Where I Stand — Marisa Miller: For teens, many local issues hit home

Marisa Miller

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005 | 8:22 a.m.

Editor's note: About 1,000 students from high schools throughout Southern Nevada participated in the 50th annual Sun Youth Forum on Nov 22. The students were divided into groups to discuss a variety of topics. A spokesperson was chosen from each group to write a column about the students' findings. Marisa Miller of Bishop Gorman High School writes about issues covered by her group.

Because we are teenagers, the issues that we talked about first were the ones that concerned us directly. A huge problem that teens face today in Nevada, and mainly in Las Vegas, is that there is no place for us to go and hang out on the weekends without getting in trouble.

All 30 of us in our group agreed that to have any fun in Las Vegas, you have to be at least 18, if not 21. We felt that when we go into a movie theater or a casino on the weekends we are perceived by adults as troublemakers and a main disturbance to other patrons.

A couple of us thought that there should be more underage clubs around the Las Vegas Valley to go to and hang out with friends. We also recognized that there are plenty of activities to participate in at school, but on the weekends those activities are put on hold.

Along with not having many activities to do in Las Vegas, we also felt that the curfew is impeding on our weekends and making teens more rebellious. As teens we do not have a lot of money and therefore the activities we want to see around the valley should be less expensive then they are now. For example, movies are $9.25 on the weekends, and to be spending that much money every weekend pushes teens to go to parties instead where hanging out is free.

Parties are not the most suitable place to go for a teenager because of peer pressure to get involved with drinking or drugs. We stated that there should always be a designated driver among your friends who will make sure not to drink and drive.

Programs such as Drivers Edge and Every 15 Minutes also help teens to realize how a drinking-and-driving accident can take a toll on their lives. When making a decision to drink and drive, we are taking responsibility for not only our own lives, but also the lives of others.

We think we are old enough to know what is right and wrong. Our parents have taught us values and morals, and as teenagers we are put to the test to use these values and make our parents proud. With age comes responsibility and every action has a consequence. We know what the rules are and it is our choice to follow them.

We also talked about how illegal immigrants affect our lives in Nevada. Even though they do not have any impact on employment rate or the stability of our economy, they do take a toll on taxes and our resources. We recognized that the fact that they are here illegally is a problem and they should apply for citizenship.

The language barriers in Nevada, mainly between us and people from a Hispanic background, are tremendous and we should begin to take responsibility to learn Spanish and try to semiaccommodate them.

This debate was one of the intense ones because it brought into the conversation the Clark County School District. On one side of the argument, we thought having a second language is a good idea and that Spanish should begin being taught to children who are younger.

An idea that was brought up was that there should be more specialists in schools to help students on the side to learn a language. Those students who come into our community and do not know English should have the opportunity to better our community and learn our language.

We came to the notion that the School District should be responsible for teaching students who do not know English. On the other side of the debate we felt that it is a person's responsibility, not the School District's, to make sure they know the language of their own community.

The last topic we discussed was regarding sexual predators and their lives in Nevada. Even though you can go online and look up sexual predators who live in your neighborhood, most of them do not register as sexual predators and this makes the whole process pointless.

Also, many of these offenders commit the same crime again. A lot of criminals are just put on probation instead of going to prison. Most of the responsibility belongs to the parents of the children, and they should watch them more closely so no one has to be exposed to these situations.

Our group of students thought about the problems we face by living in Nevada. As we discussed these issues, we were ready to debate and offer our opinions to try to make Nevada a better place. We are Nevada's future and we look forward to making a difference in our community, neighborhood and schools.