Sparta Middle School students express their opinions

(The four student letter writers presented here are 7th graders at Sparta Middle School in Miss Heather Falotico’s Write For Real class. She encouraged them to write letters to the editor to help them “find their voice and practice expressing it in appropriate, effective venues.”)
Create a safer environment in Sparta, New Jersey
Marcus Tullius Cicero, an ancient Roman politician, once said, “The safety of the people shall be the highest law.” Sparta, New Jersey tries to adhere to this philosophy and make their own town’s safety one of their top priorities. Sparta allows their citizens to feel comfortable while walking up and down the streets, sending their kids to school, and being involved in the town’s many activities. Although most of the community is safe, there are some areas that need improvement in order to maximize safety for all. One major improvement should be to control the flow of traffic on the intersection between Main Street and West Mountain Road. In order to achieve this safety standard, this intersection needs traffic lights to insure the drivers’ safety. A traffic light would also allow efficient traffic flow, to avoid the morning and afternoon backup of cars.
Throughout the day and night, the intersection between the two streets is very busy. There are many circumstances where drivers are speeding down Main Street while the cars on West Mountain Road are trying to turn onto Main Street. This is dangerous and can cause a massive accident, risking the citizens wellbeing in that area. It is hard to get the cars from Main Street to stop and let other cars turn, especially when the high school and middle school are starting or ending their school day. With a traffic light, it would direct the vehicles in a simple and safe manner.
Almost everyone in Sparta has driven where Main Street and West Mountain Road intersect. In the morning and afternoon, a majority of those drivers are teenagers who are driving to or from Sparta High School. Teenagers aren’t as experienced as adults which increases the risk of injury in the area. Sparta Middle School is also near those streets, so busses full of children are continually passing by the dangerous intersection. One example of how this intersection is harmful is that on March 22, 2011, the New Jersey Herald reported that two busses got into an accident on the intersection between West Mountain Road and Main Street in Sparta, New Jersey. According to the report, one bus had nine students on it while the other one had no students riding on it. This collision was caused because one of the busses failed to yield and stop. Even though the crash wasn’t fatal, one student did have to go to the hospital because of a possible fractured nose. All of the damage and injuries that this accident caused could have been prevented if there was a traffic light instead of a small stop sign. A stop light could guide every driver and tell them when to go and when to stop. The absence of the traffic light puts the lives of many children and adults at risk.
This intersection doesn’t just affect students coming and leaving school. It also affects teachers and many adults who are trying to rush to their jobs. During the morning and afternoon when adults are scrambling to get to their jobs, this area holds a great amount of traffic that makes it challenging to commute. The lack of traffic lights at times, allows the traffic to build up and on average adds twenty minutes the commute time. The rush hour traffic can be easily fixed by putting up a traffic light that will direct the drivers.
In conclusion, this topic has been discussed by many people in Sparta as a serious problem. Citizens agree that the intersection of Main Street and West Mountain Road should have traffic lights to avoid accidents and increased commute time. Overall, each of us feel that children and adults shouldn’t have to worry about their safety, especially when there is an easy and safe alternative. Adults also shouldn’t have to worry about being late to work. People should feel truly safe in Sparta and putting in traffic lights in this area will help accomplish that goal.
Ryan M.
Sparta Middle School
Take measures to prevent drunk driving
There are about 2 to 4 drunk drivers a week in Sparta, according to TAPinto Sparta. Drunk drivers have a devastating impact on others’ lives. Drunk drivers cause many accidents. Drunk drivers are caused by many things. The effects of the drunk drivers are not imaginable. They cost people their lives, which isn’t right. It is not right how someone’s life is lost because someone was drunk and made the wrong decision to drive at the same time. But there may be a couple solutions to these problems.
Drunk drivers cause many fatal accidents, especially in Sparta. They can also cause accidents that are not fatal, but people get injured. As an example, TAP into Sparta posted an article about an accident on December 8th, 2015. This accident was about a driver under the influence of alcohol, went on the opposite side of the road and killed a 22 year old, by crashing head on. Another example is an accident that happened on May 3rd. As reported to TAP into Sparta, a woman who was drunk caused a three car accident, giving injuries to others. These are two of many pieces of evidence where accidents cause people to die and be left with injuries, sometimes permanent injuries.
There are many causes to drunk drivers. No doubt about it the drivers are the ones to blame most of the time for making the wrong decision. The drunk drivers don’t understand how dangerous too many drinks really are. If the drivers understood how dangerous it is they would not have too many drinks and drive after that. On the other hand, sometimes bartenders are to blame, for not paying attention to how many drinks they serve to one person, or if that person looks like they are too dangerous to drive. Those were two of many examples of ways drunk drivers become drunk drivers.
This problem has a couple solutions. The first solution would be more police presence around the area of Lake Mohawk. This will reduce the risk of accidents by drunk drivers if the cop notices they are drunk before they even get into an accident. Without police the risk of drunk drivers and accidents will increase. Another solution could be that if someone knows they are going to be drinking then they should bring a designated driver with them. If the person or people do that they or the designated driver will get an incentive. As an example,they can get a discount on their meal. They could also get free dessert or drinks. Something to that standard. That might encourage and motivate people to bring a designated driver with them. These solutions might decrease the risk of drunk drivers.
If we take these actions I guarantee that there will be a decrease in risk of drunk drivers. If we are able to do that, Sparta won’t be filled with drivers that are under the influence. People’s lives won’t be lost, hurt, or damaged as much as they would be if we don’t take these actions. This will make the area less fearful and dangerous. So let’s take these actions to save lives.
Anthony E.
Sparta Middle School
Speeding in icy conditions is dangerous
Why are so many car accidents occurring lately in colder areas? Some drivers have gone from staying within the speed limit to staying above the speed limit despite the drivetrain of their vehicle. Many car accidents in cold climate areas with ice on the roads, such as Sparta, are occurring because of the unnecessary speed and RWD drivetrain of vehicles. On the highways, experienced drivers may think it’s okay to go the normal speed limit but it turns out that it can be very dangerous as at any given moment. The vehicle could lose control and hit something putting an innocent citizen’s life at risk.
In the first place, many people have rear wheel drive or front wheel drive cars which means that the engine only powers the back wheels while the front ones are just rolling and are pushed by the rear wheels. This can be dangerous if a car lost control and began to slide, there is no recovering because the front wheels don’t have the power to even attempt to recover in a RWD car and the back wheels don’t have the power to try to recover in a FWD car. In the words of Digital Trends.com, “One reason AWD has become more popular is that premiums for these vehicles have decreased and performance advantages continue to grow. RWD platforms may still be the purist’s choice for performance vehicles, but in less than perfect driving conditions – and compared to a FWD car’s efficiency – they can’t match up.” This shows the climate related advantages of an AWD vehicle as it would be more suitable for the weather that occurs around high levels of elevation from sea level, but, someone could still lose control depending on the speed they are going.
Additionally, the faster one may go, the faster an accident could occur and the more chance it could happen. Although people should be aware of the drivetrain and the speed of their vehicle, the officials should place a new law or change the speed of all vehicles in different types of weather. For example, they could install digital speed limit signs nationwide using the technology and money we have today to show the driver a direct source of a limitation of speed. On a snowy and icy day, the speed limit should be somewhere between 30-40 mph for RWD and FWD cars on the highway while the speed limit should be somewhere between 40-50 mph for AWD cars on the highway. On other main roads or back roads, the speed limit would be adjusted based on the previous speed and have digital speed limits instead of those little signs on the side of the road. According to Cleveland.com, “Starting this season, ODOT will implement variable speed limits during times of inclement winter weather, when roads are dangerous and slippery.” This is an excellent example of these digital speed limits that have started to affect a few areas of wet or snowy climate. In this case, the place of action is in Ohio but we need ideas like this to spread all across the world on all roads even where it isn’t snowy. Rain or fog could appear in some places like Los Angeles, where it doesn’t snow, and those weather disadvantages could cause accidents as well. Overall, these specific setups for the speed would cause less accidents and a smoother trip to get from point A to point B. Although a commuter would get to their destination slightly slower than they would if the speed limit was higher, it’s definitely safer and if the car were to spin out, which would be a lot more unlikely, they would be going much slower which would most likely lead to less chance of a severe injury and less damage to the vehicle.
All in all, unnecessary speed during times of bad weather gets citizens into bad situations. Wouldn’t it be so much better if people were a lot safer when they traveled in their automobile? Nobody wants to get into traffic while commuting because of an unnecessary car accident. Please, consider the thought of these digital speed limits that could be used worldwide to prevent catastrophic, unnecessary car accidents that could be avoided easily. If anyone does agree, create a voting system for the towns around and send the votes to the mayor for adding digital speed limits to the nearby roads and highways for a safer source of travel.
Jason B.
Sparta Middle School
Acadmic Assistance time should be longer
Ring ring. You hear the school bell go off marking the end of academic assistance (A.A.) and you’re still doing your work. You scramble out the classroom wishing you had more time. Well, why can’t we get more time? A.A is extra time at the end of the day where students can work on homework, extra work, or ask a teacher if they need help on anything. A.A should be longer. This is because 20 minutes is hardly enough time for people to get things done. Especially for people who are slow workers. Also, A.A is a good opportunity to get things done. Along with a good opportunity to get things done, it is a chance to make up work or work on your homework. Plus, sometimes it is easier to work at school than it is a home. So, A.A has to become 10 minutes longer because you can get a lot more work done, people have after school activities so it it hard to get homework done after school, and having your homework done is relieving and stress free. If students have the opportunity to work and get things done at A.A, why not just make it longer?
To start off, A.A helps students and if some people cannot take that serious, then they could risk their own consequences. Most of the students will use this as an academic tool. If we make A.A 30 minutes long, which is 10 minutes longer, students can get a lot more done. Say you have a project to do in a certain class and you work on it during A.A. You only get 20 minutes and you don’t get a lot done. Then you have to do so much at home and if you come across a question, the teacher won’t be there to answer it. Then you could get that part that you had a question on wrong. Also, if you were working with a partner, A.A would give you more time to work on that with your partner. It is highly unlikely that you could find time to work on it at home with your partner because you would have to meet up and they may have not have any time to.
Another reason for why I think that schools should make A.A 10 minutes longer is that, students have to go to school and a lot of people have activities after school. When people have after school activities, it is hard to get homework done on your own time, but you could get it done in school. That way us students don’t have to worry about trying to do it at home after school. According to a new report released today from the U.S. Census Bureau, “fifty-seven percent of children between 6 and 17 years old participate in at least one after-school extracurricular activity.” This demonstrates that lots of people are busy after school and don’t have time to get homework done. Think about this… if students are up all night getting their homework done, then they come into school tired. Then they can’t learn as much because they are half asleep. They then have to repeat that. But that can be resolved. If schools give students more time to get their homework done in school, they can finish it. Then when they get home at night from an after school activity, they will have their homework done and they can just go to bed.
When students have their homework done, it is relieving because then you know that you have everything you have to do done. It is a nice feeling to know you don’t have to finish your homework at home or it is nice to know that you only have a little bit left to do. Having a longer A.A will reduce kids stress levels. According to a study at stanford university, “students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance in their lives, and alienation from society. ... Less than 1 percent of the students said homework was not a stressor.” This shows that about 99% students get stressed out by homework and and that stress can lead to physical health problems. Also, an unbalanced life, and being isolated from society. That is not healthy for young children. Do you really want students to be stressed out all the time? Students hate being stressed out with how much homework they have to do. But we can solve the problem by giving them time to do it in school.
Lastly, most of the time it is easier to work at school than it is a home. It is easy to get distracted at your house but when you are at school and being watched, you tend to work harder too. As stated by a 2007 Metlife study, “45 percent of students in grades three to 12 spend more than an hour a night doing homework, including the six percent of students who report spending more than three hours a night on their homework.” This means that kids spend so much time at home doing their homework, they should get the opportunity to do more of it at school.
To conclude, we need to have 30- minute academic assistant periods because you can get a lot more work done, people have after school activities so it it hard to get homework done after school, and having your homework done is relieving and stress free. Also, it is sometimes easier to work a school than at home.
Maelee M.
Sparta Middle School