In Texas, flu cancellations and closings draw questions

Everyone is panicking about the outbreak of the swine flu. It comes up a question, should the school be closed in order to prevent the spread of the flu? Based on the U.S. cases so far, the virus is still mild. However, due to the swine flu Fort Worth school district shut down its 144 schools. A lot of school activities are canceled. Some people say there is no evidence of transmission, so the closure is redundant. However, I disagree with that. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that swine flu is contagious. It spreads from human to human. So people should avoid contact with people who are sick. Even though traveling season has not come yet, there is a small amount of people who go around from city to city for work. There is still a small possibility of spreading. I think Fort Worth school district made a good decision on preventing the spreading. Especially in high school, students have to move around for classes. Even one person with swine flu can spread the illness easily and quickly. It will be too late when the kids are infected, then they go home and spread the illness to their parents. Although what I just mentioned has not happened yet, early prevention is always better.

Response to "No Refusal" Policy for Austin DWI

The "No Refusal" Policy is a great idea to get rid of drunk drivers on the road. Basically it gives authorities to the police officers to draw blood from the suspected drunk drivers if they refuse to take a breathalyzer test. Although it might sound crazy to most people, I personally agree with the police should take stronger action to stop people from drink and drive. I think the government is giving too much individual right to the people and neglected the consequence of it. As I just took a defensive driving class couple weeks ago, I was told that drunk driving is the No.1 cause of accident. I really agree with my classmate in injury lawsuit is waiting to happen. Forcing a needle in them to draw blood might cause certain level of injuries. However, are a poke and a couple drops of blood worthier than the other innocent drivers' life on the road? As an individual, it seems like violating a person's rights. But as a whole, it gives more safeties to other people. Furthermore, there will be no reason to refuse taking a breathalyzer test rather than a blood test if the suspected drunk drivers didn't drink. The only thing I don't agree with the policy is that the drawing blood is done by the police officer. As what my classmate said, "people who haven't been to nursing or medical school should not be taking the blood out of someone's body."

Austin can't dump its failing students

The increasing students with poor academic performance or discipline problems are giving headache to Austin school district. The school district is paying a price for the at-risk students who mostly end up dropping out. Many school principals urged the district to outsource those at-risk students to a private company.

Sending out the at-risk students to a place would definitely make school environment into a better place. Those who always cause troubles would not distract the others. But what would happen if those who do not study stay together? They tend to not study at all. This will result in the same as they drop out. In my opinion, the goal of education is to bring out the full potential of the students. We are going to pay for trapping the students into a place without educating them.

On the other hand, if the school district decides to keep the at-risk students it will probably have to increase the spending on them as their problems get bigger. But it is worth to do so. The school must have more hard working students. It already has a good environment that might have affect on them. It is more possible to change them from dropping out comparing sending them to a place with no help. Moreover, private company is not a non-profit organization. It will probably cost more to the school district. As we see, sending the at-risk students to a private company is not a solution. It will have a worse consequence.