voice our opinions to our representatives and congressmen, so that we can have a better society for [ourselves] and our [children]."
James Goebler, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "The question arose in our group discussion where exactly the money would come from if we did have officers on every campus. Our arguing resulted in two ideas: cut 'blow-off' classes (i.e. health care, home economics, auto mechanics, etc.) and rally to find more supporters of the school."
Joyce Compton, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "If we get rid of officers [patrolling the schools] taxpayers won't have to pay for them anymore. Also, with the money that is saved, the schools could direct the money towards other things like enhancing after-school programs. The money could also be used for repairing or remodeling the school itself."
Rachel Antonio, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"We can even do like they did in the old days where they had school kids as hall monitors and let them help keep their own school under control and keep the kids from getting too wild. The students with off periods are usually ones that are excelling in most of their classes and they seem responsible enough to control their school's maintenance and keep them in line."
Lisa Bonin, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "In the case of cutting teachers, privileges will be lost to the students. The loss would be the student not being able to take the course that might bring an advantage to him or her later in life. Another issue É would be the unemployment of the former teacher. Cutting the teacher might help in solving one problem, but it would add to another."
James Goebler, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

  "I'm sure we could easily get parent volunteers to come in once a month and watch over a couple of classes."
Rachel Antonio, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"The more we found out, the more we began thinking differently. We all worked together and helped each other see the [various] aspects of the problem and we all [had] our own personal views."
Melanie Burr, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "Resistance came from within our group. We took votes on who wanted officers and at first everyone agreed. Then we flipped over to not having officers and again we all agreed. Then we voted on which to choose and the group became split on the decision."
Joyce Compton, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "After two days of debating, which was frustrating and maddening, it made us realize this is a huge problem and solving it will not be easy."
Sravanthi Devabhaktuni, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"Our elected persons will do what they want regardless of what we ultimately think. We are the public, but we can't all be heard. Most people wouldn't know the first thing to do to get in touch with our officials in charge of making these decisions."
Lisa Bonin, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "There were many obstacles in our poll that we tried to overcome. It was very hard to contact the politicians because they never had the time to talk. When calling them we talked to their secretaries and got a second-hand answer of the politician's views. They asked us for our addresses and told us that they would send us answers later. 'Later,' was not the word we wanted to hear. We wanted to have answers to simple questions, but found out that politicians often talk in circles and could not give straight answers."
Lesleigh Welch, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

 "Other resistance came from school board members and other elected officials who gave us the run-around and wouldn't give us straight answers. The officials wouldn't answer our exact question and would change the topic. It was also pretty hard to reach the school board members. When tallying the poll results, we realized that the public community is uninformed and did not know all the information about Zero Tolerance. When the resistance is high like it was and the straight answers are few like they were then it makes it hard to complete research."
Joyce Compton, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

"In conclusion, the wishes of the public do not correspond with a logical solution to the public school funding problem, nor do they adequately address the problem of violence in schools. There is no way to cut the budget in the proportions the district requires and to stop the violence in schools. Austin Independent School District is either going to have to pick funding or safety, or find a way to increase the funding available so spending cuts are not a necessity."
Alison Faden, David Crockett High School, Austin, Texas

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