Students in Ryan Young’s U.S. History classes at Escalon High School are at it again; sending letters en masse to The Times, touching on a number of topics.
For the longtime teacher, the exercise is one he presents to his classes each fall. They are asked to choose a topic that concerns them, whether it be on the global, national, state or local level, and outline that issue in a Letter to the Editor.
He also wants them to offer some solutions while describing the issue, taking a proactive stance.
Among the letters received recently was one penned by Valeria Nuno, delving into the uncomfortable topic of suicide.
“Suicide affects not only the life of the individual who commits, but also the lives of those who care about the victim,” Nuno wrote. “To prevent suicide from devastating more people, we need to offer more resources to those who are suffering.”
That, she suggested, could include teaching more people to recognize the warning signs of suicide and making it more acceptable and easier for bullied kids in schools to “feel more comfortable to come forward.”
Nuno also included some statistics, citing that more than 720,000 deaths occur globally each year due to suicide and over 4,000 of those are in California.
Student Christofer Diaz wrote about increasing concerns over online and social media bullying.
“This problem in particular should be highly spoken about and brought a lot more to the attention of older people’s eyes,” Diaz wrote. “I say this because you see all over that people like young kids, teens even up to adults get bullied on these social media platforms that are very big named media apps where you see the online/social media bullying occur.”
He urged people to take action if they are being bullied online by reporting the account of who is targeting them, in hopes of having the account blocked.
For student Emma Hiller, she chose abandoned animals as her topic.
“How many people can walk around Escalon, or the nearby towns, without seeing stray cats or dogs roaming the streets? It’s becoming impossible to ignore, as more and more animals are abandoned daily,” Hiller wrote.
She pointed to the ripple effect of stray animals, many sent to shelters, hoping to find forever homes.
“Stray animals lurk in parks, alleys, and neighborhoods, surviving off trash in a world that has abandoned them,” she said. “At the root of this crisis is an avoidable problem: the lack of spaying and neutering. It’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to control animal populations, yet many pet owners either can’t afford it or don’t realize its importance.”
She said communities – and the people who live in them – can step up and help contribute to fixing the problem, whether it means becoming a foster parent to a pet, contributing to spay/neuter programs or donating to animal rescues.
Other writers dealt with topics ranging from ‘cancel culture’ to the deteriorated condition of the soccer fields at Escalon High School.
“This is probably year number 24,” Young said of the class assignment.
Admitting that it’s “hard to believe” it has been that long since he started the letter writing assignment, Young continues it as a way to show students that getting involved and working toward a solution is something that anyone can do.
Letters arrive each fall in The Times office; several are selected at random for inclusion in the paper. Look for a few letters each week through the rest of November, in the issues of Nov. 13, 20 and 27.
