By Jared Curtis

Every year around the middle of August, the youth of America collectively let out a moan as their summer is almost over and the days of sitting in a classroom are upon them. This can be a student’s favorite or most hated time of the year, as one gets back to learning and dreaming of those lost summer days that have passed by so quickly. Today’s high school students have a lot more to worry about than their next pop quiz. Schools have turned into a battlefield of social status, sexual prowess and academic liability, more than ever before. Students have been caught having sex on school grounds, forced to dress a certain way to avoid violence, and worried about their peers carrying weapons.

“I have heard about kids having sex in the building,” says Roosevelt High School junior Eli Kress, 16. “It’s more during lunch or when kids leave the building. But it definitely happens.”

Today’s kids have more to think and worry about. The innocence of summer is over and students, as they walk down their hallowed halls, realize that they are one step closer to becoming an adult. Parents, students and teachers face a variety of concerns. Here are four of the most pressing issues.

Cheating

Cheating has been as routine in schools as homecoming pep rallys. The days of writing answers on the bottom of shoes or figuring out math problems on wristwatches are over — today’s students have gone high tech.

“The only cheating I see is mostly kids copying notes,” says Roosevelt High School sophomore Jimmy Scott, 15. “I think it would take too much time to text someone for answers on a test.”

Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one’s own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and fabricating information.

According to a recent poll conducted by nocheating.org, a non-profit education advocacy site, 75 to 98 percent of high school students have admitted to cheating at some time in their academic careers. They also say that cheating occurs mostly in math and science classes.

“I wish everybody would be honest,” says Valley High School sophomore Samantha Arneson, 15. “I have a very busy schedule, but I still find time to work hard and get good grades.”

The same can’t be said for every student, especially when answers for a history test can be easily stored on a cell phone. If schools have wireless Internet, Palm Pilots and high-tech cell phones work like personal computers. Surfing Web browsers could inform students about what work is due today or the pop quiz at the end of class. Another easy storage device is an mp3 player. These work even better because students can actually record their own voices and play them back at a very low level. They can hide it in their laps and lean down for a quick explanation of how mitosis works, for example.

“I have heard of people cheating with their Ipod,” says Lincoln High junior Marissa Swoboda, 16. “But mostly it is just people writing stuff on their hand.”

Some of the a fore mentioned items have been banned in classrooms, except the one time honored device — the calculator. The trusty device, which is the most important tool in a math student’s repertoire, can do a lot more than just equations. According to Texas Instruments, the TI-84 is the most popular calculator among high school students. It is a man-made cheating machine. It has three times the memory and almost three times the speed of the TI-83, a built in USB Port and an array of preloaded applications.

“I have heard of people cheating with calculators and other stuff, but I think it would take too much time,” says Lincoln High School junior Serena Be, 16.

For the past decade, Web sites offering papers for sale have been giving crafty students an easy way out of writing papers. Sites charge weekly or monthly fees for students to find papers on thousands of topics. Some sites even offer free essays for students who have submitted their own work in the past.

“I think people who cheat are just plain lazy,” Arneson says.

With the pressures of getting into college at an all-time high, students have to worry about making the grade. With students getting more involved in extra curricular activities and athletics, there is less time to study and that means cheating can be seen as a means to success.

School security

Remember when students could roam the halls without passes and enter the front doors without walking through a metal detector? Or when school shootings were unthinkable?

“We have no more problems than any other school in the district,” says Tim Peak, a Des Moines Police Officer and School Resource Officer for East High School. “The school resource officer is here to help with a lot more than just fights.”

The officer resource program was revamped in 1999. The school district wanted a liaison at the school. But Peak works hard at being more than just an officer of the law.

“I’m a mentor; it’s my favorite part of the job,” he says. “I have an open door policy and students know this is a safe place to resolve problems.”

In the wake of the Columbine massacre and the Virginia Tech shootings, some people wonder if students really are safe while they learn. Students have to worry about enough being a teenager, so why should they worry about getting shot while learning, some say.

“I was a principal in a school in Colorado when the Columbine tragedy occurred, therefore, I am keenly aware of school safety issues,” says Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Nancy Sebring. “We have many measures in place to address school safety.”

After the Virginia Tech shootings, college campuses across the nation quickly came up with campus-wide information released over community televisions and text messages. High schools try to provide a safe haven by using metal detectors, police guards on campus and cameras, but is it really working?

“I fill very safe when I’m at school,” Arneson says.

“I’m here so students feel safe,” says Peak. “Hopefully I can help provide them with a safe environment to learn.”
Another security concern on campus is the coming and going of individuals not in classes.

“We keep the external doors locked, and everyone has to come in the main doors and check in with the office,” says Peak. “If someone looks unfamiliar or doesn’t have a pass they are immediately stopped.”

A high tech security company, Raptor Technologies, based in Houston, sells a visitor tracking system. When a visitor enters a school, he or she is required to sign in at the front desk. With these tracking systems, visitor’s hand over their ID, which is scanned and returned. Within seconds, the visitor’s criminal history is displayed, and they can be allowed or denied access.

“During my three years at Roosevelt, I have only heard of two people getting stabbed,” says senior Forest Cochran, 17. “As long as you’re not making trouble, nobody bothers you.”

Today these systems are in place in 27 states and more than 3,000 schools in 330 districts, but none are in Iowa.
“We built the program for Enron after 9/11 so they would know who was in the building,” says Raptor Technologies president, Allan Measom. “After they had problems, we adapted the program for schools to help against sex offenders on campus.”

The software helped catch more than 1,100 sex offenders on school campuses last year.

“It’s easy for a district to get involved,” Measom says. “All they have to do is go to our site and fill out a grant request. Since Iowa doesn’t have the software, the state would be a very good candidate. We are always looking for test sites, which receive the software free for a whole year.”

After an initial investment of $1,500, the schools pay $432 a year to maintain the service. Officials say more schools could install these security systems as the U.S. Justice department launches a pilot program for schools nationwide.

“I feel safe at Lincoln,” says Swoboda. “But I might be scared if I was at other schools.”

Bullying

Perhaps the most terrifying distraction in school is the bully. From the dawn of time, the strong have picked on the weak, and bullying is one of the biggest problems facing students today. Though some might think of bullies as the hooligans who steal lunch money, today’s bully comes in all shapes and sizes, from the elementary level all the way to high school.

“I think bullies are a myth,” Cochran says. “There isn’t some big guy walking around the halls and taking people’s lunch money.”

According to the Des Moines Public School’s policies and procedures: “The district is committed to maintaining a learning and working environment free of any form of bullying or intimidation toward personnel or students on school grounds, on school time, at a school-sponsored activity or in a school-related context.”

“The fights that go on usually involve a male and a female rather than two males,” Peak says. “Kids are going to fight; we just need to identify an issue and resolve it before it occurs.”

According to stopbullyingnow.com, an anti-bullying Web site, an incident of bullying occurs once every seven minutes, with adult intervention only 4 percent of the time. What are students to do? The array of bullying can be broken down into areas of physical and verbal. Physical bullying results in hitting, kicking, pushing and choking. Verbal bullying is considered threatening someone, taunting them, teasing, starting rumors and making hateful comments. It is defined as abuse done by someone with more power or social support to someone with less power and social status.

“I try and resolve the situation,” says Hiatt Middle School physical education teacher and Hoover High School assistant varsity volleyball coach Jessica Montag. “It’s important to not let the victim of the bullying feel like I accept the treatment that they are getting.”

Recently, schools have introduced bully-reducing tactics such as sensitivity training. But is it really working? The bullying of females is different from the bullying of males, students say. Males usually stick with violence. Females use verbal abuse to bully weaker girls.

“It seems like girls are always in somebody’s business,” Be says. “High school is full of cliques, and everything is based on rumors and gossip.”

Physical violence happens between females, but usually ends up with clumps of hair and broken fingernails. Where as nasty rumors and social berating can do more damage. It’s not like the 1980 film “My Bodyguard,” in which a new student gets picked on and bullied until he pays the most feared guy in school to protect him. It’s tough being a high school student and getting bullied is even worse, students say.

“I think most girls that bully are insecure and try to make themselves feel better by putting down others,” says Montag. “When I was in school, kids had more respect in general. We were too scared to say things to people’s faces.”

SEX

Sex and high school go hand in hand. As students reach puberty and peer pressure increases to have sex, it becomes a predominant part of high school life.

“We know parents are a part of their child’s life,” says Juli Hibben, the director of education at Planned Parenthood. “We want them to be the main messengers, but it’s good for students to know that they can get information from several different sources.”

Planned Parenthood offers a wide variety of information, as well as education to students starting in middle school. Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa goes into schools and holds informational sessions. Instructors offer a question box for students to put questions in that they are too afraid to ask in front of everyone else.

“The question box is a real safe way to get answers,” Hibben says. “We do all kinds of activities, and we let them know it is all right to laugh, but that the information they are learning is very important.”

With all the information available, why are the rates still so high? A study on the Iowa Department of Public Health’s Web site shows young adults, ages 15 to 24, reported more than 1,100 cases of STI’s (sexual transmitted infections) in 2005.

“We always offer options when we speak in classrooms,” Hibben says. “We talk about abstinence because it is the only true way to stay safe, but we know sex is going to happen, so we offer many kinds of contraceptives and advice.”

More schools have added a life-like baby to their curriculum, which is handed out to kids to experience life with a new born. The “kid” cries, goes to the bathroom and keeps the student up most of the night. But does this really sink into the student’s brain, or do they know they can give it back to their teacher on Monday morning?

“You usually get to know the person before you start having sex,” Scott says. “I think high school kids are pretty consistent with who they sleep with.”

According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Iowa has a 32.5 percent teen birth rate, ages 15 to 19. Even though that sounds high, Iowa is ranked as the 12th lowest state in the nation.

“We know teen pregnancy has dropped over the last 10 years,” says Hibben. “Hopefully we can continue with our education and the decline.”

Planned Parenthood also has a resource library, which is open to the public.

“A lot of people don’t know we have all of this info,” Hibben says. “But we get a lot of parents that come and encourage anyone to stop by.” CV

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