Given Grades

        This article is about how athletes can’t read. Mary Willingham is trying to figure at how to get these athletes at an appropriate level in school. Most of the athletes only can read to an eighth grade level. Mary’s main concern is that many of the universities won’t take athletes that are this low with their scores. Mary survived around 183 athletes who played football or basketball, "She found that 60% read between fourth- and eighth-grade levels. Between 8% and 10% read below a third-grade level."(Willingham) You may ask, how did they get into college reading like a third grader. It’s almost impossible to do right? Well not for the athletes at UNC. These athletes cheated their way into this school. They took classes that did not exist. They paid a teacher money to act like he was teaching and he really was just giving them their grades. This teacher was charged for fraud when the people found out. 

       This has to do with not only my classes but also my school. In my school people are barely passing but you will never see my school giving out grades like candy. No, we work for what we get no matter what.

        This whole situation just infuriates me. I am a hardworking student and I earn my grades. It’s not right for the students at UNC who actually work their butt off to pass. There is people at UNC that may struggle but at least they tried. These football players have it easy. No school work, all you have to do is play football. Life is given to them on a silver platter. It’s just not right for the athletes to get special treatment. They should have to work as hard as the rest of us, no matter how good their playing skills are.

Ganim, Sara, and Brian Rokus. " Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th-graders." CNN. Cable News Network, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html?hpt=hp_t1>

Stuart, Scott .“O'Brien Schofield chases Terrelle Pryor.” Photograph. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 10 October 2009. Web. 25 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20091010_O%27Brien_Schofield_chases_Terrelle_Pryor.jpg>

Current Event 1

This article is about how a teenage boy got away with manslaughter of 4 people. It all started on June 15, Ethan went to Walmart and stole beer with his friends. He then crashed into a woman’s car that was broken down on the side of the road. He also killed three more people. When the police took him in they gave him a drug test and found out that his blood alcohol level was throw the roof. So not only did he get away with manslaughter he also got away with under age drinking.

 

In health class we talked about the effects of drinking and driving. The teacher said that nothing good comes out of driving drunk. Even though Ethan got away with what he did, he will probably feel guilty  the rest of his life.

 

I think this is the craziest thing I have ever heard of. Just because he’s rich doesn't mean that it’s okay. I could go and do the same thing that he did and I would get charged. It shouldn't matter whether he’s rich or not, he should be in jail. Ethan killed four people, think about the peoples families. This could affect me because what if it was my car that was sitting on the side of the road. I would be dead and the killer would still out there free to live his life.

   

The central idea of this passage is that if you have money it’s okay to go kill someone. The passage states that, “Texas sentencing guidelines for crimes like this call for fines of up to $10,000 and between 2 and 20 years in the state penitentiary. But instead Couch got 10 years of probation and zero time” (Grey). This statement proves that Ethan got nothing for manslaughter. Throughout the passage it keeps saying that money is important. Grey Miller says, “He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.” Apparently Ethan never got punished and so the state of Texas gives him pity.

Sagdejev, Ildar. “Wrecked Honda Civic DX on Gregson St in Durham”. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons, 30 May 2010. Web. 12 January 2014.<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010-05-30_Wrecked_Honda_Civic_DX_on_Gregson_St_in_Durham.jpg>

Grey, Madison. “The Affluenza Defense: Judge Rules Rich Kid’s Rich Kid-ness Makes Him Not Liable for Deadly Drunk Driving Accident”. Times News Feed. Madison Grey, 12 December 2013. Web. 12 January 2014.<http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/12/the-affluenza-defense-judge-rules-rich-kids-rich-kid-ness-makes-him-not-liable-for-deadly-drunk-driving-accident/>