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Choices
Contributed by Archie
on Wednesday, 7th September 2005 @ 09:07:28 PM AEST
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It was my senior year at Walter I Murray Junior High. All three years were tough and it was time for me to choose what school i wanted to go to. If I did not choose I would get sent to my zoned highschool and there was no way i was gonna go there.
My zoned highschool was Andrew Jackson High. The 105th precint was across the street from it. One would think that it would make the school safer but it did not. It had bars on the windows and metal detectors at every entrance, yet it did not prevent guns and knives from being brought into the school. There was atleast 1 death a week related to that school- due to drugs or gangs and everyday it was on the news.
I had problems enough of my own with out adding Andrew Jackson to the list. Walter I Murray was almost as bad of a school and it's students were younger. P.S. 160 was a couple of blocks down the street from it. The older kids would pick on the younger and mobs of angry kids gathered on the city blocks to help their friends and take pot shots at their enemies. I used to wait until the last teacher went home so that i would not be a part of the vicious fights that happened everyday. By my senior year I was down to 1 fight every 3 weeks instead of 1 fight a week. My methods were simple; don't walk the same way to school everyday and wait until 5:00 to go home and always pick a route that had a store on it. The guidance coucelor met with me 3 weeks before i was to graduate from 9th grade to tell me that my request to go to school in Manhatten was accepted. The amazing thing about all of this is that I would never have another fight in school again after leaving Walter I Murray.
I was even luckier if you want to call it that. My dad passed away in 1985 and my family moved to North Carolina just as the gang wars of Queens broke out in 1985. Many of my friends would die in that war (that's what I call it) two major drug gangs from California moved into the area I used to live in and many innocent people died in the territorial battles that followed. That war would last until 1988. A lot of the war centered around Andrew Jackson High a major fairground for young students. Peer pressure was high to use marajana and cocaine as well as other drugs. On a show done by P.B.S in 1989 it was estimated that over 100 police officer were killed in the line of duty in 1 year during various drug raids and pull overs. More than 200 teenagers lost their lives from 1986 to 1989 due to getting involved with drugs directly or indirectly. I look back on my life today and I wonder how i could have been moved to safety before the worst of it broke out.
If you are a teen and are going through peer pressure to use drugs let this story be a lesson to you to not do it. It is not worth losing your life so that you can fit in. Today Jamaica Queens is a much improved neighborhood and drug crime is lower than when i lived their 20 years ago. I hope it will stay that way.
Copyright © Archie
... [2005-09-0709:07:28]
(Date/Time posted on site)
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
(User Rating: 1)
by Former_Member on Saturday, 17th September 2005 @ 07:38:35 PM AEST
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i loved it, and i will learn from it (although i wasn't planning on doing drugs anyway)
But one of my friend's brother is doing drugs. Maybe i should show him this story. And hopefully it will help him out |
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
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by LongingFor on Thursday, 13th October 2005 @ 09:28:14 PM AEST
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good story great lesson !!!
- Sasha |
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
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by maestar on Friday, 14th October 2005 @ 10:58:23 AM AEST
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I NEVER WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL BECAUSE OF HOW BAD THEY ALL ARE UNLESS YOU GO PRIVATE. ALTHOUGH SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND DO NOT HAVE METAL DITECTERS OR BARS ON THE WINDOWS THEY ARE STILL VERY BAD AND CAN GET YOU MIXED UP IN DRUGS AND OTHER BAD THINGS, I AM GLAD I NEVER HAD TO GO THROUGH WHAT YOU DID.
GREAT WRITE. |
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
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by Jyssvw on Tuesday, 18th October 2005 @ 07:31:08 AM AEST
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I grew up in the NYC public school system. I never went to a school this bad.
Nice job letting others know what kind of struggle it is just to make it to class sometimes.
People in the Burbs have no idea. |
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
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by sona on Monday, 9th July 2007 @ 01:04:40 PM AEST
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Good story-rather excellent(or should i say PERFECT)
We have no high school system here in Pakistan
But shamefully the conditions of many colleges is bad
Though there are many colleges with morals too
keep writing stories for others benefits |
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Re: What you don't want in a highschool
(User Rating: 1)
by ki on Wednesday, 2nd January 2008 @ 12:15:19 AM AEST
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i love the message in all this..very good write!
ki |
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