Why is there Crime in America?    A  Personal Reflection
By Casey Shea

Crime in America occurs every day and impacts us in countless ways. People kill each other over inked cotton cloth and paper. Families are destroyed in pursuit of the dollar. Crimes can be violent in nature or stealthy in their nature. People steal, rob, kill and take lives, all for what? Money! When you see photos of people robbing a store for money and holding a gun to the head of an innocent employee, or another teenager lying in the streets, the victim of a drive by shooting, the waste of life is so sad.

What is going through my mind is that the family will have to suffer because of the loss of life. What about the wife, the child, the relatives and the life that will now never happen. When this person is needed, who will be there to help his family? It is all about the importance of one individual. One life is worth so much and to lose it in this way is more than tragic.

What are the reasons for crime? Depending on who you listen to, there are literally tons of reasons. Is it to feed a drug habit? Is it because they are hungry and need money for medicine or bills? Is it greed? Is it to get rich quick? Is it because they see a loophole in a system and take advantage? Is it all about the dollar and the money? The answer is yes!

So where do we start? Is it by protesting the top 1% of Americans don’t pay their fair share of taxes? I don’t think so. Is it by strengthening laws against criminals and making the punishment harsh? I am not sure. What I think will have the greatest impact is to re think how we set up our society and what choices people have as ways to earn money and to try to live out their own American dream. Does it mean crime in America will ever go away? No, I don’t think it will completely, but as a people we can make the end result different. We can open up opportunities and new jobs in America so people are not left with the choice of crime in order to eat.

Is there a drug problem at VUHS? A personal reflection…
                                                        by Kennedy Dattilio

Is there a drug problem at VUHS? What should we do about it? In wouldn’t say that there is a drug problem at Vergennes Union High School. There are kids who attend this do that use drugs, but outside of school. I don’t believe that kids would bring drugs into the school as much as they have in the past.

I believe that drugs are not brought into school as much anymore because of an increased presence of police. We never used to have police that would come in and be present so much before. Another thing that prohibits teens from bringing drugs into school is the drug dog.

If someone were to bring drugs to school and the adults have any suspicion that they are on school grounds, then I think something should be done about it. People should know that the principal has the right to search your bag, your locker, your car or to bring an officer in to search you if they believe there is a presence of drugs. In Civics class, Mr. Webbley came in and explained what the current court rulings are on this and I believe this should happen.

As you can see I don’t believe that there is a drug problem inside the school, but there are teens at VUHS who use drugs outside of school. I don’t believe that the school should get involved with the drug problem outside of school, but pay close attention in school.

What do you think?