Chapter 3

Chapter 3

45 minutes later, the class had packed up and were waiting to go to their next lessons.

“You have all worked really well today and there were some good answers on those questions, let’s see if we can keep this up for the whole term”, smiled Miss Jameson.

The bell rang and the students surged out of the classroom. Sharvona waited for Megan to join her.

“How long is your detention then?”

“Half an hour … it’s not fair I don’t like Maths so why should I bother!” snapped Megan.

“Well remember”, Sharvona imitated Miss Jameson “5A star to C including Maths and English so get cracking”.

Megan smiled “never mind, maybe I’ll understand the work better in detention, it is too noisy at home to concentrate”.

“Why don’t you use the library then, after school?”

“I have to be home by 3.45 and no later”

“But if you explained then your parents might extend your curfew”

“Hey it’s not curfew, they just don’t want me out late… still I can’t get too many detentions”, grinned Megan as they walked into Citizenship.

“Hurry up you two, you’re late!” called Mrs Smith.

Megan and Sharvona sat down at their table, Sabrina and Alice were already there.

“Hey guys, did you just come from Maths?”

“Yep and I got like my 1000^th detention”, groaned Megan.

“Seriously, I thought that you would try and work a bit more”.

“So did I”, added Alice “why don’t you help with the work Sharvy”

“I find Maths hard myself and besides I have ballet practise so I don’t really get much free time” admitted Sharvona.

Mrs Smith clapped her hands sharply and asked for silence.

“Today girls we will be starting a new project we are going to be looking at crime among young people… I’m going to start with a very silly question, what is a crime?”

“Stealing’s a crime Miss” called out Megan.

“Yes I know that but I wanted a definition of the word crime?”

“Miss isn’t a crime something against the law?” asked Sharvona

“Correct, I couldn’t have put it better I, as you all know there are various laws put in place to keep us all safe. They have to be obeyed for the good of all citizens. We have rules in school as well and even though you may think they are boring, they need to be there; can anyone name one of our main rules?”

“No running in the corridor” suggested Saffron

“Coming from someone who is constantly reprimanded for disobeying this rule, I am surprised to hear you mention it”, laughed Mrs Smith.

“Now on a more serious note can anyone tell me why this rule is in place? It may seem like an obvious question but we need to discuss it”.

“Is it because people can hurt themselves when its’ slippery and then they have to go to hospital” called Saffron.

“Well I wouldn’t go as far as hospital, but yes accidents do happen.  Our role as a school is to give you an education and keep you safe while we’re at it. Now as you know just like in school there are people who disobey the rules. Why do you think they do this…? Florence can you tell me?”

“People may break the rules because they don’t want to seem too good and they want to fit in with a certain group”, replied Florence.

“Exactly, anyone else?”

“Some young people do it to get attention from others, they may have a difficult home life or no friends so they turn to crime”, said Clare.

“That’s a very good point, what about the media’s influence. I know that young people are very hooked to the media nowadays, so how are we influenced by it?”

“Films, with crime can influence us because some people may think it’s’ cool and go and do the same thing”, suggested Sabrina.

“So do you think that films, video games with crime in them should not be watched?”

“To be honest I don’t really know, I think it is up to an individual at the end of the day. The film could be seen as a warning or an inspiration, to either be like them or to say this is someone I don’t want to be like”.

“I agree with you Sabrina, and that brings me onto our next activity. I want you to discuss in groups what you think peer pressure is.”

Sabrina, Alice, Sharvona and Megan were already in a group. The others soon settled into groups and a lively discussion began.