The Oracle Editorial Board is well aware that South is an academically competitive environment. However, it has come to our attention that it is common practice for some guardians to check their students’ grades online on a regular basis. With the easy grade access due to PowerSchool, we would like to make sure that guardians are using PowerSchool in a way that benefits their child’s performance and well-being.
To ensure that Powerschool is used properly, communication between guardian and student is key. It is a guardian’s responsibility to listen to their student’s explanations of grades with patience and open-mindedness in order to encourage progress rather than punish unsatisfactory performance. Plus, it is in every student’s best interest to practice independently monitoring their own grades before they leave high school.
However, this grade monitoring must maintain a sense of perspective. For students, checking PowerSchool sparingly will allow for more focus on the content itself rather than the scores. If you catch yourself logging in every five minutes to check if your teacher put that last test grade in, you’re over-using that tool and stressing yourself out.
It seems simple: take this pill and you will focus better, you will be more productive and you won’t be slowed down by exhaustion or distraction. Although relieving some of the pressures of adolescent life with a drug such as Adderall sounds enticing, the Oracle Editorial Board urges students who have not been formally diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to either stop taking it or reject the idea from the start.
Adderall is an amphetamine psychostimulant most commonly used in the treatment of ADHD to improve attention, hyperactivity and disruptive behaviors. According to an Oracle-conducted survey of 328 students, 65 percent of students at South either take or know someone who takes some sort of attention-enhancing drug.
Adderall is the most common ADHD medication despite the listed physical side effects: headache, stomach ache, trouble sleeping, decreased appetite, nervousness and dizziness. South students who have used Adderall, either through a prescription or illegally, reported feeling social anxiety, like their personalities have been muted. For people who illicitly use the drug, the danger of those side effects should not be overlooked because ultimately, health should be prioritized over academics, athletics or any part of their lives that students use Adderall to excel at.
Aside from the physical danger, students should understand the potential legal consequences to unprescribed Adderall use. The possession of any weight of the substance could result in a one to five million dollar fine and up to 20 years in prison for adults over age 18.
For students who find it difficult for themselves to listen in class or read for extended periods of time, getting up to walk around briefly, or five to 10 minutes of meditation during work time can revitalize that focus. For shorter periods of time in which concentration is vital for success, such as the ACT or final exams, caffeine used in moderation can stimulate in a similar way to Adderall.
Rachael Fiege, a freshman at Indiana University at Bloomington, passed away Aug. 23, 2013 after falling down a flight of stairs at a party where she consumed alcohol. Her friends refrained from seeking medical assistance because they thought she had simply “blacked out.” The Oracle Editorial Board wants to make sure that everything possible is done to prevent incidents like this in our own community.
Fiege’s death occurred despite Indiana’s Lifeline Law, a state law that provides immunity for public intoxication, minor possession, minor consumption and minor transport to people who reveal themselves to law enforcement while seeking medical assistance for a person suffering from an alcohol-related health emergency, according to indianalifeline.org.
Under this law, Fiege’s peers could have called the police to alert them of her condition without fearing action taken against them for being intoxicated. Whether or not the law was effective in this situation, the Oracle Editorial Board believes that the Lifeline Law is one that the community should formally advocate for in Illinois.
The Lifeline Law was introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives in February 2013 by Representative Naomi Jakkobsen, but it failed to advance to a vote on the House Floor before the end of the legislative session, according to Aaron Letzeiser, Executive Director of The Medical Amnesty Initiative. In order for the law to be considered again, it requires the people of Illinois to be vocal supporters of the law.
The Oracle Editorial Board urges parents, administrators and students use their personal power to support this law by contacting their local representatives by letter or phone. More importantly, students who find themselves in a situation in which it seems like someone who is intoxicated needs medical assistance must not underestimate that need. Whether or not Illinois makes the right decision to adopt a law similar to Indiana’s, we must constantly consider the value of the lives of the people around us.
Visit theoracle.glenbrook225.org to watch a video featuring several opinions on the law from Representative Laura Fine as well as South parents, students and teachers.
