Blog Feed

Create a Post

My Monsters- Bailey Collins

Posted by Bailey Collins in English 2 - Pahomov on

They’re coming for me. Who are they? My monsters. They come out of the closet while I sleep. Creeping towards me they come, grabbing my limbs and pulling my ponytail back until I wake up screaming in a cold sweat. I talk to myself to break the silence. Am I crazy? Can I be treated? Everyday this week was a struggle to not walk into the hospital. If I were to hurt myself though, can I blame it on those monsters?

“They are my nighttime battle scars,” I could tell the doctor. The nurses would look at me with pity. Hoping nobody sees my anxious ticks when I tell the blatant lie. Do they already know that I've been abusing myself, they never tried to help. The abuse is only within myself though. I can’t take the chance of making scars, they’d see more obviously. My reasons not to go. Daddy would be angry if I told anyone I am going insane. He’d be expected to do something. Or help. An impossible task. I’m already burden enough taking up space at home. 

Those monsters began as my thoughts. Look what they’ve done now. I’m hallucinating those real attacks on my mind. Who can believe a silly little girl? They’re all so normal. Losing control of oneself is simply uncanny to the simple minded. Can I blame them? They haven’t experienced the world like I have. But why do they get to be normal? What is it like? To not want to die for a day. To have control over at least one thing. I don’t want to die. I don’t think so at least. Nobody would care though. I wonder what its like to think or know somebody out there loves you and is willing to help when you’re in need. I’ve never known. How could I expect to have somebody that cares for me. Shame on me for wishing for something I know will never be mine. That needs to be earned and deserved. So i don’t deserve that gift. Interactions frighten me anyway. What if I suddenly told someone the truth. Take off my mask of smiles and be honest. They would surely walk away, because what can they do? I’ll never be able to tell another how I really see the world. Nobody else can see it this way, they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves. Then, it’d be my fault when something happened to their well-being. I’m so used to feeling everyone’s pain as my own.

Everyone is a stranger. Though isn’t that a contradiction? To know so many, but have them all be clueless of the true you, they only know the amazing person I created, the one I wish I could be, and others think I am. They’ll never know the truth behind these big, innocent eyes. Nor do they want to. I’m dying inside, and nobody knows. 

Surviving is becoming too hard. Am I finally getting too tired? That day when I collapse from feeling everyone else’s troubles will be my last. That sounds so inviting though. The finale of my existence. What a relief for those who think they know me.

Are these all my excuses? I’m only trying to take the blame off of me because I know my elder’s judgements are true. I’m nothing. I never will be.

Bullying Across America

Posted by Amelia Stuart in English 1 - Dunn on
​Bullying is a huge issue across American schools, physical bullying does occur however verbal bullying, emotional bullying and cyber bullying are the ones causing the trouble My name is Amelia and for my you and the world project I picked "Bullying Across America" it is a big issue and it needs to be addressed.

About 4,400 people commit suicide every year, half are due to bullying. The question people are asking is “why”, why do they bully? Kids can grow up in abusive households, or be abused throughout their childhood. because they had years of thinking that this behavior was okay, when they get to middle or high school they bully kids.

Kids look up to adults, when they see them abusing a family member or themselves they think it’s okay, it’s not. Of course not all kids begin bullying like that, they may have been bullied when they were younger so now they are getting back at the person who bullied them. In some cases stats prove that some kids are genetically functioned to act as a bully.
Unknown 7.15.46 PM
Unknown 7.15.46 PM
Unknown 7.40.27 PM
Unknown 7.40.27 PM
Unknown copy
Unknown copy
In 2010 a boy named Alex Libby was asked to be in a movie, just because he was sitting alone at lunch. He was bullied on the bus for many months and didn’t tell anybody not even his parents. They only found out when the some of the footage was shone of Alex on the bus. I had the pleasure of meeting Alex over summer vacation, he came to my summer camp. I got to hear his whole story from the beginning.

Alex was abused by his birth father, he was eventually adopted by the Libby’s. Most abused children grow up being a bully, but Alex was the opposite he was strangled, hit, and they would take things from him. After the movie came out people started reaching out to bullied victims all across America.

Bullying had reached the point where it isn’t one kid pushing another on the playground, its gotten to the point where kids from ages 9-18 are considering killing themselves because some kid was mean to them. Bullying needs to be addressed, it can’t go on, it shouldn’t go on, and it won’t go on if people start getting their confidence and go over to that new kid sitting alone at lunch and invite them to sit with you.

Here are three of my best websites

http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/#/listen/creative-writing
http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/bullying/a/bullyproof.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/teen-bullying


Click Here for my annotated bibliography

You and the World: Internet Censorship

Posted by Tobi Hahn in English 1 - Dunn on
I'm Toby, and I'm doing my You and the World project on internet censorship. I chose this issue because I'm passionate about freedom on the web.
We stopped SOPA, and took PIPA and ACTA down along with it. Thirteen days ago, CISPA, a cyber surveillance bill that would have severely reduce privacy, was voted down in Congress. But our fight against the government's crusade to censor the web is not over yet. In December, the UN agency Information Telecommunication Union(ITU) will reevaluate a communications treaty that has stood for years.
(fig.1)

At the ITU meeting, only governments will have a chance to speak and make decisions. This means that individual people, including those of us who have fought so hard this year and last to protect a free and open web, will not have any say in what the ITU decides. The ITU's meeting and proposals will also be confidential, so we will have no idea what is going on.

Recently leaked documents from the ITU reveal that they are about to launch a social media campaign in favor of their cause. They claim they are doing this to avoid attacks from a "well-financed and well-organized campaign originating in the USA" who is aiming to "discredit the ITU and WCIT." The only campaign "attacking" the ITU is Google's #freeandopen campaign, which is certainly not trying to discredit the ITU. It only criticizes certain governments, which Google suggests would use this meeting to enact new internet censorship laws. Google also claims that there are proposals that would require large companies to pay extra fees when reaching foreign countries. This would reduce their incentive to provide access overseas, which could limit freedom of information. The US government and the European Union have also criticized the ITU for their lack of transparency. The ITU responded on November 27, saying that "no proposals exist to give more power to ITU as an institution, which does not have any regulatory authority over any networks whatsoever." However, the problem remains that individual governments that value internet censorship may use the meeting to gain more power

for themselves.(fig.2)
Stewart Brand said that "information wants to be free." But if we want it to remain free, we have to do something. Things you can do are sign Google's petition at https://www.google.com/intl/en/takeaction/#make-your-voice-heard, and spreading the word by tweeting with #freeandopen. There's also another petition you can sign at http://www.protectinternetfreedom.org/. The UN will soon be launching a social media campaign against #freeandopen, so we have to spread the word.

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MBYZKvXjJEKwSO51hmHULUVLicW6p107og2wseLAhYs/edit