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Show The Park Record Wednesday, September 15, 2000 Student to student by Justin Blake PCHS student A-18 Unin I CiREEIIC Presents HUNT MYSTERY'S MURDER MYSTERY 'Godfather of the Bride9 Saturday, January 22 starting at 7:00 p.m. Mystery for only $35.00 with buffet including prime rlb, rotisserie pork, Chilean Seabass, Dessert and more.... Restaurant Open To The Public From 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. 0 fii(f)(f)D$4a(&$g v$ V n t ,f t i C (5. 1 ii Teen pregnancy at PCHS A topic of certain relet ance at Park City High School is teen pregnancy. This is because one high school student is pregnant by another high school student. To my understanding, this was a planned pregnancy between the couple and they are going to have and keep the child. This was a selfish and irresponsible irre-sponsible act. which brings up many tough decisions for all those concerned, including the school district. The decision to become pregnant and keep the child has to take the cake as the most selfish and irresponsible act I've seen in the high school. Simply because this child fills some strange need for them they have decided to have it. Not only does this pretty much ruin their chances of having a progressively better life; they have failed to think about the child. Raising a child is not a matter of simply breast feeding and laying out clothes in the hall. W hat if the child becomes sick? What if the child is handicapped? W hat are they going to teach this child about right and wrong, about what people should do with their lives and how they should treat themselves? By not being able to provide and teach their child adequately ade-quately they have pre-ruined one life w ith their decision. Mv understandins is that the school district is not handling the situation very well. The word is that, although they cannot simply force the couple out of school, they are pressuring and "encouraging" "encour-aging" her to leave the school. Their reasoning is that seeing this pregnant woman walking around the halls, who shows quite a bit now that she is in her third trimester, encourages other people peo-ple to become sexually active and pregnant. This is the wrong way to go about things. First. 'all the students stu-dents I have talked to say that seeing this person has the exact opposite affect on them: it actually actual-ly reinforces their belief in safe sex or abstinence. Second, what is best for this couple and their unborn child? Will the baby of a high school drop out appreciate the limited chances for its mother? moth-er? Will limiting the mother and father's education help this child? No. Education for the parents is one of the few things that will give this child a chance at any sort of decent life. This couple has made a mistake, but just because they dont want to or aren't rich enough to have an abortion doesn't does-n't mean that the school district needs to help ruin their and their child's life by limiting their education. educa-tion. AH this talk of teen pregnancy and high school sexual actiutv may surprise many parents. Many high school students I've talked to say that their parents don't really have any idea of how sexually active many high school students are. Parents, especially those of early middle school children: chil-dren: there is no time like the present to talk to your children about the responsibilities of sex. If you believe in aN;nence then advocate that, but since sexual activity is a personal matter and your child may choose to be sexually sexu-ally active always advocate at least 'safe' sex. Not only that, but reveal to your child w hat having a child would do to his or her life. This talk may be a little embarrassing, embar-rassing, but what is worse. 30 minutes of embarrassment or your child ruining their chances of doing great things with their life by hating a child before they are ready to? I think the talk makes a bit more sense. Finally, it may seem that I have been a little harsh on this couple. I just want to make it clear that having this child doesnl make them bad people, they are good people that have made a terrible decision. After all. this terrible decision forced a child into a life most likely of hardships, lacks and wants. Most importantly, this couple is just an example and the preceding goes for most high school-aged parents. At 9HJES CRSBYs mo 15 fV Stow itjoiMfr & wSNanr- Cfci'i lei ujaiiav Oft, iMTOiiliDtflBIiliii AP and Latinos: barrier in academics Continued from A-17 "Th difficulty we have is that, because of the language barrier, they (Latino students) are intimidated." intimi-dated." Maak also said that many AP classes are by nature very language lan-guage intensive, thereby exacerbating exacer-bating the underlying problem that Latino students have with reading, writing, and comprehending English. Hal Smith, principal of Park City High School, agreed with Maak that the main obstacle to entering the upper-level academic track is. for most Latinos. one of language. He said that it is unrealistic to , "ask these kids to go from m , almost no education to an AP class." However. Smith also noted that there are some cultural and economic factors affecting the situation. sit-uation. Many Latino students, said Smith, simply have different goals and desires for their education. educa-tion. "Maybe they're here to get the best job possible, and maybe we ought to try to meet those needs." High school English as a Second Language teacher Nora Fox said that many of her students come from families where employment might be more of a priority than homework. She said that many of her students go straight from school to work, where they may well spend most of the evening. At a school board meeting on Tuesday. Jan. 11, district educators educa-tors reporting on the ESL program pro-gram explained that a lack of parental involvement constitutes one side of the cultural hurdle to full academic equality for Latinos. Mona Lesar. an ESL teacher at McPolin. stated. "Culturally, in Mexico, you (parents) dont even go into schools. They're really not an active part in the children's education." In an effort to reach out to If we can get these kids moving at a real young age, maybe we can see them in some AP classes. " - Jerry Maak PCHS Spanish teacher Latino parents, the district offered an evening meeting with parents. However, very few attended. Those reporting at the school board meeting also emphasized that, with newly arrived members of the community, success in the school system is heavily dependent depend-ent on an early start. Treasure Mountain Middle School Spanish teacher Jennifer King said, "We have an extra challenge at the middle school... students have more to learn by the time they get to high school." As more students in the high school arrive who have had that early start, many in the district believe that the Latino presence in advanced academic courses will rise accordingly. Maak stated, "If we can get these kids moving at a real young age, maybe we can see them in some AP classes." The disparity between the numbers of Latinos in the student body and the number of Latinos in AP classes remains, whatever the reasons for it. Maak said that, for those students who do not work their way up through, the system, but arrive at an age where they are near its completion, other forms of academic achievement are perhaps more important than entering AP classes. "I dont think they're necessarily harmed by it." said Maak of Latino under-representation in AP classes. Maak focuses on teaching teach-ing students the language skills necessary to gradu- . . ate from high school, and helping them move further in the educational system. Last year, according to Maak. the high school graduated two students who had arrived in the United States without any English ability. This year, five or six may graduate. One Latino student who graduated grad-uated from Park City High School has received a college scholarship through the high school, and money is being sought lo provide four or five such scholarships. Maak said that scholarship money is critical to the college hopes of many Latinos. The University of Utah offers a "Chicano-Latino Scholarship," and five high school students are currently in the process of applying apply-ing for it. "We're trying to get them to go to college, at anv level." said Maak. a. ' l je t -iV' i - tf- "pwlwj 14 -ffMriieJ shocks o( th 2000 M-Ctau. Mth tht smooth ritfa ""Tl V fcM f VWn for aatrin. 1 WOc, at UiJ9V AirTouch. 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