English Students Participate in Civic Engagement Projects

The Civic Engagement class project in Mrs. Ramstetter’s Period 1 English class focused on racism. They researched the topic online, discussed it in class, and surveyed 147 students. Here is what they discovered:

• 40% (n=147) of students have personally experienced racism.
• 94% of Gilbert students surveyed (n=147) think that racism isn’t only against blacks.

• People don’t think racism is only against blacks but other races too because the media makes us think it’s only against blacks and whites.
• Racism is worldwide.
• Most racism occurs outside of the United States. 
• There is so much racism and protest going on in America that we forgot about the countries outside of America, the other countries where people are being treated unfairly. America is so blinded by its own racism we forgot about the racism outside of America.

• 75% of the students surveyed think that racism will never end.
• So many students think that racism will never end because they think we can’t come to an agreement or have peace in the world, that we will always have some sort of discrimination against each other.

Students in Mrs. Ramstetter’s class researched and discussed the school lunch, interviewed the cafeteria staff and surveyed Gilbert students. From the students who responded to the survey (n=185), they discovered that only 19% eat the school lunch every day. Approximately 45% don’t eat lunch and of those, 40% said they don’t eat because they don’t get hungry. they also interviewed the cafeteria staff, Ivonne, one of the lunch ladies.

“Ivonne stated that the food is freshly made every day. She said the food is not microwaved but baked and that in order to keep the chicken from getting dry, they bake it in the oven at a low temperature. She said they also make the salads fresh every day and that Domino’s Pizza is delivered fresh every day. Another interesting thing is the food delivery truck comes by once a week so the food isn’t stored for long.”

Civic Engagement Project: Drug Use

From their survey, students in Mrs. Ramstetter’s class also discovered that more students than they thought know someone who uses drugs. 132 out of 203 students surveyed said that they know people who use and abuse drugs. That’s 65%. Plus, 42% know someone that is addicted and 42% know some that overdosed due to drugs or died because of drug addiction. This is very shocking and sad because no one should have to go through seeing someone die because of drugs.

• Of the students surveyed, 51% stated that the best way to help someone you know who may be addicted to drugs is to try to talk them out of it and help them go into a rehab or get help. It just depends on the person and if they want help for themselves