CourtneyS

Hey! My name is Courtney, I am sixteen years old and in currently in grade eleven here at Woodstock Highschool. I have a family of four, my mom dad and younger brother. I have always been interested in musicals. I have been acting, dancing and singing since I was seven years old and I am still involved in the musicals here at our school. Next year our school is performing the musical “High School Musical” and I am extremely excited to be involved one last time before graduating from WHS. I am also involved in Student Council, YAAC (youth against animal cruelty) and Art Club. I love movies, music, parties, fashion and shopping. After I graduate from Woodstock High, I plan on attending University where I’ll obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree. I have thought a lot about going on to law school after that and becoming a lawyer but I haven’t completely decided what my future is going to look like just yet. Math and Science are most definitely not my strong points in school or something I’m interested in, ha-ha. I’m totally focused on English, art and the social sciences and am positive my career will have something to do with one of those things. I speak French and have been involved in French immersion since I was in grade six. I often spend my weekends just hanging out with my friends and although we don’t have too much to do here in Woodstock we always seem to find something. I just got my license on the 26th of February and I'm enjoying the new freedom! I took a nineteen hour course when I was in grade nine about the Holocaust and then participated in a trip to Washington D.C. where we visited the //Holocaust Memorial Museum// and many other famous U.S. monuments. This trip opened my eyes to what injustice is and the fact that even in the little town of Woodstock face it everyday. I chose to become involved in this class because I have opinions and concerns with some of the injustice’s in our community and our school, and am also highly interested in learning about the ones you guys have at your school too. I look forward to talking with all of you.

On Friday morning we had a guest speaker come into the class from the Toybox charity. We began by sitting in a circle and discussing examples of injustice we have experienced so far in our lives and then went on to watch the video about street children. The video was haunting and was a fantastic example of injustice. I always knew that in some countries street children were discriminated against but not to that extent. It's disapointing to me that people today can treat helpless children in such a mannor, ripping them off of the very little money they do have. An interesting part of the film was when it showed us things that we can do and it said to tell five people what you have seen. This seems silly but it is true. I told five people about it and they found it very interesting and are now happy that they are aware of what is going on in Guatemala. The guest speaker was highly effective and really gave us a lot of insight about why were are involved in this project. __**Journal 2**__ Congratulations! It is because of strong willed and influential women like you that our world is slowly becoming a better place. After all of the hardships youve had to go through, from losing your family, to receiving death threats, I and many other people appreciate your will power. I am supremely content that someone as amazing as you won the Nobel Peace Prize because I cant think of many others who are remotely as deserving. I hope you enjoy your award and keep doing what youre doing. :) __**Journal 3**__ 458,920 aboriginal people live in Australia. They are the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aborigines are the two types. Several hundred indigenous Australian languages (many extinct or almost), Australian English, Australian Aboriginal English, Torres Strait Creole, Kriol exist with the aboriginals in Australia. During a census that involved religion 72 percent of the Aborigines practice some form of Christianity and 16 percent listed no religion. Australian aboriginals practice many ceremonies. A Corroboree is a meeting for Australian Aborigines. Fire-stick farming, 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. Tjurunga or churinga are objects of religious significance by Central Australian Aboriginal Arrernte groups. They practice many different styles of folk music and are famous for creating the didgeridoo which is claimed to be the worlds oldest instrument. The most popular sport the australian aboriginals play is a form of soccer called Marn Grook, played using possum hide. Education is one of the weaker sides for them. 39% of indigenous students stayed on to year 12 at high school, compared to 75% for the Australian population as a whole.22% of indigenous adults had a vocational or higher education qualification, compared to 48% for the Australian population as a whole.4% of Indigenous Australians held a bachelor degree or higher, compared to 21% for the population as a whole. An Indigenous Australian is 11 times more likely to be in prison than a non-Indigenous Australian and domestic abuse is a large problem in Indigeneous communities. Many of the communities have problems with legal and illegal substance abuse. Indigenous Australians gained the right to vote in Federal elections in 1965 but there are currently no elected Indigenous Australians in the Australian Parliament. __**Journal 4**__ Beginning with Latvia having a population of 2 307 000 and Canada having a population of 32 890 000, Latvia and Canada are tremendously diverse countries. Canada is one of the wealthier countries in the world having a net worth of $1.105 trillion and Latvia has a net worth of $29.214 billion. Canada has an area of 3,854,085 sq mi and Latvia has an area of 24,937 sq mi. Both countries have a parliamentary democracy but Canada also has a constitutional monarchy. Canadian demographics are "Canadian" (39.4%), followed by English (20.2%), French (15.8%), Scottish (14.0%), Irish (12.9%), German (9.3%), Italian (4.3%), Chinese (3.7%), Ukrainian (3.6%) and First Nations (3.4%). Latvian demographics are Latvians 68.3 % ,Russians 12%, Jews for 7.4 %, Germans for 6.2 %, and Poles for 3.4 %. Latvia has professional basketball, handball, volleyball, football and hockey leagues and Canada has many sports team with the number one sport being hockey. The capital of Canada is Ottawa and the capital of Latvia is Riga. __**Journal 5**__ 3 examples of acts that were commited during the Holocaust in Riga that fit our definition of injustice are...
 * __Journal 1__**

1) German Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), together with Latvian auxiliaries, shot several thousand Jews shortly after German forces entered the city. 2) The Germans ordered the establishment of a ghetto in the southeastern area of the city; this ghetto was sealed in October 1941, imprisoning 30,000 Jews. 3)The Germans deported 20,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Riga.

__**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__**
 * 1) General bullying

On her second day of secondary school a young girl’s high school experience began with being shoved into the road by another girl at her school. After that day, everyday she was bullied for her entire four years of high school. She had a bad reputation and even teachers hated her. While reading this article the first thing that came to mind were a few students here at our school that seem to constantly face bullying. Its evident that even after all of the speeches, seminars, assemblies and talks we’ve had here at our school about bulling, that kids still feel the need to hurt other students here at our school. The part of the article that shocked me the most was probably that there were teachers in this school that actually took part in the bullying of the young girl. I believe that the administration here at our school have attempted many times to end this epidemic but I think that the only way it will end is if “us” the students do it ourselves. We need to stand up to bullying and confront the students who do it, otherwise many more people will graduate from WHS having had a horrible experience.

2. Homophoebic bullying In this article two boys who were courageous enough to openly admit that they were gay, in the public school system, were bullied simply because they were gay. They were harassed everyday, hearing the words "fag" and "queer" around every corner. Even after being harassed in front of the principals office, nothing was done by the teachers. When I read this I empathized completely with their situation. I think it is highly courageous of these two boys to even come out and say that they are gay, in a culture where we love to judge everyone just to make ourselves feel better about our lives. I was a bit surprised when I first read that these two boys were harassed infront of the principals office but then I realized that even in our school apart from Mr. Blaquiere and a few other teachers, nothing is done to address the issue of students being discriminated against for their sexual orientation. I think that we all simply need to be more accepting. Because someone is gay does not mean that they arent a great person, or they dont have anything in common with you. By judging someone in that way you arent just hurting them, you are depriving yourself of someone who could be one of your greatest friends.

3. A Recent Incident

A young girl named Rashida was innocently walking the halls of her school with a group of friends. She is a muslim student at her school and because of that her and some of her friends were wearing a hijab. Another student ran up to them, spit on them and called them terrorists. Out of all of the articles this one enraged me the most. I really dont understand why someone would ever feel the need to spit on another human being because they were of a different religion. I think this article exposes a new immense problem that is emerging in our society. Like african americans were many years ago, Muslim people in Canada are becoming victims of racism since the incident of September 11th. Every muslim individual is seen as a terrorist and the fact that people are thinking of them in that way is absolutely ridiculous.

4.Cyber bullying In this article two young girls, ages 14 and 13 were charged with several counts of assault for threatening people over the internet. The father of a young boy at the school read a threat from the girls and immediately told the principal. They after the fact found that the girls had made threats to over fifteen other students at the school. Immediately, I was shocked by the young ages of the girls. Children are becoming much more hostile at younger ages and I believe it completely has to do with the media. The movies that children are watching such as "the princess diaries" or "mean girls" expose bullying as being light hearted and even cool but in reality it is a very serious issue that traumatizes people for life. Another shocking discovery here is that the internet is definitely an unsafe place for children. Technology has helped youth get away with many more things. Parents usually dont know what theyre children are chatting about online or even texting about. Hopefully internet bullying will be stopped before it becomes an epidemic because it coule be highly dangerous. Unless you have the transcript of what was said it is extremely difficult to prove the bullying. But is it that it isnt already an epidemic or do we just not know what is really going on?

5. Bullying from the perpetrators point of view Clare, a self proclaimed bully, admits that over twenty years after graduating from highschool she still feels guilty about being a bully. She claims that she was bullied when she was young and she became one as a way to persevere. I find this article VERY interesting. It is not often that we hear about bullying from the perpetrators point of view and the effects that bullying has on the bully themselves is interesting. Years, later when this girl as matured she feels guilty about something she did in highschool and its something she will probably never forget. I think its interesting that she was once bullied and then became one but the more I think about it, its probably a common thing. This girl was bullied for many years and then became a bully as a way to get back at those people. Bullying is a very serious issue and I think this article is one that every bully should read because it doesnt only hurt the victim. You will regret the pain you inflicted on another student many years later. I think once we all realize that the best way to go through highschool is to get along with everyone and enjoy it, we will all live in a harmonious highschool.

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 (Courtney and Jocelyn)__**

Zero Tolerance Policy
 * __Journal 9__**

I realize that considering the past incidents schools have had with gun crimes, even a water gun could be found as an unacceptable toy to bring to school. Although, to a child a water gun symbolizes something completely different than it does to an adult. I don’t believe a ten year old child who brings a water gun to school should even be punished at all. He most likely brought the gun to school to play with his friends and just be a kid. I completely understand that guns need to be taken seriously in schools but I don’t believe at all that a ten year old boy with a water gun is a threat what so ever. The young boy was most likely very confused when he was suspended because he had no intentions of harming anyone. I think that it is an issue we need to take seriously but to suspend a child for bringing a water gun to school is a bit extreme.