Chester students advocate for the causes they care about most

What follows are letters to the editor written by Rebecca Quackenbush’s Fifth Grade ELA Community at Chester Elementary Schoo, as they practice activism through writing in support of the causes they care about most. Stemming from their study of Human Rights, students selected their issues and purpose for writing, recognizing their words are powerful tools to educate and advocate.

Pollution

Pollution is a big problem today with all the trash on the ground, and in the water, even polluted air. Animals are getting injured and animals are getting sick. I am hopeful that we can stop polluting, or at least decrease the amount of polluted land. It makes me sad that animals are dying or getting injured because we aren’t taking care of our trash. So to stop that, when you’re done with something, don’t throw it on the ground. Put it in the nearest trash can or put in your pocket until you can throw it away. Pollution isn’t only hurting animals, it can hurt us too. It can make us sick or you can get stuck under something like metal and get hurt. So if you ever see trash and you think that by picking it up it won’t do anything, you’re wrong. That little piece of trash might get an animal sick if they eat it.

Justin C.

Chester

‘We need to stop’ polluting the earth

I have seen trash on the side of the road and that makes me sad, as that person didn’t wait until there is a trash can. It is worse to know that there are more than A LOT of people littering and polluting Earth, and polluting is not good as it makes Earth heat up and water evaporates. Then it makes rain happen A LOT more. I am happy that the world is less cold, but it just doesn’t feel right, and this new temperature may kill some plants or animals. I like plants and animals, so that’s not good. We need to stop it as fast as possible.

Ronan C

Chester

Ending ocean pollution

I am writing to gather support for ending ocean pollution. This is important because it dirties up the water and it hurts animals. People just throw trash and plastic into the ocean. The water is dirty because there are things that leak out of the trash and plastic. Pollution hurts animals. For example, a turtle named Peanut was deformed by a six ring plastic holder. Her body started growing around the plastic. Turtles can get caught in plastic bags, too. Another example is, that once a whale carcass washed up on shore, which is normal on some beaches. But the whale did look really young. The people who were cleaning it up ignored it. When they tried to move the whale, the mouth opened and tons and tons of trash fell out.

Sometimes there are oil spills that really dirty up the water. It takes a lot of work to clean up. People have to use special suits to clean it up. Oil hurts animals. For example, if oil gets into a fish’s gills, it will poison the fish and it will die. When oil spills on a bird, it will be too heavy to fly and it will most likely drown.

It affects us by sinking ships. When ships go by plastic can get caught in the engine and sink the ship. Also, we will eat fish from the same species as the fish that die. The predators that also eat that fish will die out because there will not be as much food as it will need. It will wreck the whole food web. It will also affect us by ruining the beach. There will be a lot of trash and no one will want to go swimming in that.

I want to persuade people to help fix this problem by not throwing trash in the ocean. Please recycle plastic to help.

Logan R

‘Animals are here for a reason’

The internet has always spread around that people are killing these dogs and cats or any other animals. People need to treat animals a lot better than they do get treated.

Animals are not meant to be killed for no reason. People have been thinking that animals either have no feelings or that they can’t feel pain, or they are JUST animals.

This is not okay and needs to stop. If people keep killing all these cats, dogs, even wild animals, they will stop coming around. Animals are here for a reason, not just to kill. People have starved, abused, abandoned tons of animals. It’s sad to think that right now there is an animal being killed. Lots of people are supporting that and the poor animals did nothing wrong. To all the people who are saving animals’ lives, trying to put a stop on animal abuse, teaming up with other people to put a stop on this, thank you. We need to all be in this and stop animal abuse. Tons of female animals are giving birth to animals and in pain. We all need to step it up and treat animals as they should be treated.

Karla V

Chester

End animal cruelty for good

Animal cruelty in the form of abuse and hunting is a severe issue in the world and it should be ended.

Do you think all these animals really deserve to be killed for no reason? We really shouldn’t kill all of these animals because if they get hunted and killed, they could go extinct, and if they do we won’t have a constant food source. This is why I think animal cruelty in the form of abuse and should be ended for good.

Andrew M.

Chester

Other people’s trash

My issue is with not recycling. For example, a few days ago I was walking with my aunt and cousin to the store and we saw some trash laying on the ground, so my cousin went to the trash can and threw the trash out.

t makes me confused because people know that trash can get animals killed and animals can get tangled in it.

Another thing is that it’s sad that other people actually have to pick up other people’s trash and that’s not what they should do but they still do it to be nice. It can be improved by everyone throwing out their trash and having machines that pick up the trash, but I think we have that already.

This is an issue to me because this is not only not good for animals, but there are people who are hungry and who don’t have a home. And it’s sad how people think that the population of animals won’t be affected. And if we want people and animals to be safe, we cannot keep throwing our trash on the ground. We have to be responsible with our trash. And this is why throwing our trash out is important.

Mahki

Chester

Love is love

People are burning the flag and that needs to be fixed. Even though you are not a fan of the LGBTQ+ does not mean that you should destroy it.

Celebrities and big business people are waving flags and telling everyone it is okay to be in the LGBTQ+ community which is amazing.

For people who do not support this, that is completely fine.

Just don’t be mean. People have rights, WE have rights and this can not be ignored. We are who WE are. Ourselves, is the best about us and only we can control our lives and WE can live our lives! All I want is for people to accept who others are.

Aribella T.

We need to help

In these times with COVID, people are suffering. Some don’t have jobs, some are on the streets, and some are barely getting by. That’s why we have to do something. We need to help. We need to help them if we see someone on the streets, we can give them spare change or help them in any other way because they are suffering. We are all the same because we are humans. Think of birds they stick together. They don’t split up because they know they’re a big family like us humans.

Liam P

Chester