June 2006 Archives

By JAKE
MOKRIS

Sometimes, I hear someone make a claim or an assumption that can’t really be known to be true. For example, some Americans claim that President Bush lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That’s something people say today, that the president is a liar because he lied about this issue. I don’t think that there’s a good case for that.

When the United States went to war in Iraq, we all believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, or at least a program to create such weapons. That belief was incorrect. Why did we think that there were such weapons in Iraq? The intelligence at the time supported that belief. Why was the intelligence wrong? I do not know. We obviously didn’t have the right information. Maybe someone made an error.

By LINDSEY EPLEY

All over the country, seemingly well behaved, sometimes straight-A students are winding up in the principal’s office. These students, often first-time offenders, can be treated like criminals for making what might seem to the average person, a minor mistake. The reason behind this forceful treatment is the often controversial zero-tolerance policy, established in the 1990s.

Originally created to provide gun-free schools, many states have since added on to the policy by suspending or expelling students carrying almost anything that could be considered a weapon, as well as illegal, prescription and over-the-counter drugs.