Poachers should pay a hefty price
There need to be fewer poachers in the world. There are many animals that could go extinct, and poachers should pay a hefty fine or even go to jail.
Animals like elephants, which are poached for their ivory tusks, could go extinct. In Asian countries, rhinoceroses are poached for their horns. In Asia, according to savetherhino.org, it is estimated that fewer than 50,000 elephants remain. Since 2013, the number of rhinos in Kruger National Park has declined 60%.
According to ifaw.org, many poachers kill apes, which are hunted for their bushmeat. Some poachers kill lions for their body parts like bones, teeth and claws. According to mongabay.com, lions are often poached using snares, which are simple, low-tech, noose-like traps that can be made from cheap and easily accessible materials like wire, rope or brake cables. Snares are the terrestrial equivalent to drift nets, which have devastated marine and freshwater biodiversity.
Some people might ask if we need all these animals. And why can’t we kill them for their body parts? And what’s wrong with one animal species going extinct? Well, poachers just kill animals for their body parts to make money. Why can’t they just make money by getting a job, not by killing innocent animals? According to schoolastic.com, if one animal goes extinct, it can affect an entire ecosystem.
That’s why I believe many animals could definitely go extinct from poaching, and poachers should pay a hefty fine or even go to jail. I think there should be no more poachers in the world. There are many innocent animals dying out right now, which makes me very sad and upset. These poachers are killing animals in the most inhumane ways possible. That’s why I think people should stop poaching endangered animals.
-Henry Pharis, Groton Elementary School fifth-grader
MORE: Aberdeen Insider letters to the editor, guest column policy
All schools should have gardens
I think all schools should have a fruit and vegetable garden so kids can learn healthy life habits.
Many children lead sedentary lifestyles with a limited understanding of the link between a long life and healthy habits. For educators, consider planting the seeds of a gardening program at your school this year.
School gardens encourage teamwork and can help students build skills for when they are in business or have a job. It will teach them to know how to work together. This will help some kids who do not want to talk to other kids.
Having a school garden can start a bond with the community and it can create jobs for everyone that will be fun — like watering plants, measuring the plants’ growth, pulling out weeds. Yes, these are jobs, and not all kids will like them, but when they have a job they will have to do things they will not like. Teaching kids to do things they dislike early will help them later.
I think schools should have fruit and vegetable gardens. You should ask your school to have a garden so you can eat healthily.
–Coralyn Kotzer, Groton Elementary School fifth-grader
Serve fast food at school
Schools should have fast food because students would actually buy the food, and students wouldn’t have to be hungry from not eating the food they don’t like.
When there was food I did not like at school, I was hungry all day because I had forgotten my sack lunch. It felt like I was going to starve to death!
We could become a popular school if we had fast food, and everyone would want to come to our school. The school would become rich from all the people who want to eat fast food at school. My source notes, “McDonald’s is eaten the most in the American states.” It is the most-bought food, so the schools could buy McDonald’s because it is cheap. The school would probably spend the same amount of money on fast food that it does on lunches now on the food we don’t like. My source says that Subway is a healthy fast-food option, and it is low-calorie. It is the best fast-food option for kids.
People will probably say, isn’t fast food unhealthy? What happens if I don’t like fast food? I would say it can be on a special day so everyone doesn’t get mad, or you can eat the school lunch if you like it or bring a sack lunch. I think schools should have fast food at lunch because it can save them money and students won’t go hungry.
Finally, I need you guys to tell your principal that you should get fast food every once in a while. Hopefully, she says, “Yes, you should!” Tell everyone you know to get every school on board so we can have fast food. What would you pick for fast food at your school?
–Chase Cleveland, Groton Elementary School fifth-grader
Let’s make Groton a cleaner town
I feel like everyone in the world could recycle a little more. My town has trash in a lot of places, and it’s getting gross. Some people don’t even care, and it is very weird because Groton is turning into a gross place and few people care.
I bet Groton was way cleaner in the past. But don’t get me wrong, Groton isn’t dirty; it just could be cleaner. I find trash on the ground and pick it up, but not just one person will get the job done and make Groton cleaner. That doesn’t mean we are a dirty city, just, like I said, we could be cleaner.
Every Earth Day, a third-grade class goes and cleans outside the school. When I was in third grade, I went and got so much garbage, and that was only in one area. I wonder how bad the whole town could be? I think if we all work together and try to clean up this town, everyone would be happier and it would be so much cleaner. If you don’t want to, just really try to recycle more.
In conclusion, we could work harder and try to distribute more recycling bins, recycle more and have a community group of people to help pick up litter and other garbage. Then, maybe someday we could change Groton into a cleaner place. I love Groton, and many people here are competitive, so let’s be competitive and try to make Groton the cleanest town in South Dakota.
-Jase Bahr, Groton Elementary School fifth-grader
MORE: Your letters: Elections, access to books by minors, more from Groton students
Lots of food is wasted at schools
We should not be required to take the school lunch if we’re not gonna eat it.
There is a lot of food wasted in schools. To be exact, $1.7 billion of food is wasted each year, according to the Food Service Direct website. We know this, and we still make no changes to our schools. However, I think I have found a way to fix that problem.
At my school, kids are required to take food. This is a problem because most kids never eat the food when they go through the lunch line. This can be easily solved by not forcing kids to take food they will not eat.
Now, someone might say that if they don’t take their food, they will go hungry the rest of the day. However, my response would be that if they will not eat the food anyway, that is the bigger problem.
Another problem is that when some kids want to get more food, they are out and we cannot have any more.
In conclusion, when kids go through the lunch line, take food and do not eat it, they only waste food. This food could be given to kids who want seconds. That is my message to all the lunch ladies out there.
–Rae Fliehs, Groton Elementary School fifth-grader
Editor’s note: Fifth-grade students from Groton Elementary School wrote letters to the editor as part of a class assignment. The Aberdeen Insider will attempt to publish as many of them as possible as space permits.
