Excerpt from QUEENS CHRONICLE, October 20, 2005
Many Teenage Girls At Standstill On Exercise
Girls who were inactive during adolescence gained an average of 10-15 pounds more than active girls, according to results of a 10 year study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Total calorie intake increase slightly and was not associated with weight gain. These results show that many girls are at a literal standstill when it comes to exercise and physical activity in their pre-teen and teen years. "As parents, educators and health care providers we can do a lot to encourage girls to continue physical activity throughout their adolescence, a step that has been shown to help them maintain healthy weight", said NHLBI Director, Dr. Elizabeth Nabel.
Excerpts from Articles Insideschools.org, September 8 2005 How to say "No!" to military recruiters The New York City Department of Education just made it easier for students to say "No!" to military recruiters. The opt-out form, a critical paper that stops recruiters from obtaining students’ personal information, will be handed out in the classroom during the first week of school, and a student’s signature alone will suffice to keep recruiters at bay, according to the DOE. In prior years, the form was sent home in a stack of back-to-school papers, and required a parent’s signature. The form is also available on the Department of Education website. Military recruiters have the right to request student names, telephone numbers, and addresses for recruitment purposes under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. However, parents and students can block that process if they state in writing that they want their information to remain private. Parents will still receive an opt-out form and may override their child’s decision until the student is 18 years old. “If that form is distributed and collected in class it addresses many objections we’ve said regarding forms being sent home,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). “That’s an important improvement in the process.” Previous problems included lost forms, insufficient time, and confusion on how and where to return the form. Opt-out forms must be returned to the student’s guidance counselor by Oct. 14 to ensure their request will be processed before Nov. 1, when military recruiters may ask schools for lists of students who have not opted-out. Students may change their decision anytime during their high school years. The form is also available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu on the Department of Education’s website. --Vanessa Witenko, September 8, 2005 Daily News, January 16, 2005 - Making a living? Hardly by Jose Martinez - The United Way of New York City and the Women's Center for Education and Career Advancement released a study last week detailing just how tough it is for the working poor to cut it in New York. According to the report, the prospects for New Yorks low income workers-who make up about 9% of the city's labor force - aren't good. Housing costs have risen up to 40% in the past 4 years and families with kids under 12 spend more than half their income on health care and child care. The report points out that the state's current minimum wage-just raised to $6 from $5.15 is far from adequate to cover the costs of living in the city. It projects that a gap will remain, even after the minimum wage increases to $7.15 an hour in 2007. Mother Ana Rodriguez says, "New York's not an easy place to live."
Daily News, May 15, 2005 - Bad Girls by Adam Nichols and Carrie Milago
Arrests soar for 7-15 year olds. A teenage crime wave is causing a spike in arrest figures-among New York school girls. Helping fuel the recent rise in arrest figures is a push by street gangs to recruit girls, according to youth gang experts.
"More kids are growing up in dangerous neighborhoods than ever before." Heather Johnson-Nichols, Girls Inc.
"Girls are vunerable and in a lot of New York's communities they feel unsafe. They are certainly becoming more violent, more aggressive as a way of protecting themselves." Michael Roberts, Childen's Aid Society
