The Media Freedom Foundation » alternet

Zero-Tolerance Education Policies Are Destroying Young People’s Lives

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:45:41 +0000

In the year 2006, 3.3 million students, or one in fourteen, were suspended or expelled. This is due to the Zero-Tolerance Policy that has been in effect since 1994. In recent years this policy has negatively effected many students in the school systems. The Zero-Tolerance Policy was first implemented to expel any student for a year that brought a weapon to school. Now this policy has been put into regular use for minor infractions made by students such as profanity, talking back, defiant behavior, and bringing over the counter medicines to school. Punishing students is doing more harm than good. Instead of giving these troubled students the services that they desperately need, schools are referring them to juvenile courts to address behaviors that can and should be handled by school administration. Since students are introduced to the judicial system at such a young age, they are more likely to drop out of schools and encounter the judicial system again.

This Zero-Tolerance Policy is having a more direct effect on the African American population in the United States. Students of color are targeted by school officials more than white students and receive harsher punishments like suspension and expulsion. Currently, the United States has the highest incarceration rate. There are more African American men living in jail cells than in college dorm rooms today.

As the ESEA bill is up for reauthorization, now is a crucial time in which the American public should speak up to local lawmakers in order to abolish the Zero-Tolerance Policy.

Sources:

LaMarche, Gara. “Zero-Tolerance Education Policies Are Destroying Young People’s Lives”, AlterNet.org, AlterNet, 13 April 2011. 15 April 2011. .

Michigan State University. “Zero tolerance ineffective in schools, study finds.” ScienceDaily, 11 May 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2011

Yanoff, Shelly. “‘Zero Tolerence’ failed city schools”, AlterNet.org, AlterNet, 11 April 2011. 14 April 2011. .

Student Researcher: Anna Prasch, Addie McDonnell and Hannah Weigel

Faculty Instructor: Kevin Howley

Evaluator: Jamie Stockton Ph.D., Educational Studies

DePauw UniversitySimilar Posts:

Wind Farms Survive Japan Disasters Proving Doubters Wrong

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:26:07 +0000

Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.

Mr. Ueda, the leader of the International Committee of the Japan World Power Association & Japan Wind Energy Association, confirms that most of the Japanese wind turbines are fully operational and indeed providing a large portion of people with electricity. Mr. Ueda continues to say “that electric companies have asked wind farm owners to step up operations as much as possible in order to make up for shortages in the eastern part of the country.”

Eurus Energy Japan says that 174.9MW with eight wind farms (64% of their total capacity with 11 wind farms in eastern part of Japan) are in operation now. The residual three wind farms (Kamaishi 42.9MW, Takinekoshirai 46MW, Satomi 10.02MW) are stopped due to the grid failure caused by the earthquake and Tsunami. Satomi is to re-start operations in a few days. Kamaishi is notorious for tsunami disaster, but this wind farm is safe because it is positioned high in the mountains about 900m from sea level. As the world begins to see the potential danger associated with nuclear power, will countries start to develop and invest in wind power?

Title: Wind Farms Survive Japan Disasters Unscathed and Are Stepping Up Operations to Provide Power to Devastated Country
Publication: Huffington Post via Alternet.org, March 17th, 2011
Author: Kelly Rigg
URL:http://www.alternet.org/environment/150287/wind_farms_survive_japan_disasters_unscathed_and_are_stepping_up_operations_to_provide_power_to_devastated_country

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin
Student Researcher: Taylor Falbisaner, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Soy Boom Devastates South America

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:11:29 +0000

South American countries struggle to carve a niche out for themselves in the global market. Lands tended for generations by independent farmers in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, are now being swallowed up by corporations to create massive soybean monocultures. In particular, half of Argentina’s cropland is now devoted to soy, and the crop makes up one third of the countries exports. Soy is mostly exported to the US and China.

Not only are existing farmlands being sacrificed for soy production but South American forests and savannahs are as well. Due to increasingly relaxed regulations, a majority of these crops are genetically modified and inundated with environmentally damaging herbicides and insecticides. Soybeans are a relatively low maintenance crop. This puts farm workers out of jobs. These monocultures use so much land and displace food production for dietary staples of the local populations. As poverty and hunger increase environmental stability and diversity decrease. The rich get richer. Europe gets their soybeans.

Title: Feedlot Meat Has Spurred a Soy Boom That Has a Devastating Environmental and Human Cost

Publication: AlterNet, 3/17/11

Author: Jill Richardson

URL:http://www.alternet.org/world/150277/feedlot_meat_has_spurred_a_soy_boom_that_has_a_devastating_environmental_and_human_cost?page=1

Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips, Sonoma State University

Student Researcher: Alex Miller, Sonoma State University

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Wind Farms Survive Japan Disasters Proving Doubters Wrong

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 02:54:23 +0000

Eurus Energy Japan says that 174.9MW with eight wind farms (64% of their total capacity with 11 wind farms in eastern part of Japan) are in operation now. The residual three wind farms (Kamaishi 42.9MW, Takinekoshirai 46MW, Satomi 10.02MW) are stopped due to the grid failure caused by the earthquake and Tsunami. Satomi is to re-start operations in a few days. Kamaishi is notorious for tsunami disaster, but this wind farm is safe because it is positioned high in the mountains about 900m from sea level. As the world begins to see the potential danger associated with nuclear power, will countries start to develop and invest in wind power?

Title: Wind Farms Survive Japan Disasters Unscathed and Are Stepping Up Operations to Provide Power to Devastated Country

Publication: Huffington Post via Alternet.org, March 17^th, 2011

Author: Kelly Rigg

URL:http://www.alternet.org/environment/150287/wind_farms_survive_japan_disasters_unscathed_and_are_stepping_up_operations_to_provide_power_to_devastated_country

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin, Sonoma State University

Student Researcher: Taylor Falbisaner, Sonoma State University

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Higher Education Should be Free

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:49:36 +0000

Americans owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards with average college students in $24,000 of college related debt. With tuition costs going up due to grant aid cuts, parents are starting to feel they can no longer afford to send their children to college. It is the poor and middle class who are unable to afford the very thing that enables their children to seek a better life.

$70 to $100 billion dollars is the estimated cost of tuition at public universities across the nation. It sounds like a lot of money, however, providing free higher education for American citizens would cost a little more than the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of the country.

Free higher education would expand our economy. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates a college-educated person will earn $900,000 more over the course of a lifetime than a high school graduate. With college educated workers, are country will have the ability to discover new breakthroughs in biology, nanotechnology, or computer science that would create new industries and promote further prosperity. The wealthy would benefit the most from a well-educated and consequently well-paid work force. A work force that, as a result, would create demand for the products produced by the small businesses and companies the wealthy own.
THe price tag for free public college education would be less than $136 billion spent in Iraq and Afghanistan last year. We need to live up to our egalitarian promise that all people, regardless of wealth of social standing, have the same opportunity for success.

Title: To Hell With Student Loans — It’s time for College to be Free
Publication: AlterNet, November 18th, 201
Author: Dr. C. Alonzo Peters,
URL: http://www.alternet.org/story/148918/to_hell_with_student_loans_–_it%27s_time_for_college_to_be_free

Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin, Sonoma State University
Student Researcher: Erin Newton, Sonoma state University
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How the Pentagon Influences Books on Afghanistan

admin — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:12:41 +0000

The Pentagon is trying to influence and limit what books American’s can read about the current war taking place in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is willing to go to great lengths to limit us to specific books that they would like us to read about, like the books Afghanistan Counterinsurgency and the Indirect Approach and Hunter- Killer Teams: Attacking Enemy Safe Havens which are both books that were released by the Joint Special Operations University, which is a Pentagon professional school.

The Pentagon only wants books out there that are pro-war and talks solely about doctrines, strategies, and tactics. When they are faced with books that are more in-depth about what is really going on in the war, they try to put a stop to the publication. If they cannot, they do what they did to Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s book Operation Dark Heart and spend nearly $50,000 taxpayer dollars to reach an agreement with Shaffer and his publisher to purchase the books and destroy most of the copies. They did this because they are trying to keep the true issues and events of the war out of American’s (and the rest of the world’s) eyes. They do not want everyone to know the analysis about whether to fight such wars, the investigation of the true cost of war, and the plans to end the bloody, costly war.

With the marketplace filled with books that are devoted to tweaking, enhancing, and improving war- fighting capabilities, there is a crying need for some counterbalance. Sebastian Junger’s book War does exactly. War goes into detail about specific corrupt, irresponsible events that have occurred in the Afghan War that are not reported or brought to American’s attention.

Title: How the Pentagon Tries to Influence What Books You Can Read About Afghanistan

Source: AlterNet, 10/15/10

Author: Nick Turse

URL:http://www.alternet.org/world/148511/how_the_pentagon_tries_to_influence_what_books_you_can_read_about_afghanistan

Student Researcher: Gina Uliana, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator: Eric Williams, Sonoma State UniversitySimilar Posts:

Cops Taze Disturbed, Unarmed Naked Man to Death for “Walking Toward Them”

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:11:27 +0000

In June, Brian Cardall was driving home to Arizona from Utah when he stopped his car, removed his clothes and flagged down vehicles on the road. This happened due to his bipolar disorder. His wife had given him medication and informed the police of her husband’s condition and that it would take some time before the medication settles in. However, when Hurricane Chief of Police Lynn Excell and Officer Ken Thompson arrived on the scene, they ordered Cardall to get down on the ground. Cardall refused to do so and Thompson fired his Taser striking Cardall in the chest who was still naked. When Cardall attempted to rise, Thompson gave him a second jolt and within minutes, he was dead.

The legal use of tasers began less than twenty years ago and has been a controversial issue. Before the invention of tasers, the incidence would have been settled with the officers arresting and handcuffing Cardall. Unfortunately, this incident resulted in Cardall’s death. Cardall’s death could have been prevented; Cardall who was not even armed was tasered due to his condition. Tasers allow officers to protect themselves and neutralize threat from others without using physical contact. Is this invention necessary and will more lives be taken?

Source: D, Steven. “Cops Taze Disturbed, Unarmed Naked Man to Death for ‘Walking Toward Them’”. Booman Tribune, 5 December 2009. Web. 7 December 2009. < http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/144389/cops_taze_disturbed,_unarmed_naked_man_ to_death_for_%22walking_toward_them%27/#more>

Student Researchers: Anna Kung, Shannon Cree, Delana Colvin

Faculty Instructor: Kevin Howley, Associate Professor of Media Studies, DePauw University

Evaluator: Jamie Knapp, Library and Information Services, DePauw UniversitySimilar Posts:

Black Teacher Looks at 15 Years for Cutting in Line

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:10:32 +0000

A black woman named Heather Ellis is looking at 15 years in prison for cutting in line at a Wal-Mart store. Ellis, who is a teacher and has been described as respectable, joined her cousin in a check-out line that was moving faster than the line she was previously in. After Ellis joined this line, she alleged that white customers and employees began to use racial slurs, pushed her, and police officers physically and verbally mistreated her. A police report states that Ellis pushed merchandise off the conveyor belt, resisted arrest, and threatened the officers, all of whom were white. Even if Ellis did resist arrest, a 15 year prison sentence seems to be a bit much for such an offense. None of the accusations that the police officers made merit the punishment that they are seeking. It is quite clear that this sentence is the product of outright racism.

Source:

“Black Teacher May Get 15 Years in Prison for Cutting in Line at Wal-Mart.” http://www.alternet.org/rights/144189/black_teacher_may_get_15_years_in_prison_for_cutting_in_line_at_wal-mart/?page=2

www.saveheatherellis.com

Student Researchers: Shannon Cree, Anna Kung, Delana Colvin

Faculty Instructor: Kevin Howley, Associate Professor of Media Studies, DePauw University

Evaluator: Jo MacPhail, Part-time Instruction and Reference Librarian, DePauw UniversitySimilar Posts:

Global Warming Threatens Alaska’s Waters with Acidification

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:54:52 +0000

Over time, Alaska has been affected by global warming through shrinking glaciers, costal erosion, and melting sea ice in the Artic that impacts marine animals and sea life found in these waters. Recently, scientists discovered that Alaska’s waters are becoming less basic and more acidic as a result of global warming. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to ocean acidification, as nearly thirty percent of greenhouse gases emitted by humans gets absorbed into the ocean each year. A chemical oceanographer conducted research on the seawater and found samples to contain more acidity than in tropical waters. Testing also found multiple locations where the acidity inhibits the growth of shell-building minerals causing many shellfish to struggle to building strong shells. Instead of focusing on growth and reproduction, these types of creatures will have to spend their energy on adjusting to acidity changes in the water. Last year Alaska rejected The Center for Biological Diversity’s request for the state to declare its waters damaged under the Clean Water Act, but the center renewed its request this year in hopes that the state will submit to their plea.

Sources:

Joling, Dan. “Global Warming Threatens Alaska’s Waters with Acidification.”

Alternet. N.p., 9 Sept. 2009. Web. 5 Oct. 2009. <http://www.alternet.org/water/142536>.

Student Researchers: Jillian Harbin & Abbey Wilson

Faculty Instructor: Kevin Howley, Associate Professor of Media Studies, DePauw University

Evaluator: Tim Cope, Department of Geosciences, DePauw UniversitySimilar Posts:

New York Park Exploits Vanishing Amazon Resource

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:48:50 +0000

The group behind the creation of High Line Park in New York built all of the seating and decking with wood from the Amazon Rainforests. Ipe, the type of tree being used in the park, only grow around 1 or 2 trees per acre, forcing loggers to tear down paths to cut down these dispersed trees. Although 80% of the Amazon logging is done illegally, the group insists that the Amazon wood was a superior choice because it was taken from a forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. However, research shows that the depletion of rainforest trees causes the forest to dry out, burn, and disappear, despite the fact that certification may exist for logged areas. Different types of economically friendly resources exist, such as recycled plastic lumber, and could be used in exchange of the rare rainforest wood.

Sources:

Doody, Tim. “High Crime on the High Line: Why is NYC’s Highest-Profile Park

Using Amazon Wood.” Alternet. N.p., 5 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Sept. 2009. <http://www.alternet.org/story/142327/>.

Student Researchers: Jillian Harbin & Abbey Wilson

Faculty Instructor: Kevin Howley, Associate Professor of Media Studies, DePauw University

Evaluator: Tim Cope, Department of Geosciences, DePauw UniversitySimilar Posts: