FEATURE ARTICLES
Should a Woman have the Right to Abortion?
By Brianna Bustos
Abortion is a difficult subject to talk about with the surrounding feelings about it with different cultures and more modern values and ideas. Abortion has generated many opinions for many generations; at one point, abortion wasn't even an idea, and in these days, it might be one of the first issues you think of. In this article, I will talk about both sides and opinions, answer important questions, and gather information necessary to make an opinion yourself.
“The Court’s opinion delivers a wrecking ball to the constitutional right to abortion, destroying the protections of Roe v. Wade, and utterly disregarding the one in four women in America who make the decision to end a pregnancy.’’ This is an opening statement about the overturning of Roe V. Wade; the overturning has caused many opinions on abortion and problems within the country. Some people argue that the overturning of Roe V. Wade was the best decision because of personal religion and statistics state from CDC, “In 2019, 629,898 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas.” People use the statistics as ways to prove how many children are not born, but there is another side to this problem where women have the freedom to choose whether they want to carry a child or not. On this side, people argue that there should not be laws on women especially as the rape scales are at 14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted a year. They argue that instead of putting more laws on women's rights to their bodies, they should update the laws on men. Most religious people choose that women should not have the right to choose and other religious people choose that women should have the right to make that decision herself.
The U.S supreme court overturned Roe V. Wade, on June 24th, 2022. They overturned Roe V. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. They Overturned Roe V. Wade by The US supreme court taking a vote after arguing on the situation. The overturning of Row V. Wade makes it possible for an individual state to make laws against or for abortion. The main reason Roe V. Wade was over turned was because states wanted to be able to make their own laws that had to do with abortions;
Women/girls have the right to have an abortion; should they have the right? Many others I've talked to say yes, but there are also other people who say no. The people that said yes were because “It's her body, so it's her choice to have one or not,” or “another woman's body has nothing to do with me.” Ones that said no, did so because abortion “is murder, life begins at a conception”. A girl's body is her choice, so if she was going around and wasn't using something so she did not get pregnant that has nothing to do with the baby. If she was sexually assaulted, etc., the baby still had nothing to do with it and if she had the baby it would remind her everyday that she never gave up. Young girls are also sexually harassed, so if they're young and get pregnant, they're so young they barley can take care of themselves, how do they take care of another kid?
Abortions are taken for granted everyday; there are some people who get sexually assaulted, and there are about 125,000 abortions a day. So, should men have a say if a girl or woman should have a say? Some people say yes and some people say no. I did a survey and 71% of them said yes. It honestly depends how the girl/woman goes about it, because she can be stubborn and not let the men have a say, or she could be totally opposite and ask what he wants. “Nearly 1 in 4 woman will have an abortion by the age of 45.” https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abortion-common-experience-us-women-despite-dramatic-declines-rates
“I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that center on the sanctity of life. As a species, we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long poverty shows us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.”― Caitlin Moran,
Stress and Anxiety
By Angelica Gomez
Did you know that 3.1% of the US population has GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder)? A college in Columbus, Ohio did a survey on the students to find out how many of the students suffered from stress and anxiety. They found that the majority of people that suffer from stress and anxiety were high schoolers and college students.
Why do people get stressed and anxious? In a survey of staff and students Pecos High School, 10 individuals responded and 9 of those 10 said that overthinking is something that triggers their stress and anxiety. There are many different reasons people can become stressed and anxious. Stress and anxiety can come from working yourself too hard and becoming overwhelmed. Stress/Anxiety is also caused by having to do so much work in so little time, or becoming emotionally overwhelmed from too many things happening at once. Paranoia can also cause Stress/Anxiety because your brain is bringing so many different scenarios and being very aware of everything around you, which can cause you to stress out; this can lead to a panic attack. Stress/anxiety are not often seen as an excuse people use like “My dog ate my homework.” People don't take stress and anxiety as seriously as it should be taken. When people say they have stress or anxiety, people think they are being dramatic. In all reality, stress/anxiety are much bigger issues than that, and they can send people into depression. Depression is then seen as laziness, like it's another excuse. Stress/anxiety can also be triggered when you are put into a situation you didn't want to be in. Such as an awkward situation or a violent situation.
According to healthline.com Stress/anxiety often gets triggered by an unexpected event and is because of the unexpectedness of that event. It can cause people so much worry or anxiety they can be triggered into a panic attack. Even if they were happy, anxiety can affect people in seconds. There is always something that triggers it such as skipping miles, medication, caffeine etc. There can be something in the environment that throws you off and triggers it. It can be someone being too loud, large crowds, or uncomfortable situations you have no control over. Stress/anxiety comes in many different forms. It can feel like you can't breathe or like you have a heavy weight on your chest; it can be much more dangerous than people think it can throw you into a horrible loop that you think you can't get out of. Is stress/anxiety something you can get from your parents? Yes, stress/anxiety can come from your parents. It is more likely to have stress/anxiety if your family has it. Stress/anxiety can get worse as you go. It can give you heart problems and mental health problems that are hard to get rid of and if you do manage to get rid it's not completely gone. Stress/anxiety is worse for people that overthink, but it can also be bad for people that have ADHD because people with ADHD their brains are already all over the place and thinking about so many different things; in addition, it can also be triggered by what you drink.
Stress and anxiety can increase if you drink anything with caffeine. Caffeine makes even the person with the littlest bit of anxiety have an anxiety attack. Caffeine is something that stimulates your brain and your nervous system which can trigger your stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety can increase if you only drink caffeine especially if it is an everyday thing. In a survey 8 out of 10 people said that their stress and anxiety goes up when they drink coffee, Monsters, Red Bulls, and anything that has caffeine. The person I interviewed (anonymous), said every time he had a cup of coffee in the morning, his stress would go up and he would have a hard time concentrating on only one thing.
How do you deal with your stress and anxiety? You can lay on the floor, or you can put your head between your legs or many different things to calm yourself down. Stress and anxiety can be overpowering but something everyone has to go through. In an interview I conducted with my mom, she told me when she was in high school she had a lot of anxiety, so she would go somewhere quiet and calm down. It didn't always work, but it helped her with the stress and anxiety. In a survey, 9 of 10 people said that exercise helped them with their stress and anxiety. Running, lifting and many other things you can do at the gym can help with your stress and anxiety. In an article I read called "Managing Anxiety," it said “exercise can increase self confidence, self care, and help with stress and depression.”
Do you suffer from stress and anxiety? Do you know someone that does? If you do, it is not uncommon. This article may help get some information or help find information on stress and anxiety that could help you manage it or help others manage it.
The Impacts of Social Media
By Jazzlynn Roybal
Social media and technology have various impacts on social well-being, and mental health especially for young kids. Technology is shifting the way children, teens, and even adults brains function. Technology and social media are starting to create serious mental issues within teens and children, even adults. Are you addicted to technology or social media?
Social Media and technology have a huge impact on children, adults, and especially teens. Teenagers and children are exposed to too much too fast, due to social media platforms. Teens and children have become super antisocial due to social media and have developed social anxieties and depressions due to being invested in social media. I interviewed two people from my family, my grandma and grandpa, and they had a lot to say about social media. They believe children shouldn’t have cellphones and should spend their time as children wisely. My grandparents hate social media and believe nothing is a valid source anymore. They stated social media is messing up children's intelligence, social interactions and speech development. Social media has exposed children and teens to things that have impacted their mental health state fairly harshly and sometimes the damage is way more than what's being presented in the videos. I sent out a survey to ten of my family members and close friends to get their input. 70% of people said they were addicted, 80% stated they knew someone severely addicted, and 30% said they could last 3+ hours without their phones.
Mental health issues in children and teens have increased by 20% since 2018, brought on by social media. Suicidal thoughts are a main factor in this, and have increased in children and pre-teens. according to UPI, a Health News Outlet. With this being said, more children each year are facing a mental health blocks, which are proven to be influenced by social media. Influencers pursue this image of what people should look like and what they should do to pursue a “skinny” or “healthy” lifestyle. This is giving children, especially teenagers, the wrong idea about how they should look and how they should pursue their lives; they are children, and they should be able to live out their childhood. A lot of images on social media are manipulated through photo editing and filters. Everything on social media is fake, and is rarely ever real. This indicates body and beauty standards to the world and not just to women, but to men as well. These especially give children the wrong perspective of what they should worry about when they are young and this is leading many teens into more social anxieties, depressions, eating disorders and even body dysmorphia.
A survey from Reviews.org administered by Trevor Wheelwright provided statistics on cell phone usage and how addicted people actually are to their phones. The survey demonstrated that 83% of people feel super uneasy without their phones when having to leave their phones behind This survey also states that 47% of people cannot live without their phones and that their phones are their most prized possession. The part of this survey I loved the most focused on the statistics for phone usage once people wake up. Over 70% of people, within ten minutes of waking up, have to check their phones. This is a mandatory step in people's morning routines, which is bad. Imagine waking up and having the urge to check your phone, even though you're not even awake? That's an addiction! Phone addicts are becoming more and more severe in their anti-socialness and their neediness over their cell phones have become outrageous. People claim they have to be watching YouTube to be able to eat dinner or at least be scrolling through their feed on Tik Tok. Tik Tok is becoming a serious social media platform and has also become an unsafe place for children and even pre-teens. People on this app post explicit videos, which are viewable by young children. At younger ages than ever, children are likely to be exposed to inappropriate content. Kids don't need to be worrying about what their bodies look like and when they are going to get a boyfriend; they need to be kids, and they need to be worry-free, in order to enjoy a good childhood into their teenage years and adulthood. Children need to live their lives, not worry about how to live their lives.
Teenagers and adults tend to lean towards advanced social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and even Facebook and Twitter. These social media platforms contain various political issues, news issues, location adventures, and also, more interests, such as shopping and beauty products. These platforms are to promote the product to the audience in response to the audience buying the product and being invested in beauty lines and brands. Social media uses humans as a source of investments in order to make profits. Brands and companies are selling their products; they are selling their audience. We are the ones being sold into social media and various other brands including clothing, sporting goods, and beauty.
Social media has become such an addiction that each and every app has personalized information on brands you like and things you have stated you wished for in the past. For example, the Sephora app could consolidate a product you have purchased through the app and when you're running out the ad for this product will pop up again, indicating you need to purchase this product again. Amazon, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, etc. know your liking to range of products, and will track this from the beginning building data on your personal profiles linking the products to your store fronts or simply through the notification icons. Social media and platforms all have certain functions, but not all are very worthy of your time or money.
Social media is a serious problem which should be addressed more and emphasized more. Teens and children every year are increasing in depression, social, anxieties, and especially suicidal thoughts. Screen time should be limited and children, especially pre-teens and teenagers, should be supervised on which social media platforms they have access to, because they are dangerous. Social media is a serious problem, but are you addicted?
Social Impacts of the Pandemic
By Angel Avitia
So many of us have been through back-to-school anxiety over the years. But has it ever been as bad as it is now? The survey I conducted amongst 10 students and teachers showed a 50% split between people who had anxiety about coming back and those who hadn’t. All over the world, people have suffered more and more loss of social skills due to the two-year pandemic that took place. As the quarantine kept us inside our houses completely isolated
from the outside world depriving us of such a great necessity for social contact. However, the interviews and surveys used in this article were conducted in Pecos, New Mexico with students and teachers of the Pecos Independent School District.
Even though the pandemic may have set many people back in terms of social skills, there are still many people who enjoyed the pandemic's solitude. For example, a teacher at Pecos High who I interviewed, Mrs. Ramona Medina Pacheco, described herself as “Not affected; I am normally an introvert, so the pandemic was actually a nice respite from having to see (physically present) all day.” Even then, there are, and will always be two sides to the extent which the loss of sociality impacts people. For example, introverts make up many of my peers, while many others of my peers are extroverts.
Mental and social health is a very important aspect of not only a student's life, but a teacher’s as well. As so many of us suffer through things in our daily lives no matter our age or personality type, sometimes talking with your friends or lover may be exactly what takes you out of such a thing. However, even though this affects such a broad population of people, some adults believe that this isolation affected the youth and those with mental illnesses more. Both of my interviewees said this about the demographic group most affected; Ms. Ortiz another teacher at Pecos High said “I feel that it affected the youth the most." Many people believe this to be true, as many adults have already been “hardened” by their more vast experiences compared to say, an 18-year-old.
Not only did this pandemic affect the youth, but many people, like Mrs. Pacheco, believe that the ones also affected by the pandemic were those with social or mental health disorders. She commented, “I think that the people most affected are the ones with social/ emotional and/or mental illnesses. The rest of us probably will see no effects in the long run, but we'll be dealing with those of the other populations.” This is a much larger sum of the population than you might think. According to HopkinsMedicene.org an estimated 26% of Americans 18 or older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. Which is an estimated average of 1-4 Adult Americans who suffer from these mental disorders. Even then approximately 9.5% of Adult Americans will suffer from a depressive illness each year.
Even with all these things to take into account, there is one more thing that I have yet to talk about regarding the social impacts of the pandemic on not only the youth, but the entire global population as a whole. Many of us might believe that we may have not changed much after the two years spent in isolation. However, that is simply not the case, as many people have had their self-images changed or warped by the pandemic. Perhaps lowering self-esteem or as Ms. Ortiz noted, “I feel that the pandemic made people much more selfish.” I believe many people can relate with this, as those two years were spent not communicating with others. Not only did this create a bubble for the population, but things such as social media and many other things began to push us deeper into that isolation by being surrounded by virtual yes-men. This is not the case for everyone, as in the 10-person survey I conducted, over 60% of the surveyors responded "yes" to the question “Did you like how you were socially after the pandemic?” Still, a substantial 40% of the surveyors responded "no," suggesting that there have been considerable social repercussions from this pandemic.
This pandemic has affected our youth in terms of mental and social health. It has also affected our adult population within the United States, as more than 1-4 adults suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder. Even then the pandemic closed us off not only from the positive effects of social communication but the negatives as well which can also benefit us as people. It can lead to a less selfish populace of both adult people and the youth. What about you? Do you think this pandemic has changed who you are?
Dealing with Stresses from School
By Heidi Moreno
Many students in either high school or college suffer from illness that are caused by school. These mental illnesses are usually anxiety or depression from the loads of work school may give you. When suffering from these mental illnesses no one really takes the time to help you slow down and get through these episodes that you may have. Yes it's more of having to putting school and/or work first, before putting yourself, in order to fulfill the needs of your teachers, parents, and others. Your high school years are crucial to what your future holds, but I feel students should be allowed a day to just have time to catch up on things they haven't had the chance to get to, because of other things getting in the way.
Having a mental illness can cause many changes to your daily life that can ultimately affect your performance in school, like how depression can sometimes lead to not eating throughout the day. This can cause you to not put as much effort into something in school. I feel some students who are dealing with certain mental illnesses don't necessarily put in effort to calm their nerves down, but mostly put it to the side because they have to prioritize school, instead of themselves. Once students start to put school before themselves, yes their grades reflect that they’ve been working hard on keeping up, but students may also start to notice that they can slowly start to let go of themselves while doing this. Although summer does give a long break, other students spend their summer working and trying to save money for college or even to help their parents financially, so really there are kids who never really get a break, at least from their school stresses.
Students often listen to music or put themselves in a calm surrounding in order to deal with these stresses, or again, some students don't even deal with these stresses; they just put the stresses to the side and keep going or even just don't end up doing half of the things they need to because of other things going on in their lives. Some students are struggling with working a part time job while dealing with high school and college classes, and even sometimes sports. All of these things at once can take a big toll on someone's mental health and cause some students to start to rely on certain things to help calm these emotions, such as drugs or even violence. For example, I read an article on how college students deal with stress and it stated that nearly ⅕ of college students stated that they take prescription medication in order to deal with their stress. I feel that there are many healthier ways to cope with the emotions you’re having, but then, yet again, not everyone has the time to go out for a walk and enjoy time outside of their everyday cycle. So in order to give these students a chance to put themselves first for at least a day, I think they should get a day in school to just relax and not get new assignments thrown at them to add on to the ones they may have for other classes.
After handing out a survey to some of my classmates I found out that all students who responded to the survey said school does cause a load of stress but there was one response that caught my attention. The question I asked was as simple as if school causes you stress and what specific things cause stress. Someone responded that stress may come from their social life in school, regarding their friends and the people around them. This made me think to myself that yes students suffer from stress because of school work, but some students also struggle with dealing with the people around them. This itself can lead to many things, such as self harm and/or the harm of others which obviously is not a good thing. An easy solution to this would be to have the option for online classes students can do school from home.
Overall, I think students should be given a day in school to just catch up and do work they haven't done because of other work getting in the way, things going on at home, or even having to juggle work, school, and college courses. Doing this would help slow down, and hopefully in the future prevent the outcome of what stress can do to the body and mind when dealing with these things at a young age. We should teach students that it is okay to take a break and separate yourself from school for once and put yourself first for a day. This will allows students to treat themselves for their hard work throughout the week, because even adults need these days just to gather themselves and prepare for the next day ahead.
The Dangers of Drugs and Alcohol
By Cheyenne Armijo
Drug and alcohol usage is now everywhere on the streets, with everyone doing it--even teenagers. This can leave parents wondering where kids are getting these things and how to help a loved one with this illness of addiction. Well, I'm here to tell you about the dangers and facts about drugs.
Teenagers and kids 12-18 are getting caught with substances at school, it has been reported 17% of kids have gotten suspended from school in the last year. Schools have reported over 60 percent of kids use, sell, and buy drugs on school property; 50 % of deaths have been due to drugs. Teenagers aren't aware of the harm that these substances are doing to their body and how it could affect them in the future because they're so young trying it.
Drugs are constantly on the streets and have affected many people, addiction is an illness that affects everything and eventually takes over your life. You start losing weight, and it can cause acne. It makes you lose all self control and you become impulsive. You become dependent on drugs, due to a chemical called dopamine. This is a chemical that produces a sense of pleasure, which is created naturally. When using drugs, your dopamine levels go up, and without drugs, your body won't go back to naturally making dopamine.
A recovering addict named Giana tells her story. She was 13 when she first tried drugs and continued her addiction till she was 33 years old. She was nearly 80 pounds and felt that death was her destiny. That's when she decided she wanted to change and better herself. Before then, she had gone to rehab 11 times, but this time when she went, she really worked it, and got clean.
Another recovering addict named Amanda Cook started using and drinking at the young age of 13. Although she was using, she still managed to get good grades and stay on top of her piano lessons. She went to a competitive University and graduated 4 years later. After having 2 kids at the age of 34, she started getting out of hand. Amanda started using poppy seeds w tea and became highly addicted. While also on poppy, she started using cocaine at the same time. There was a doctor 2 hours away who would prescribe her suboxone, which did a lot of damage on her. She knew she was close to death and ready to die. At this time, her husband forced her to go into inpatient treatment, and that's when she realized she needed to live for her kids, and this was another chance. Amanda finally got the help she needed and got healthy.
Drugs and alcohol can ruin your relationships with your family and friends and can destroy your health. You may not think you're not doing any serious damage, but you are. If you have a problem, you do not need to feel as if you have to do it alone--there is help out there!