A Stain on SOF Pride

Within the past week, there have been ny times articles highlighting the arrests of two of my fellow classmates.

Let me start by saying that this is a source of shame for the rest of us. Facebook has been lit with condemnations towards both individuals - none of us expected such behavior from them.

That said, here at links to both articles:
Teenager Is Arrested in May Starbucks Bombing
Manhattan Man, 19, Arrested in Anti-Gay Robbery Attacks

Looking at both cases, I'm not sure what I'm more shocked from. First of all, a bomb? At Starbucks of all places! What did the mocha guy behind the counter run out of mocha so you decided to blow up the place? And where the hell does one even get bombs? I understand guns and knives but a bomb (whatever the strength) is a whole other ballpark. I would go on, but the other things I want to say would get myself in trouble, and I don't need that.

And as for the anti-gay robbery, considering he went to such a liberal school that tolerates just about any and everything, I don't get this. He never stuck me as the anti-gay type (nor did the other guy strike me as a 'terrorist', so obviously I suck at this). As I read the article, I kept trying to recall any form of hostility towards them during my short and often air-fulling conversations with the boy.

As I said earlier, we are all disappointed in those two and collectively shake our heads saying "Those damned fools" under our breaths. If you're going to screw up, don't end up in the nytimes for god's sake.

A Little Mumbling About Race

Thanks to my currently being unemployed, I've had a lot of time to simply stay at home and read. For a number of months now, I've been intrigued by the thought of looking for a site where 'black intellectuals' - for what that term is worth. A friend of mine (black as well) recently said to me "but isn't that an oxymoron?" - may gather and converse. Granted, I didn't find a site that had fit all the parameters I was looking for, but what I did find may be of more weight.

I stumbled upon blogs and news sites galore. All of this has made me realize that race is likely the topic that most excites me and my sociological studies.

In the age of post-Obama politics, race is *still* an issue. Anyone who says otherwise is a poor, misguided fool. Hell, it seems like now even more than ever, people involved with politics are repeatedly showing their true racist colors. As far as I'm concerned, Race will (at least for the considerable future) always be an element that one must be mindful of. As I get ready to move to Central Pennsylvania, I leave with that premise in mind.

That said, I intend to keep up with these sites - they offer a little more of a window into other issues.

Why College? A Discussion

Recently, as my friends and I had our usual water-cooler talk, the topic of what we all planned to do after college came up. Many of us have plans to pursue a Master's degree and some even want to obtain a Ph.D! I'm no less than proud to hear that we all have higher goals.

But it did leave me wondering something: Why is it that we have such aspirations? Other than the obvious expectation upon us to go, what is it that we hope to gain out of college?

What is it that I hope to gain out of college?

The problem with trying to answer this question is that it is way too multi-dimensional. I can of course say 'I hope to become a better person', but in no way does that actually constitute as an answer.

If college is indeed such a life changing experience as everyone describes it to be, then what I get out of it will vastly over-shadow any of the preconceptions and expectations I have now. In addition to that, there would be no way for me to even begin to cover the so said changes - they would only be truly apparent in how I carry myself and my memories. For if I try to single them out one by one, most would be simple and pale on their own.

Yet, maybe hoping is the best place to start. If I use the 'becoming a better person' statement, what are the standards that I want to use? I want to become wiser, witter, a more fluid writer, improve on my language skills/computer skills/ and my knowledge in sociology. I want to increase the variety of things I've experienced by traveling - just being in the middle of PA should provide me with a slew of things I've never encountered here in New York. I want to be well suited for the (now abysmal) job market and make a good living.

I want to change my world. And maybe even the world while I'm at it.

I suppose, I'll just have to wait to see the results. Three month's time isn't a lot when you think about it.

Thoughts on Disciplinary Actions of Schools

Some of you may have heard about the now college student girl who was strip searched by school officials when she was in middle school(click here for news article). Her case is getting ready to be heard by the Supreme Court and I'm very interested in it's outcome.

My interest stems from what the verdict may possibly mean for discipline in schools. What are the lines that schools can't cross and how would they allow unruly behavior to either go rampant or remain in check?

It seems to me that everyone calls for a tougher school system, until its their child caught doing crap and has to be dealt with. Unfortunately, I see this continuing for quite a while because lets face it - people are simply raising assholes.

Yes, thats right - people are raising asshole children. Now before everyone gets up in arms, lets look at some examples:

The student who got the girl in trouble in the afore-mentioned case by lying about where she got her pills from - an asshole.

The students I've mentioned in some of my previous posts (here and here are doozies) - all assholes. Grade A assholes because I have to live with them.

So there, prime evidence. Be aware though that this isn't to say that every child adheres to such standards of asshole-dom, it is merely to say that as a culture, we are raising some wicked evil things.

Now, if the parents are indeed doing this, what could possibly have a chance at correcting such behaviors from roaming the streets, night and day infecting the younger masses and effectively making them our future liabilities. Schools are the answer - they are the second line of defence when the parents right out fail at these things.

However, I've noticed that most educator's hands are tied. One can't do this and one can't do that - all of it makes for a very bad environment to learn. And the reason this happens is because the limits on disciplie makes it non-existent - like I said before, parents and others alike call for a stronger staff and rules to prevent extreme incidents - school shootings perhaps? - yet they are the first to call fowl when the crap hits their door step.

I see this case as the big one that will set the stage for the next wave of disciplinary reforms to come. This will either make it so that schools will do their job or make it so that things become worst. I personally advocate for a system that downright forces parents to see their child for what the really are and take action accordingly along side of the school - that way, no one can dear point fingers at another party due to the fact that all hands were involved*.

Of course, all of this really makes me question what am I going to do in regard to my own children's education. It seriously makes homeschooling look like a positive alternative.



*And even this will cause its own problems. "YOU can't tell me how to raise my child!" type rhetoric and crap. ::sighs::

Thoughts on Potential Majors

Lately, I've been going through the Susquehanna course books to familiarize myself with whats offered. With a highlighter in hand, I burned through the book looking at fields of study that interest me. This post will be a nice little pros and cons list of each possible area.

Sociology
Pros: Fell in love with it ever since I took an Intro to Sociology class at Hunter. The one thing I'm sure I'm going to study in college.

Cons: I always asked the question "What does one do with Sociology after college?". Now I have a better understand of what the answer is, but its still not clear. Also, I'll most likely *have* to do a Master's in this field before I can get to the good jobs.

Psychology
Pros: Cognitive Science has always been a thing of beauty to me.

Cons: It can be a bit 'clinical' at times. I don't care for that.

Political Science
Pros: I enjoy politics...
Cons: ...not enough to actually major in it though. Though, those political circles would be great to get into.

Computer Science
Pros: Computers are my life. Its what I have the most experience in and one of the things I enjoy most.

Cons: CALCULUS - I have a thing against math. Plus I have to keep in mind my GPA (Honors program mandates that it can't drop below 3.4). Also, I'm sorry - some of those courses sound nice but must be boring as all hell. Do I have that type of tolerance?

French
Pros: A language would make me an interesting threat on the market. Also, theres no Japanese at the school so French won that fight.

Cons: I was already warned that if I don't test into a certain level of French, it might be an ill-fated idea.

Susquehanna allows for the combination of two majors into one - a nice curtail to double majoring *shudders* - so at my current idea is to combine Sociology and Computer Science while minoring in French. Perhaps I'll mix match things and minor in Comp. Sci., then move French up to the combining major. After all, I do think French and Sociology would mix better and wouldn't sound as odd as Sociology and Comp. Sci. would together.

In the end, the overall element to determine it will come from my experience with the classes and the 3.4 requirement. Whatever I pick for my major/minor, I have to make sure I kick ass at it should I want to remain in the program.

Thoughts on the third draft of College essay

This post is a reflection about the essay posted here. Its really so that I have a record of my thoughts behind it, and where I was planning to go with it.

So I've bloated my paper. Seriously, 800+ words is just a ridiculous amount to expect anyone to read.

But why did I do this? Why did I stuff so much into it?

I'd like to say that at the time, I decided to place all of that into it to see what would fit and what just didn't have a place. I believe after reading it over, I know what to take away, but I'm very interested in hearing what you all have to say about it, to see if I was correct in my judgement.

As for where I want to go for the fourth draft, I want to aim for 600 or so words - nothing more than 700 though. I've found that in the applications, there are more than enough places for me to explain and show what else I've done. I believe that I will instead choose to focus on but a few accomplishments - that gives me more room to get deeper into them.

Heres to a healthy and slimmer future draft.

October SATs

Just signed up for the SAT on October 4th. Though I'm happy with my first score, I figure it won't hurt to go back and see if I can improve on the math section. Also, I have to take the SAT IIs sometime in November, so hopefully this will put me in the testing spirit.

Time to get to studying...

Romanticising the Future... Reminiscing the Past

I revisited Columbia University last Friday. Some may remember my last visit there - I was completely engrossed by its beauty and the sheer magnitude that I couldn’t help but get overwhelmed. I knew I had to go back at some time before the college selection process was over and so even though it took ten months, the proper circumstances finally came into being.

Let me start by saying that the basis of the trip came up fairly randomly. I was talking about the school with Ted, a friend of mine from MOUSE and he very graciously offered to accompany me there. I, of course, simply couldn’t refuse and so we set a date.

Finally, a few weeks later, we headed to the university. Along the way we ended up running into a friend of mine from class and his little group which included his mom and some guests.

While I was there, actually exploring the area surrounding Columbia with my friend, we both stood in a very interesting position - we could see the past, as clear as day and at the same time, we were trying to construct a vision of the future. As we walked, we remember all the little events from our 7 years at our current school - trips, awkward moments, random conversations at lunch ~ just all the good times in general. And then, we realized (though I think it was already understood in a way) that we’re about to start the conclusion to our 7 years. The end of all of our journeys together. All in preparation for the next stage of life.

That seems to be a major theme behind all of my meetings with friends this whole summer. There is this aura of remembrance and nostalgia that we can’t seem to wash away. And the interesting thing is that I don’t believe we actually do wish to get rid of it - it very well may be one of the strongest bonds we have to one another so we’re just simply better off allowing it to persist.

In two week's time I will find myself back in the halls of my school, back among everyone. I'm not too sure if what I described in previous paragraph will last, but if not it was still nice while it lasted.

Here's to Senior Year!

Posse Foundation Nomination

Wednesday afternoon I found out that I along with nine of my fellow classmates was nominated to receive a Posse Scholarship award. Now just what the Posse scholarship is as follows:

The Posse Foundation has some kind of partnership with certain colleges across America that allows them to send certain children that they feel exhibit leadership qualities to attend the schools. From what I understand the tuition of those kids are all paid for, so all they have to worry about are other expenses. Each high school that participates in the program has its teachers nominate a number of students they feel have the best chance of winning the scholarship and from their they take part in this three round test that Posse uses to cut the number of applicants down. Only if you win do they decide which of your selected schools to send you to.

Now that sounds really great. Matter of fact, it sounds amazing. Yet, the number of catches that comes along with it makes this nomination one of, if not the largest double-edged swords I’ve ever been handed.

If you have been following this blog for some time or just know me really well, you will know that I’m planning out which colleges I’m going to shoot for. You will also know that my biggest picks include Columbia and New York University. I was fairly adamant about these colleges and I thought nothing was going to stop me from getting to my goal, lest the colleges themselves turn me away. This whole nomination throws a giant kink in my intentions. You see, should I get to round three and pass, I MUST go to the school they send me to. It's an early admissions process, thus I would have to withdraw my applications from any other school I put my name down for. Not to mention that all of these schools were schools that I’ve hardly heard anything about. And if that's not bad enough, my counselor would like to know by this Monday if the ten of us selected to go up for it are really committed to all of this. If we aren’t, then she would give our spot to someone else on the list (we are the ten with the most nominations from our teachers, so there are about five other people to pass it on to).

So I went home with one very basic yet scary thought. Do I let this chance go and take my chances with the schools that I’ve already looked into. Plus, pay all that money. Or do I take part, possibly win and be trapped in a school I don’t know much about? This is not the worst of it. All of the possible schools are NOWHERE NEAR NEW YORK CITY. So I’ll be trapped in a place MILES away from home, mad as god knows what.

After taking these past two days to think it over, I think I’m going to go for it. Even though none of the schools on the list were schools I was interested, but after looking at some, I have three I would not mind. Not only that, but if I do win, I can have more money to take more advantage of study abroad programs and the like. Not to mention, I hear that Posse provides a lot of support to their winners on campus (I have a general idea about what pertains to. Things like tutors and whatnot..)

As I was thinking about all of this, I went around asking a few of my teachers why they brought me into this. One of them told me that they knew I would be able to sell myself in the proper light when Posse interviews me and the majority of their answers was basically they felt I could do it. I asked my counselor which of the schools she thought I would fit best in and she told me that the thing with me was that she thinks I could be great in each of those schools. She continued on to say that it was up to me to pick my top three schools and talk to her move about later on. At this point, I have two out of the three selected and I plan to find her once the weekend is over.

Of course, I will continue to strive for my original goal. There is no guarantee that I’m going to win this at all. Its not logical to go on as if I’ve won anything yet. But now, I really should make arrangements to visit some of those schools to see if I like the feel or not.

Anyways, wish me luck everyone. I’m going to need it.

Hunter Courses for Fall 2008

I handed in my applications for the Hunter College classes next fall today. I the classes I signed up for, in order are an intro to French class, an urban sociology class, and a political science class. You see, last night my mom and aunt went to some meeting and as I was waiting for them, I received an email from the College Now office at Hunter, telling me that the applications were due the next day. I had completely forgotten about it and rushed home to get the papers together. It was as I filled them out that I realized that I needed a few other things from my school, such as my transcript, PSAT scores, etc. There was nothing I could do at that point, so I left it alone till this morning - I ran to school, got a copy of my transcript and was about to look for my PSAT scores when in my mind told me to call the people at College Now to make sure that I really needed to get all of that stuff. So I called and low and behold, it turned out that since I took a class there already, I only had to fill out the application - everything else was not necessary. In other words, all my worrying and rushing was pointless. Not to mention, I was skipping over my internship because of it.

So relieved and somewhat ticked at myself, I headed up to Hunter, handed in my things and just went home. I had wasted too much time already plus I had schoolwork to do, so I did not bother going to the library. I'm only allowed to miss one day per semester, but my justification for my so called deviance is that I'm more than likely the only child in my grade willing to give my internship extra time during my vacations (for example, I went in two days last week. Just to help out..). I do this for two reasons - first is that I truly enjoy my time there and second is that just in case something big comes up (like it did today) I can explain the situation to them and they'll know that my not coming in is in no way not because I didn't want to.

My Spring Break is pretty much shot (in the best way possible)

As the title says, my spring break is more or less gone. Not that I mind at all, its just that whenever I explain to people my age what I'm going to be doing, they gain this odd look on their faces. One that can only be explained as a strange mixture of dismay, objection, and false sympathy. Really, its annoying - its always been like this for as long as I can remember. Whenever I do something with my spare time that is outside of their limited sense of perception, I always get that look. And 9 (or let me be nicer. 8) times out of 10 the things that I do with my time are exponentially better than what they end up doing. The little projects and events that I invest my time into always wield sometime of greater good. Now while I may be called anti-social within my own little circle(s), its because I find that on average the little things that they decide to focus on does nothing for anyone. Not themselves, family or anyone else. Its largely just socializing (along with a few other things I shall not dare to even go into). So in the end, just who's fault is it that I don't want to be around them more so than I have to? Mine or theirs?

Anyways, getting back on topic since I'm now finished with my little rant, I'm spending my days up until Thursdays finalizing the wiki and project report. Then Friday, I'm running to the Business library here in Brooklyn at Cadman Plaza for a little something involving my current internship. Looking forward to that.

In addition to all that, I have to find time to work on my numerous papers and past assignments that I've missed here and there. Amazing how little nuggets of work can accumulate if left unattended...

Oh what a busy week it shall be...

My grade's poorly executed prank...

So I shared with you a prank that was actually funny. Now, the next one I shall explain is not. Well, it is in its stupidity. So last night, as I was on AIM, I got a chain message saying that people were planning to walk out of the classrooms at 9:10 or so. I read it and then deleted it - I had no real enthusiasm towards the whole thing. So today, during my first period class, a few people randomly got up, made bit of a scene due to the disorganization of their planned event, then finally left. The rest of us were just watching - one could almost read the question marks over our heads. Then chaos broke loose. Everyone began to understand what was happening and more or less went crazy. My poor science teacher said to me, "They never did this kind of crap at my old school," sat down and just watched the mayhem unfold. We started to hear yelling in the halls as the more unruly children in the school ran around. I even believe one of the school's teachers joined in on their activities as well.

So after the people who left our classroom came back, they looked at the rest of us with a scornful glance and proceeded to call us punks. Because of their failed coup, the little band of students began to plot out plan B. They got everyone's phones and set them to ring at a certain time. Finally second period came along. They all acted nice and cool and everything went well. That is until the phones all across the classroom started to go off. One by one they rang. The teacher for that period looked around in confusion then told us that no one was going anywhere, then moved to stand in front of the door, declaring that they would have to go through her within that one simple action.

After that, there were some more isolated incidents of disobedience (such as throwing paper towels and shredded paper in the hallways) but other from that, they all just gave up. Thats what they get for coming up with their scheme the night before....

College Visits ~ A Touch of Anxiety

On Wednesday I was talking to my college counselor. At this point in the process, she suggested that I make the time to go visit some more colleges in the upcoming months. I have a lot of vacation time that can be well utilized so I'm going to see what it is that I can do. I may even blog about some of the places I visit if everything works out.

Another thing we talked about was how to get people at my school informed about the College Now program. College Now is the reason why I've been able to have opportunities in taking college level courses, and I ended up joining their ambassador group in which I go around explaining to others about the program. So this time around, the people at college now are gearing up for their summer and fall classes, doing both promotions at the same time. Because of this, I now have to make plans to go to the 10th graders and notify them about the whole thing. I was to contact the 10th grade counselor last week, but I ended up repeatedly forgetting or getting side tracked into something else. So tomorrow, I shall make it my business to go find the person and figure out what they would like to do, before it looks like I'm either lazy or just don't care. Or both. Thing is, they aren't exactly my favorite grade in the whole school so part of me is not really looking forward to dealing with them...

And last but not least, as I may have said earlier, I get my SAT scores on the 20th of this month. For the most part, I've been fairly calm about all of this. But now, as the days tick closer and closer to the date, I can feel some sort of anxiety about the whole thing. I really want to see just how poorly (or well... hopefully) I did. In addition to that, I want to see what it is that I have to improve on for the next time I take it.

School's blog

Earlier today I assumed responsibility - or what I take to be responsibility - of my school student consul type body's blog. This should be interesting seeing as it does not seem like my friend who was running it before, now seems to not want to be bothered with it. But so long as I feel like I'm doing something to help out, along with some other things, I'm happy. I also ended up serving as today's facilitator during the meeting. Not too sure if I did a good job, but I was able to get some issues voted on. Partly due to the fact that we had a two thirds of the voting members present finally. Plus I tried to make sure I did not allow everyone to gather on one topic for too long. I find that once they begin to do so, it becomes fairly hard to end that large steam of thoughts and bring the conversation back to the actual point. I'm thinking that now, at this point, we should begin to put our plans in motion. We've spent enough time talking about what we are going to do. Its really now about time to act. Hopefully my use of the blog will help this occur.

Why I'm happy that I took an SAT class

At must say that at first, I thought that I could study for the SAT on my own and still come out of it with a good grade. Though, now that this course is coming to an end, I have to say that I was wrong. I just finished checking my scores and from the first week to now my score went from a 1410 to a 1650. While this is still a bit lower than where I want it, I think that I can take care of the studying from here on out.

The course itself is about 6 or so weeks long and the last class is the Tuesday after next, though my final exam is tomorrow. Before I signed up I heard a lot from different people on whether or not there was any value in taking a class in preparation for the test. Many of those who were against it were against the SAT in general and felt that it was not all that of an important factor I should overly worry about. But my logic was that getting as high on the SAT as I can would help me out out in the long run and as much time that has been taken out of my days, I believe it will all soon come back to reward me in the end (and if by any chance it does not, I'd rather know the results of my made attempt, rather than feel like I should have done something when I could have).

So to end this post I would like to pass on this word of advice to those trying to decide if a class would be good for them: Do what feels right. If a course of some kind will help make you feel more comfortable with the SATs then by all means go ahead and look into one(link goes to the one I took). But if you think its a waste, then don't bother. You would only get as much out of it as you put in.

Lack of OLPC updates

There has been no new updates on my part for the OLPC wiki. This new term keeps pilling me down with work and I can't bring my head out of it long enough to post something (and yet I still find time to blog...funny huh?). On Thursday I have internship so I'm hoping to use the night before for the wiki. I'm aiming for a couple of hours of nice uninterrupted work should do wonders for making sure I'm back on track with things. Also the upcoming week off from school I'm planning to do some work to make sure I'm on top of some other things as well. I've noticed that one of my problems (or quite possibly the main problem) is time managing. I don't do good work unless I feel a certain way and I can't seem to force myself back into that anymore. I've been feeling very lazy all of a sudden and this is not the time for it! I want to see if applying any of these time managing techniques I've found will help to make me more productive. If I do get around to it, I'll put some of my findings here later.

In other news, on Friday I got my report card... And it was not all that bad. Only two Bs while everything else were As. I must say that I'm fairly happy with them and they give me something to aim to beat in order to end my junior year well. Well I was quite pleased with what I got, there were a few of my friends and acquaintances who went ballistic. I really did not see the point their behavior but alas, I bit my tongue and just watched. And just earlier today I found out about some English honors club my school is thinking about getting into so thats something I definitely I'm aiming to check out tomorrow.

Second Semester Begins

As I stated before, Friday was the first day of the new term. Now I must admit, there are some things that are bothering about all of this. But there are other issues I feel that they did do a good job at. I ended up being put into all of the so called 'harder' classes for English, History, and Math. And it was not what I was expecting. It looks as if there are more crowded than there were last term. And that really defies logic. How can there be more kids in the classes I was placed into when most of them never signed up for such courses? And now, I'm going to have to deal with people who are merely going to get in the way and drag everything down like last term.

Also as if to add insult to injury, it seems that on our transcript we don't get the classes labeled as "Honors". Instead its going to be "Enriched", if anything is there at all. So long as something is written, conveying that these classes are 'more difficult' than the others I'm okay. Though I must say that 'Honors' sounds so much better that 'Enriched'.

Another thing was how the schedule was revamped. Last term the time blocks for all of the classes were at best spasmodic. There was no standard block of time for them. However, this time around, everyone gets a 55 minute cut of the day. The only two drawbacks for this is that lunch now starts 15 minutes later and we sometimes have to revisit a class we already had earlier in the day, but that is a small price to pay so that the classes are long enough to remain engaging. No more short periods that end right when things were getting interesting and overbearing periods so long that the teacher themself is repulsed from being trapped in the same room with us.

Oh boy, this term is going to be something else...

OLPC wiki update and end of the Semester bliss

I've finally got a chance to take some pictures of the OLPC Friday afternoon. I've been planning to do so for a while now, but my school work and other life occurences kept popping out. Most of the pictures are to go on the wiki but I took some extra ones to post here. I really thought I needed to add some pictures on this blog.




Friday also happened to be the last day of the semester. I got all of my work out of the way and I took my math final. Now that final was really a bit of a joke. I never had an easier test in my life. I when went back through it a second time to make sure I was not just being over confident - when I first finished I looked around the room only to see that my friends had the same puzzled look on their faces. Only now does my teacher's comment of how the test will be an A on a golden plater make sense.
I now have until next friday, when the next term begins, to stay home and rest. However, I plan to go out on tuesday and thrusday. Tuesday I want to meet up with an old friend of mine and Thurday I hopefully have to go for an interview and then head to school to sit in on a friend's presentation. In addition to all of this I want to make sure I stay on top of my MOUSE work and languages. I have the time for it all so I better use it properly.

An interesting school issue

At my school, there are some issues being shed to light. Things seems to be falling apart. If you would remember an earlier post about the 9th graders and how I hate them, please understand that I am not the only one who does. They recently made one of their teachers quit. She did not even reach the end of the term with them. She just up and left. And now, the staff is scrambling to find a replacement. And of course, the search is not going well.
In addition to this, the school is in a frenzy over the existence of a camera on the fourth floor. There are some students who feel that is wrong for them to be watching us but I disagree. I have no problem, whatsoever, with being watched. In fact I welcome it. I see that the school's quality is dropping and I am not the only one who sees this. The majority of people who I've spoken to feel the same way. The one thing that was a problem was that we were not warned about it. And I understand that however, when you take into account the reason why it was even put up on in the first place its obvious why we were not told before it was placed. It was in response to claims of sexual harassment from girls in the 9th or 10th grade. More evidence as to why I have problems with them. And as wrong as it may seem for me to say this, in the back of my head I can't help but think that some of the incidents were possibly provoked by the girls in the first place. Of course that is no excuse for the behavior, but when you make your bed you must lay in it as well.
This up coming Wednesday is when the school will come to a decision about the cameras. I'm pretty sure of what it will be. Things have gotten out of control and now its time to fix it. Nevertheless, may I suggest beginning to kick out kids that we know are problems. I would like to avoid any collapse in my school's social structure until after I graduate.

Why I have an intense dislike of the 9th and 10th graders in my school

I hate - no wait, lets use a weaker word shall we? - dislike them as a whole. They're quite frankly out of control. Never before in my life have I seen such a disorderly group of people. Loudness in the halls I'm ok with - its just something that happens, but when you in a group of your little friends decide to lie down or block up the only passage ways on the floor as if its your own bloody living room, I have a problem. Every morning I have to tiptoe my way past the little bastards inorder not to step on one of them and I'm sick of it. And so is everyone else. So now, I have a proposal to all of my fellow 11th and 12th graders. From now on, whenever those little snot-nosed brats get in your way, you push, kick, step on, yell, or whatever it is you have to do to get past. No more of our patience shall be wasted upon them. They need to understand this one fact - we are the ones who have the most power here.　
Anyways moving on from that cocky comment of mine, myself along with a few others have noticed that a lot of the younger grades have become monsters. Its disconcerting. Makes me wonder what future lies ahead if these are the bunches of fools we're raising.