I agree with you that more education will be more effective than making more laws. When you are distracted while driving, things happen in a split second. I read the article, "Simulator Shows Danger of Texting While Driving." This article made me realize how fast things can happen when you are distracted while driving a vehicle. The article says, "I crashed into the back of a bus within two minutes the first time I tried it," Balsavich said. "It really did a good job of showing you just how quickly and suddenly that can happen." I could have never thought that accidents could happen so quickly until I read this article. I agree with you that there should be classes that teach drivers about driving safely. I believe that it would help the drivers learn how quickly an accident can happen when you aren't watching the road like you mentioned. I think that drivers under the age of 21 should be required to take the classes. The reason that I think that is because teenagers are more likely to get into accidents involving distracted driving than adults are. The article says, "The study reports that teen drivers are four times more likely than adults to get into car crashes or near-crash events directly related to talking on a cellphone or texting." There are many reasons that I think that classes should be required to teach drivers how dangerous it is to take your eyes of the road. I truly believe that more education is the way to go instead or more laws.

I don't think that more laws is gong to help decrease the amount of distracted driving at all. States have banned drivers who are under 21 from texting and driving since 2009. The amount of accidents that involve distracted driving is increasing every year, and we already have a law that bans texting and driving. I read the article, "States Unlikely to Heed NTSB Call for Cell Ban" say, "The state has barred drivers 21 and younger from texting while driving since 2009. Several lawmakers proposed legislation the next year to extend that to all drivers but failed, partly because of concerns over whether it could be enforced." There are a lot of accidents that involve texting and driving still today even with the law. The article, "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said there were 3,092 fatalities blamed on distracted driving last year, 408 of which involved cellphone use." I feel that if we educate teens about how dangerous distracted driving can then maybe they will think twice, but I don't feel that more laws are going to help at all.

I have to disagree with you on this one. I don't think that school programs are getting more successful at preventing bullying at all. There are students that are killing themselves all the time because of the way that they are treated by others at school. I read the article, "When Push Comes to Shove." The article says, "Two decades ago, three children killed themselves. The youngest was only 10 years old. All three had apparently been driven to despair--at least in part--by the persecution they'd endured at their schools." I think that it is very depressing that a ten year old would kill themselves because of what other students said to them at school. Not only does the bullying hurt the students at the time that they are bullied, but it affects they way that they think of themselves later in life. When you are bullied in school, you are never going to forget what people said about you even when you get older. You are going to think worse of yourself because of what they said, and you are going to have more of a chance at going through depression because of it. The article says, "But, compared with those who weren't bullied, they were more likely to have low self-esteem or suffer from depression." I don't think school programs are successful or that they are getting more successful.

I agree with you that the school programs are not successful. Like you mentioned, bullying can make people have the desire to kill themselves. It also makes them not want to learn or go to school anymore. I read the article, "When Will Schools Take Bullying Seriously?" says, "Bullying can destroy victims' desire to learn--and even to live--and can leave them debilitated well into adulthood." When are being bullied, it not only hurts the victim, but it hurts the bully and the people that see it happen too. The bystanders a lot of the time then regret not standing up to the person who is doing the bullying, but there are sometimes that the bystanders join in with the bully to make fun of the victim. The article says, " Research has demonstrated that bullying harms not only the victim but the bully and bystanders as well." I truly think that the schools need to have more strict about the punishment that students get when they are caught bullying other students. I think that the students who are caught bullying other should get in trouble with the law. If you are caught like three times, I think that the school should get the cops involved. That way the students would have a reason that would make them stop bullying. No one wants to be in trouble with the cops, so they would stop after two times at the most I believe. The article says, "Unfortunately, school officials have little legal incentive to embrace significant reform because they are seldom held responsible even for serious outbreaks of violence among students, much less for the ongoing harassment that occurs routinely in their halls and classrooms." I believe that school programs need to be way more strict about bullying than they are now.

I believe that school uniforms improve behavior in students. The first reason that I think they improve behavior is because with school uniforms students wouldn’t able to wear colors that are symbolic of gangs that they are in. If they can’t express what gang they belong to than I feel as though student would be treated more fairly, and there would be less harassment. The article, By All Accounts, School Uniforms Improve Learning Environment says, “But the uniforms -- dress codes, really -- also seem to crimp a range of unsavory activities, especially displays of gang colors and resulting altercations.” Another reason that I think school uniforms would improve behavior is because students wouldn’t have to worry about what they were wearing to school. They wouldn’t have to try to dress with the newest fashion to avoid getting made fun of, so their attitudes would be much better. Parents also wouldn’t have to spend as much money on clothes for their children to wear when they went back to school. This would help certain families out a lot that really don’t have the money to go out and buy new clothes all the time. The article says, “Students and parents are spared the dilemma about what to wear, don't need to spend as much on back-to-school clothes, school officials are forced to make fewer judgment calls about appropriate clothing, and Granger educators say students have better attitudes about school.” Also, students would learn how to dress for the future. If they get a job in an office, they are going to have to wear certain outfits to work. When they have school uniforms, it helps them prepare for the ways they are going to have dress in the future. The articles states, “Students who learn to dress appropriately in school also can do so in professional settings, such as offices. This is a key step in getting teenagers prepared for the workforce.” I think that school uniforms would improve the behavior in students in many different ways.

I think that we need more education about distracted driving instead of just making the laws tougher. Tougher laws are not going to make people stop using their phones while they are driving because they will just find other ways not to get caught doing it. People see what can happen when you are texting or talking on the phone while driving on tv or in videos, and they are scared of the outcomes. When after seeing those videos, people still use their phones while driving. The article, Yes, Cellphones Can Be Dangerous. No a Nationwide Ban Won’t Work says, “If even people’s own fear of danger won’t prevent cell phone use, it’s hard to imagine that bans will be more effective.” Even if they did make tougher laws, they would be very difficult to enforce. The article says, “They will be a nightmare to enforce. Laws that are unenforceable (see: prohibition) do not increase respect for the law or change attitudes.” I thought that was a very good comparison because when they tried to make prohibition a law, people just bought illegal alcohol. Even with the law, the people wanted alcohol got the alcohol that they wanted when they wanted it. If you made it illegal to use the phone while driving, people would just rebel and do it illegally. People would still use their phone if they wanted to and when they wanted to. Look at the seat belt laws, the laws are strict that if you don’t wear one, you get a ticket. There are still many people who don’t wear their seat belts because they don’t want to. People will use hands-free, so that if a cop drives by them, they can’t see the phone. They think that if they use hands-free, they are being safer than without hands-free. The article says, “Even using hands-free devices doesn’t seem to make much difference ; research shows the conversation itself distracts the driver’s brain.” I truly believe that if people were educated more about how dangerous distracted driving is then they would think twice before they do it. I think that before you get your license, you should have to take like three classes over distracted driving and the dangers. I believe that tougher laws will not make people stop, but more education will get them to think twice.

I don’t think that the school programs are successful. If they were successful then we wouldn’t have so many people that commit suicide because they are bullied. The article Teens Taunted by Bullies Are More Likely to Consider, Attempt Suicide says, “Victims of bullying were more than twice as likely as other kids to contemplate suicide and about 2.5 as likely to kill themselves.” It is terrible that kids can say such mean things to others, and to think that what you say to them could make them want to kill themselves. You may not realize it, but words hurt people a lot more than you think. The article says, “Experts believe that as many as 1 in 5 teens are involved in some type of bullying, and suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents worldwide.” There are a lot of teens you get bullied everyday, but they are too nervous to tell someone about what is going on. When they don’t know who to tell or who to trust, they just decide that may not being here would be easier. “In the United States, between five percent and eight percent of teenagers tries to kill themselves each year. But the problem is global”, says Mitch van Geel. That shows that the school programs aren’t doing much for the students that are getting bullied, if in the United States alone there are that many teens that commit suicide. Mitch van Geel says, “Schools should take every effort to reduce and prevent bullying.” I think that if someone gets caught bullying someone they should have serious consequences, not just a detention. When they get detention, all they do is serve it then go and bully people again. They should get in trouble with something more serious, like after you are caught three times then the cops get involved. If teens realized that they could get in trouble with the cops then maybe they would think twice before they bullied others again. I truly think that the schools need to realize that this is a very serious issue, and they need to do more to protect the students that are getting bullied.