Bowl of Complaint By: Brighton
(Junior Correspondent)
The day begins full of drama trying to drag your self out of bed. Finally, the day begins to appear reasonable, because you finally are awake and your friends excitement open your eyes for you. BUT, the day starts all over again when lunch begins. You have to deal with the plates full of non-‐spiced, plain goopy, throw up food. For example, the Japanese Mabu tofu look and tastes like puke. This school is an American school! They need to serve at least Japanese food that is influenced by American culture. Not Japanese foods. It is disgusting! When they serve food like that I can’t help, but choose the side table food. But I don’t like fish so I can’t eat the onigiri either. I am stuck with a plain bagel. First of all they should at least have cream cheese for the bagel and a toaster. Elisabeth agrees, “ It’s gross, they can do better than that!” “It depends, I like the American foods that they serve best,” a student from ASIJ says. “I agree I don’t have time to pack a lunch to!” exclaims Maya. The reason why don’t just pack a lunch is because I go to bed at 7:30 and have homework. Never mind that I have to take a shower, get ready for bed, and still have time to eat dinner before I take a shower. I don’t have time to make a lunch. I am at the whim of the ASIJ menu…help!!!!
Potty Mouth By: Brighton
I am sitting there enjoying the nice cool air running through my hair, relishing the beautiful day. Then, right then and there, I hear something that I really don’t enjoy, hearing the voice of someone swearing. I turn around and give them the “Eye of the tiger” and they look back at into my eyes and they give me the face like, “ Who cares!” I think, “Well, you know what I care, first of all you ruined my day and second of all, I don’t like to hear that stuff.” It all begins towards the end of 4th grade; people in the world think, “Oh, I am so old, so sophisticated, so I can swear.” Young also agrees with me she says, “It is just wrong, they think they are so cool but their not.” Kristi agrees, ”Little kids follow the older people and are going to go around swearing without knowing what it means, that wouldn’t be good.” Mr. Bender even said that too. There are people like me that think there is no point of to swear because all you can do is just say poop, or ah man, and butt. When people swear in front of little kids, perhaps they are thinking, “Why are you saying that stuff” and me personally I feel just like them, there is no point and it isn’t good language. Some people try to make up excuses. For instance, if they say the beaver word they would reply they are talking about the literal meaning…a beavers home. We know they are not being genuine. I can tell if someone mutters a swear word and someone responds, “Don’t do that.” The person that just swore thinks she/he is so cool and it doesn’t matter, they also think it is not like it is going to hurt someone. But, it does hurt some peoples comfort zone. That makes me and a lot of other people feel like they are going to continue to make you feel uncomfortable so you say nothing. So you never get a chance to tell them to stop. The principal of my school said to me, “ Disrespectful language is not accepted at ASIJ. We want ASIJ students to speak to each other and adults in a respectful way. Being respectful is one of ASIJ's most important big ideas or values.“ That is a policy at our school. Also he believes that the punishments for our school are, “When disrespectful or careless language such as swearing comes to my attention from a teacher or other students, I take it seriously. I meet with the students involved and have them tell me what happened and what they could do differently in the future. Apologies are made, students sometimes have to call their parents with me and explain what they did; in other cases, sometimes students are suspended from the bus for using inappropriate language.” Kids need to know about the punishment. Mr. Bender also stated that he is aware that kid use bad language when an adult are not there to see it. He also knows that the kids here know what is good a bad language but when it does happen he questions, “ What was their intention? To try to be funny? To act bold or older than they are? To get attention?” It is sad if they are trying to get attention that way. Mrs. Witt states that, “ It is absolutely not ok to swear on the buses!” A lot of kids do swear on the bus when they are not a loud to and it is NOT ok.
I feel uncomfortable same as a lot of young kids and fellow students in my grade. I really wish people could watch their mouth and be careful with what they say because there is no point in it and a lot of kids are offended and makes then uncomfortable.
Lives are Lost Too Soon “Somethings are worth fighting for, Somethings cannot be ignored. Always the right thing to do, Is to take a stand, For the, Black & Blue.” Debra Halloway
During one year in the US, over three million innocent children are reported as being abused. Even horrendous more child abuse incidents are not reported. That number will continue to escalate if it doesn’t stop now. More than 5 kids die in the US every day because of child abuse. Who is responding to their screams for help? Will you be the one to save a child’s life? Or will you sit there and see a kid die from abuse, not from old age or a sickness, but someone hurting them? The three types of child abuse are physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. 10.8% of the three million are physical abuse, 7.6% are emotional abuse, and again 7.6% are subject to sexual abuse. All members of the community need to report it. If you abuse a child or choose not to report it you could suffer a jail sentence. Many kids young or old are left at home alone, and when they hear the footsteps of a drunk or non-drunk abuser they usually become frightened and try to hide. They fear the hand, foot, or whatever it is the tormentor’s use to beat the child. Often the abuser beats the child to death. Some kids would rather be left home alone than spend time with a mean cruel adult. Some parents murder or abuse their children for thoughtless reasons. For example, they don’t want to have their children go through a divorce. Those victim’s parents rationalize that they would be better off dead than dealing with the trauma of a divorce. When really that’s not true. Children of course would rather live than be murdered. Why should someone else make these choices for them? Overdrinking is often a factor in abuse. Alcoholics can drink too much and become unaware of their actions. Or guilt takes over and they take it out on their kids. The story of Briana Lopez was appalling. Her mother, father, and uncle dreadfully abused her while being drunk and mad. They pinched her, bit her and other things that I am not going to mention. On her last day before she went up to heaven, she was thrown up into the air, hit the ceiling, and was not caught. That was a story that I am sure will be remembered by many people. It was a Brianna Lopez, victim of tragedy. child abuse. Emotional abuse usually remains in the heart of the child and is continued on to the next generation. Therapy is really helpful for the child or
parent to calm their emotions and stop them from abusing children. The effect that abuse has on children depends on many things. When children are young they are more fragile and abuse can more likely lead to death. Is the abuser close? The closer the abuser is to the child the more complicated the situation becomes. It depends on the level of trust the child gives to the abuser. Many children all over the world are being burned, put in boiling water, punched, dropped off of bridges, bitten, squeezed to death, frozen, locked in closets for hours, and put in a running washing machine. “It’s horrible that the parents take their anger on their innocent children they scar the children for life making them feel unsafe and insecure. If your can’t properly take care of your child you should ask for help, not kill, abuse, or rape your child,” Maya Russell, a grade 5 student, states. “I believe The Lord made all people the same from the start. But once a child is abused it changes them forever, if it doesn't kill them. To me, abusing a child is the worst thing you can do, and it makes me sad to know it happens all the time,” Brooke Solheim, a parent, declares. This is inappropriate behavior for grown adults. It really doesn’t even make sense to abuse a sweet kind child that you were once before. Maya also agrees and believes, “Child abuse is a terrible thing, it scares them for life physically and emotionally it could make them afraid of many adults. It could limit them in life and not able to live life the fullest.” Many lives are taken too soon, but some are saved, their minds are full of bad things that can’t be taken out of their heart. The young ones which lives were taken too soon will be remembered for their strength that kept them with us for a short period on time. If you know someone who is abusing a child try helping them out my being their friend because they may just be lonely, use you words and talk them through their troubles, or offer to baby-sit and give them a break from their kids. I am Brighton Solheim a 5th grade student of ASIJ and I speak for those children who are in need. I speak for those who are hidden from the world and can never see the light of day and probably won’t ever unless you help me shout out to the world and make this pain stop.
Red Scarf Girl
Are you someone that a lot of people look up to and enjoy spending time with? Would life be different if you went from being a strong leader to someone who is bullied and treated intolerably? A girl named Ji-‐li torture began almost overnight. She went through all of this for something she didn’t even do. She started to get bullied and she had no idea that her grandfather had been a landlord. She was treated so badly because the Cultural Revolution was going on in China. The leader, Chairman Mao wanted to get rid of the four olds, old customs, old habits, old culture and old habits. He wanted to make all people equal. As a result people were being treated badly if they had money or education. Our main character’s grandpa was a landlord that was dead and her father was accused of being a rightist and that caused her family to be treated like immoral people. Ji-‐li had to make choices if she wanted to survive. She came close to changing her last name so she wouldn’t be treated badly, to leave her family so she would be treated better, and many more tough decisions. But, she chose to go through it the hard way, the honorable way. Because she chose the hard way she had many problems through out her young life. She was bullied, told she couldn’t do stuff, got jobs that were very important to her taken away, and stuff that was important to her taken away because they were four olds. Many kid when they come to a new school, go to a new church, or move to a new country loose there respect or leadership all of it can happen all over night. You can loose being popular, loose being a leader. You can go from popular to someone who sits alone at a lunch table, not talked to, the kid that kids go home and tell there parents about how
weird they are, or even bullied. And that is what happened to Ji-‐li. I read another book sort of like this called “Deep Down Popular.” It was about a boy that all the girls had a crush on and all the boys wanted to be friends. And the day he got a brace for his leg nobody liked him until he got it off. These books really show how cruel we people are to those who are different. The writer really limits to only show Ji-‐li feelings about the book. He really gets into her sorrows and doesn’t let us know the happy things that may be happening. In the beginning the book bored many others in my group and me but once it got into the action and the sorrows she had it got interesting and I could tell everyone started to enjoy it. Though he limited other peoples opinions a bit it still was a great book. I would recommend this for people like sad, historical, or even someone who like to learn facts. For me personally I don’t like any of that stuff besides sad books I still enjoyed it like it wasn’t even a historical fiction book. I dislike historical fiction.