JocelynC

Hi, my name is Jocelyn Clark but my friends call me Joey. I'm 16 years old and about to get my license. I go to Woodstock High School and am finishing up my junior year. I have lived in Woodstock all my life and love it, even though it's the biggest gossip town in the world it still has a lot of heart. I am an active member in my school's YAAC club ( Youth Against Animal Cruelty), Cross Country and Varsity Basketball also I played for Baskteball New Bruniswick's U15 and U16 teams. I was a dancer for 12 years and loved it. I am also a piano player. I have been involved in my school's Musical group for 2 years. I took lessons for 11 years and I sitll continue to play. After I'm done high school, I would like to become a social worker. I plan on attending UNB to get my bachelor of arts degree then to follow that up with social work. I chose to pursue this career because I care alot about the well being of others and making sure that everyone is happy and ok. People tend to come to me with their problems, asking me advice on what to do and I try to help them out as best as I can. I am very open about to new ideas and peoples indifferences and accepting people for who they are. I enjoy reading, music, moives, basketball,hanging out with friends, fashion, travel and parties. My favorite book that I read over the past year was __A millon little pieces__ by James Fry. I grew up in a christian based home with what North America considers to be your regular family: Mother, father, son and daughter. My mom and dad have been married for 23 years ?? hah at least I think. My brother Mitchell is 19 and is finishing up his second year of university at St.Fx trying to achieve his bachelor of science. My mother is a lab technichian and my father is a truck driver. I'm excited about this project and can't wait to learn about injustices in other parts of the world and to also talk about acts of injustice that we experience in our community and country. I think it will be interesting to see how many things that we have in common and how many differences there are between the two connecting schools.

Friday's guest speaker from Toybox charities, who gave an insightful discussion about the injustice of street children. She first began by asking everyone around the circle to state a time when we felt injustice in our life. It was ironic and comical that the majority of our injustices were based in the school. She showed as a short video about street children in Gautamala who face injustice everyday. These children end up on the streets because they are trying to make an income for their family. In most cases, they are the only ones who bring in an income. These children are alone trying to survive on the streets because they have nowheres else to go. They are easily accused of stealing and mistreated because of it. The authorities who are suppose to do something about the injustices are sometimes the ones who create it. The police often beat and sometimes kill these street children. The guest speaker asked us some very intriguing questions to make us think about what we can do to help thse street children in Gautamala and other people who are faced with injustice. She told us a vey easy and convienent way to help out was to use Toybox charities search engine, and that everytime you use it money is donated to there organization. Even helping out in our community will make a difference. I think that she inspired us all to be a more active in out community and society to help out others. I feel that sh left our class more inspired to do this special project. Dear Miss Menchu, I gladly send a big hug and a congratulations on you nobel peace prize. Your story, strength, courage and acvtivism is one to aspire to. You must have been so terrified growing up with the fear of the guerilla gang threatening you and your family's lives. I feel deeply sorry for you for your tragic loss of your family that was unjust but at the same time I commend you on your strength and courage to do something positive with your situation. Getting involved to help others is a great act of selflessness and a feeling of great reward. I wish you much success in the future and that your story lets me and I'm sure as well as others that even though we might think that the worst is happening to us, there are worse things happening to other people which should move us to take part and take control of unjust acts around the world as well as our community. Congratulations
 * Journal #1**
 * __Journal 2__**


 * __Journal 3__**

In Australia there are 2 main groups of indigenous Aboriginals: the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aborigines. Aborigines are located more to the mainland, Tazmania, while the Torres Strait Islanders are located on the Torres Strait Island. The Torres Strait Islanders are a moe ethinically distinct group the the Aborigines. This could be due to their geographical location. The languags that are found on mainland Australia are classified into two distinct groups: the Pama-Nyungan language and the non-Pama Nyungan. The Pama-Nyungan languages covers the majority of the country. In the northern part of Australia there are numerous languages that have not yet been defined, these are classified as the non-Pama Nyungan. The paractices and ceremonies unique to these Aboriginals consist of a Corroboree:a ceremonial meeting for Australian Aborigines. Fire stick farminig which is the practice of using fire to regularly burn vegetation to facilitate hunting and to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area. The Tjurunga or also known as a churinga, are objects of religous significance by Central Australian Aboriginal Arrernte groups. Walkabout refers to the belief of non-Indigenous Australians that Aborigines were prone to "go walkabout" meaning that they would stop doing their jobs and wander through the bush for weeks at a time. Usually Aborigines were fulfilling ceremonial and spiritual obligations, but could generally not convey this to white station owners, either due to its taboo nature, or the sheer clash of the two cultures which generally left misunderstanding on both sides. Around 72 percent of Aborigines practise some form of Christianity, and 16 percent listed no religion__.__ There has also been an increase in the growth of Islam among the Indigenous Australian community. Indigenous Australia's oral tradition and spiritual values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in this Dreamtime. The Dreaming is at once both the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of Dreaming. The Rainbow Serpent is a major Ancestral being for Aboriginal people across Australia. The Yowie and Bunyip are also well known Ancestral beings.Dingo Dreaming is a significant Ancestor in the interior regions of //Bandiyan// as Dingo formed the songlines that cross the continent from north to south and east to west. Aborigines developed unique instruments and folk styles. The didgeridoo is commonly considered the national instrument of Australian Aborigines. However, it was traditionally only played by Arnhem Land people, such as the Yolngu, and then only by the men. Clapping Sticks are probably the more ubiquitous musical instrument, especially because they help maintain the rhythm for the song. More recently, Aboriginal musicians have branched into rock and roll, hip hop and reggae. Australia has a long tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old. Modern Aboriginal artists continue the tradition using modern materials in their artworks. Aboriginal art is the most internationally recognisable form of Australian art. The Indigenous Australian population is a mostly urbanised demographic, but a substantial number (27%) live in remote settlements often located on the site of former church missions. The health and economic difficulties facing both groups are substantial. Both the remote and urban populations have adverse ratings on a number of social indicators, including health, education, unemployment, poverty and crime. Indigenous students as a group leave school earlier, and leave with a lower standard of education, compared to their non-indigenous peers. An Indigenous Australian is 11 times more likely to be in prison than a non-Indigenous Australian, and in 2003, 20% of prisoners in Australia were Indigenous. This over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prisons was drawn to public attention by the Royal Commision into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Violent crime, in particular domestic and sexual abuse, is a problem in many Aboriginal communities. An Indigenous Australian is twice as likely to be a victim of violence than a non-Indigenous Australian, with 24% of Indigenous Australians reported being a victim of violence in 2001. This is consistent with hospitalisation data showing higher levels of injury due to assault.


 * __Journal 4__

Latvia:**

//land:// 63,589 sq km //water:// 1,000 sq km //male:// 76.75 years //female:// 82.81 years //total population:// 99.8% //male:// 99.8% //female:// 99.8% Exports**:** $3.569 billion f.o.b.
 * Capital:** Riga
 * Population:** 58,103,033
 * Languages:** Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3%
 * Religions:** Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox
 * Government:** parliamentary democracy
 * Total Area:** //total:// 64,589 sq km
 * Natural Ressources:** peat, limestone, dolomite, amber, hydropower, wood, arable land
 * Life Expectancy:** //total population:// 79.68 years
 * Literacy:**//definition:// age 15 and over can read and write
 * GDP-per capita:** $11,500
 * Labor Force:** 1.17 million
 * Imports:** $5.97 billion f.o.b.
 * Currency:** Latvian lat (LVL)
 * Telephones:** 653,900
 * Cell Phones:** 1,219,600


 * Canada:**

2%), other Christian 4.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other and unspecified 11.8%, none 16% Government: constitutional monarchy that is also a parliamentary democracy and a federation //land:// 9,093,507 sq km //water:// 891,163 sq km wildlife, coal,petroleum, natural gas, hydropower //male:// 76.86 years //female:// 83.74 years //total population:// 99% //male:// 99% //female:// 99%
 * Capital:** Ottawa
 * Population:** 33,098,932
 * Languages:** English (official) 59.3%, French (official) 23.2%, other 17.5%
 * Religions:** Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3% (including United Church 9.5%, Anglican 6.8%, Baptist 2.4%, Lutheran
 * Total Area:** //total:// 9,984,670 sq km
 * Natural Ressources:** iron ore, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber
 * Life Expectancy:** //total population:// 80.22 years
 * GDP - per capita:** $35,200
 * Literacy:** //definition:// age 15 and over can read and write
 * Labor Force:** 17.59 million
 * Exports:** $405 billion f.o.b.
 * Imports:** $353.2 billion f.o.b.
 * Currency:** Canadian dollar (CAD)
 * Telephones:** 18.276 million
 * Cell Phones:** 16.6 million


 * Journal 5**

In mid-August, the Germans ordered the establishment of a ghetto in the southeastern area of the city; this ghetto was sealed in October 1941, imprisoning some 30,000 Jews.In late November and early December of 1941, the Germans announced that they intended to settle the majority of ghetto inhabitants "further east." On November 30 and December 8-9, at least 26,000 Riga Jews were shot by German killing squads and their Latvian auxiliaries in the Rumbula Forest, five miles southeast of Riga along the Riga-Dvinsk railway and the Riga-Salaspils road. In October 1942, German police discovered a small band of members of the Jewish underground outside the ghetto. In reprisal for partisan activities, the Germans seized and killed more than 100 people from the ghetto, and Executed almost all Jewish policemen on suspicion of participating in resistance activities. In 1944, in an attempt to destroy evidence of mass murder, the Germans forced prisoners to reopen mass graves in Rumbula and burn the bodies. Once the work was completed, the Germans then killed these prisoners.


 * Journal 6**

In Tulsa Oklahoma a principal at a highschook was accused of violating the constitutional rights of a group of students by prohibiting the organization of a Bible club at the school. This is injustice because the group of students should be able to have a group just like a basketball team or a musical program.

Running Springs Oklahoma - A 15-year-old girl and former Cedu High School student has told sheriff's detectives two students repeatedly raped her over a six-month period on campus and that school officials did nothing to stop it. Every student should be able to go to school without being put in danger and she was denied this right.

Reverend Maris Sants lost a discrimination case against the Riga Culture High School today, after the Riga Regional Court sided with the school. Sants had charged the high school of discrimination based on sexual orientation, arguing that he was denied a teaching position because he is gay. Your sexual orientation doesnt determine your teaching ability.

A 23-year-old woman has accused a Shanghai language school of firing her due to her "unfavorable looks" in what may be China's first looks-related work discrimination case. Qiu, from central China's Henan Province, has an abnormally big head due to suffering from hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, when she was born. This is injustice because what you look like doesnt determine how well you can speak english


 * Journal 7**


 * I. General Bullying**

The first journal that I read was about general bullying. In the article that I read was young student who mistakenly interpreted a physical action that led to several years of damaging bullying. This student was shoved by a girl in her tutor group. She thought that she was playing so the student shoved her back thinking that it was all fun and games when it wasn’t. The girl then made the rest of this students school years miserable. The Deputy Head of the school rejected the student’s complaint about the bullying stating that there is no bullying at their school. The girl that pushed this student during her school years stole a cell phone and was arrested for it. The girl was eventually expelled but not for bullying the student. She was expelled for stealing a teacher’s handbag. The group of girls that were this person’s friend continued to bully this student. One day a teacher caught the girls bullying this student and she took one of the girls and the student aside and threatened the student if she did not stop her behavior and sent the other girl back to the playground. Later the student was abused by a new boy who sent her abusive e-mails. She left the school after that and has not yet received an apology from the school. Even though the student hit the girl back, the other girl initiated the fighting. The other student just hit the girl because she thought it was as a joke. I don’t understand why a group of girls would bully one person because they jokingly hit one of their friends. How could the Head Deputy let this continue on. Did they not want to face the problem of bullying in their school because there had never been anything like this happen before? I feel that the fight was over something small and pointless and violence was not the way to solve it. Revenge is not the way to resolve things. Obviously continuing the bullying to this student resulted in the girl rebelling more to society because she had built a name for herself and got her into more trouble. The student was the least of her worries. Reading this article made me infuriated. When I read it, it reminded me of somebody I know who was abused by his dad. The son wouldn’t do anything wrong, his dad just had high blood pressure and took out the littlest things on his son. One day one they son wouldn’t go take is glass out to the kitchen and his dad just exploded. He picked his son up and shoved his head through a wall and told him that he better take that glass out to the kitchen or he will regret it. It is a glass for Pete sakes. It isn’t going to hurt anyone. I guess it is just a person’s reaction but it isn’t justified.


 * II. Homophobic Bullying**

The second article is about homophobic bullying. In the article a male high school student transferred to a public school in the tenth grade. It wasn’t that bad of a transition because most of his friends were there. He had broken up with his girlfriend and met this guy from a rival town which was good because he could keep it a secret. He had only told four people about his secret. Some girl wanted to go out with him but she knew that he was gay so she put it on the school e-mail system for everybody to read. He lived in a small town of 4500 hundred. He was harassed all the time at school, walking down the hallways hearing people shout out “faggot” and “queer”. People would trip him and snicker at him. It didn’t just affect this student it began to affect his family. His father was harassed as well. His extended family had never heard of it before. The administration would hear some of the comments that the students made about this boy but they didn’t do anything about it. Nothing happened. This article made me even angrier. What gives a person the right to mock someone about their lifestyle? What gives them the right to think that there lifestyle is better then the one that this guy has. Would they appreciate it if everybody made fun of them because they were straight? I know I wouldn’t. People are too narrow minded and not open to other ideas. Even though the may not agree with the person’s lifestyle they still need to respect it. For example, you may not like your coach because he or she favors other players but you still need to respect him because he his your coach. If you do not believe in a higher being are you actually going to mock every single person who does? No, you aren’t because there are so many people who do. In this town there was only one recognizable gay person, and because he was the only one he was targeted and became a victim. The people weren’t use to the idea and probably came from a traditional background. They were scared of something that they didn’t know too much about. They acted out of fear. This kind of behavior happens on a regular basis. Just last year there was a guy at our school who got beat up for being gay. He didn’t even talk to the person who beat him up. He was just in the hallway minding his own business talking to his friends and then all of sudden somebody comes up to him and punches him because he is gay. What satisfaction of beating up someone gives a person? Hitting him isn’t going to turn him straight so why?


 * III. Religious Bullying**

The next article that I read was about religious bullying. A young female student who is Muslim attended a state school. She was wearing the traditional hijab and talking with her friends. As she entered the classroom another girl and her friend came up to her and her friends and spit on them and called them terrorists. Another non-Muslim girl runs up to Rashida and pulls off her hijab. Pushing and shoving begins to happen and teachers have to come and break up the fight. Rashida was scared and hurt that she was crying. She wanted to go home because that was only place that she could feel safe. Even though we have been affected by 9/11, we need to come to an understanding that not all Muslims are terrorists. People aren’t informed enough about the Muslim religion and don’t understand why Muslims commit such terrorist acts. It wasn’t the young student who crashed into the trade center, it was somebody else. If a white Christian would have crashed into the trade center or the pentagon, we wouldn’t have reacted the same as we did. We probably would have just thought it was a mistake and not think that they did it on purpose. Just like in the article before it is about respecting and coming to understand other people’s lifestyle and beliefs. You may not agree with who they are or what they do but in most cases the victim of the bullying has not done anything to the person to make them harass them.


 * IV. Cyber Bullying**

The fourth article that I read was about cyber bullying. In the article there were two teenage girls who were charged with cyber bullying and a death threat at the age of 14 and 13. A parent discovered these threats on their child’s computer and reported it to the police. A full investigation went underway. The conspiracy charges were laid after there was some kind of action that went on beyond the online threats. The bullying seemed to go beyond the norm of bullying and that both staff and students were fearful of the situation. The City Council passed a bylaw that allows police to issue tickets that can result in fines for bullying in public or in cyberspace.. This bylaw does not apply to children under the age of 12 but parents who have children between the ages 12 to 16, the parents can be fined. The 14 year old faces 15 counts of threatening while the 13 year old faces 15 counts of threatening and a charge of assault with a weapon. Both of them were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. This article made me a bit confused about how I felt about the situation. I felt that this story was just in its consequences but then when I looked at the age category it made me a little upset. Children at the age of 13 and 14 aren’t going to go out and sexually molest someone. Even though they uttered threats I don’t think that they are actually able to follow through with their threats. Kids are kids, they are always trying to act tough and rebel, especially in this age category. I agree with the punishment that the kids received I just feel that they would never go through with the threats.


 * V. Bullying from the perpetrator’s point of view**

The fifth article that I read was an article from the perpetrator’s point of view. After 20 years a girl still feels guilty about being a school bully. She became a bully after she herself fell victim of bullying. So instead of being the victim, she became the perpetrator. When she was 13 she was bullied but 2 older sisters who went on her bus. The 2 sisters got off before her but one day they missed there stopped and stayed on the bus. When the girls stop came the 2 sisters got up and punched her in the face and said that they would be looking for her again. The girl was so scared about bumping into the 2 sisters again so she joined a group of friends older then her at school so she could be protected. This made her the bully. One of her friends in her gang confronted the 2 sisters and they never bothered her again. The girl decided to target one of her old friends. The girl was going astray, she started skipping class, and her grades went down. Her old friend was a model student, involved in school and did exceptionally well. Her old friend was everything she wasn’t. The girl taunted her friend on the bus just by little things like telling her to get out of the way. It tore the girl apart so much that her parents got involved and told the other girls parents about how their daughter was bullying their daughter. The girl made a good point about how you become a bully. She says that you just don’t wake up one morning and decide to become a bully. There is something that grows gradually. She says that it isn’t fun and that she was very unhappy at that time in her life. I felt kind of a sense of peace while reading this sorry and a sensation of sympathy for the bully in this article. Her reason for becoming a bully was because she used to be a victim of it. That doesn’t mean that what she did was right but how she became one is unfortunate. She still feels guilty about what she did even after 20 years but has come to reason with it. Most people aren’t like that. Her bullying is not as serious as other situations but it is bullying none the less and did hurt someone. She knew that she didn’t benefit anything from them and that is the message that bullies need to understand. There is nothing beneficial about bullying somebody because you still don’t feel better about yourself.

When we read this article it immediately affected us deeply. Rape is an awful and very serious problem in our culture today, even here in Canada. I think here we sympathize a bit more with the victims than they do in Africa. It enraged us that 27 %of men admitted to having sexually assaulted a woman. The part that affected us the most was the information about soldiers raping women. We found it interesting that people who are fighting for freedom can take an innocent persons freedom and dignity away from them for personal pleasure. It is saddening to hear that a man would kick his wife out of their home after being raped, as if it were her fault. I think the number one thing that we can do here is educate the world about what is going on in Africa right now. There are some similarities to this here in Canada. Rape is an ongoing problem in our society. One that is 100% preventable.
 * __Journal 8 (Jocelyn and Courtney)__**


 * Zero Tolerance Policy**

Considering the history of school shootings and violence in the past decade, I am not surprised of the action taken by numerous schools to have a “Zero Tolerance Policy”. I feel that this policy should be taken seriously, but once someone is caught, the reasoning for their apprehension should be taken into careful consideration. E.M.’s son, J.B., had reasoning for brining an imitating gun product to school. It was a water gun that he had received for Christmas. It was for a class assignment. The teacher had asked it’s students to bring in something that meant something to them to put in a time capsule. The plastic water gun was too big to fit into his memory box so he put it in his book bag. I agree with J.B.’s dad in that it as right for the school to suspend him for three days because he did violate the policy. They cannot just let it slide without consequences because if the incident happens again, then the other person will appeal that J.B. never got in trouble for bringing a water gun. I feel that seven days is way too long to suspend a kid for trying to complete an assignment but there is nothing one can do about that. It’s unfortunate how blown out of proportion it has become.