The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“VERMONT STATE OF THE UNION ESSAY CONTEST FINALISTS” mentioning Bernard Sanders was published in the Senate section on pages S1117-S1118 on March 4.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
VERMONT STATE OF THE UNION ESSAY CONTEST FINALISTS
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I ask to have printed in the Record some of the finalists' essays written by Vermont High School students as part of the 11th annual ``State of the Union'' essay contest conducted by my office.
The material follows:
Finalists
EH KA LUU, WINOOSKI HIGH SCHOOL, SENIOR
``Don't hold a guy's hand; you'll get pregnant,'' my mom informed me as I sat on the toilet, looking at the well wrapped square. I engraved those words in my mind. My whole 6th grade year, I avoided the hands of the opposite gender, by keeping my hands in the pocket of my hoodie due to my moms version of sex education. Yet, in seventh grade I had Health class, where curiosity got the best of me.
``Mrs- where do babies come from?'' I looked up and back down, she smiled and explained everything to me, this was where things started to make sense. I realized that I've been lied to by my own mother. I had questions. ``Why do some parents avoid such topic?'' and ``why do schools not teach proper sex education?'' In this essay, I'm going to address the need for parents to educate their kids. Schools teaching students about sex and being welcoming to every gender.
I think Sexual education should be taught at a very early age. Most kids start to get sexually actively around middle school. In my research on ``Sex Positive Families'', I found that most parents think that if they talk to their kids about such a topic, their kids will wanna do it. However, this proves to be incorrect as most of the time, kids will consider the options and pause on their sexual activity. Parents need to start normalizing sex and understand that its an act that will be committed, one day. If youth are given the accurate information they will better protect themselves. In my research kids who understand the consequences of being sexually active. Better protect themselves by using birth control methods and using condoms so they don't contract sexually transmitted infections (STI).
In a quiet room filled with my fellow seniors, I broke the silence with a question. ``Where did you guys learn about sex?'' It was revealed that most had obtained the information by either using sources like google or from their peers, but we have school to teach us right? In high school, it is expected that you learn about these topics but in this generation, kids are starting to explore at a much younger age, the earliest being the start of middle school.
Not all states are required to teach sex education in a structure way. Some states, such as Alabama and Arizona, don't even teach the subject at all. They preach abstinence to their students and tell them to wait till marriage to have intercourses. Schools should teach safe sex and ways on how to prevent STIs. Schools should talk about different types of birth control that are available. It's also important to include information for students with different sexuality. In a video by Above the Noise, ``Sex education in America: The good, The bad, and The ugly'', high school students shared their thoughts on the current Sex Education. One student talked about how it doesn't include people in the LGBTQIA+ community. School needs to provide to students that have different sexuality, they shound teach sex between non heterosexual people as well. It's very important to help kids understand safety no matter their sexual orientation.
The topic of sex should be normalized and talked more about to people at a very young age. To help kids understand the changes in their body and explore their sexuality. Parents should have conversations about sex and the human body to their kids. School should include people with different sexuality. If we do these things, teenager would have the knowledge and ability to protect themselves and weigh their options when it come to safe sex.
KADA ORLOW, BURLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL, FRESHMAN
My sister and I were very little when my mom became our only parent. She was all by herself, with no ``safety net'', as she calls it. We were left with nothing but each other. She struggled with lack of money, food scarcity, and sometimes there were issues with places to live. As I grew older, I began to see the struggles that not only my mom, but many other families face when trying to raise a family and dig themselves out of a hole. I've listened to my mom explain to me many times, how impossible it is for one person to raise a family, to have to be in two places at once, while trying to get us off to daycare or school, and to try and hold down a regular job (no longer a career as she may have had long before), and to just keep going no matter what, because you can't stop. Stopping or resting is never an option. Some of the issues that my mom recently was asked to speak about at a press conference have to do with exactly that. My mom spoke for, and represented those people, that typically are not heard; the single parents and the sole parents. She offered solutions that would help make things easier, better for others, if only they could be put into practice everyone would benefit. Now, it is my turn to speak up for an issue I believe needs to be addressed in our society.
The system itself for single mothers is like quicksand, it doesn't matter how hard you try, you just get exhausted. You will never get out of it, but you just keep pushing. My mom resigned her promotion and went back to working part-time so that she and her family could survive. This shows that parents are forced to practically choose between providing for their children, and being with them. With no other options, parents are prevented from raising their children, just so they don't lose the benefits for their kids. Even when single parents work, the wages are not enough to support a family. Working full-time for $10 an hour is only about $19,000 a year. This fact explains many single parents' realities that are never ending. Minimum wage jobs do not pay enough to support a family. However, single parents can prevail. My mom shared that ``The single moms I know are some of the most mentally-strong people I've ever met, and no matter what, they prevail.'' This piece of evidence shows that there is no option to give up, you have to keep pushing no matter what the circumstance is. In the end, there really is no way of getting out of this everlasting loophole, unless you are thrown a lifeline.
Technology provides many of the answers to these problems. The solutions are there, they would benefit not only single parents, but eventually in the long run, it would benefit everyone. An online database and one-stop shop: housing, services, food, healthcare. Just one simple example of a solution that can be extremely beneficial because it can be used for different things and in different ways. All the government assistance programs being in one, easy to access place would make it simpler for single parents to get the support they need, and that tax dollars are paying for. Technology could help in other ways as well. Imagine you are a single mom,there is no one else at home to leave your other child(ren) with, while you rush the sick one to the emergency room. --If you could use an app like pingmd.com app, all you would have to do is ``ping'' your doctor directly, share photos, and list out the symptoms. This would save time before scheduling an appointment and visiting a doctor (time the parents are usually at work), and take some of the expenses out of visiting a doctor. There are new solutions being made everyday in order to make life for single parent's easier, this being one of them. Parent's that don't have enough time in the day to record everything that their child is doing, ex: soccer games, presentations, first day of school experiences, etc. This is now being solved with a page called Kidlee. This is another example that will help not only single parents right now, but even parents that just don't have time for it.
These solutions are only the beginning, if only they were acted upon, single parents could get the assistance they need.
ELLA PARTLOW, MISSISQUOI VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR
At such a significant time in their lives for personal development, teenagers are one of the most vulnerable age groups when it comes to mental health. According to the National Institute of Medicine, twenty-five percent of Americans experience at least one depressive episode prior to adulthood. More concerning, however, is that the World Health Organization found that many such conditions are ignored; an estimated fifteen percent of teenagers' mental health conditions go ``underdiagnosed and undertreated''. This elucidates that adolescent mental health is not often made a priority. The mental health of American teenagers needs to be taken more seriously.
When teenage mental health is neglected, it becomes an even more pressing issue. Reflecting the detrimental effects of a poor mental health care system, the rates of self harm and suicide in America have increased in recent years. The General Hospital of Psychiatry says that in the past two decades emergency room visits in America for self inflicted harm in all age groups have increased; albeit, these visits were most common among ages fifteen to nineteen. Additionally, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that there was a thirty percent increase in suicides from years 2000 to 2016. This illuminates that ignoring the mental health of America's youth puts their safety and lives in jeopardy.
In order to solve this problem, it is vital that funding for mental health education programs and support services are increased. The Journal of Adolescent Health identifies
``insurance restrictions, poor funding, and low priorities for resources'' as the ``key obstacles'' preventing teenagers from seeking necessary help. A widespread lack of education regarding mental health also contributes to this problem, says The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology. A step towards prioritizing teenage mental health, increased funding and education would result in teenagers feeling supported and having better access to mental health services.
Furthermore, better funding and education will allow for the improvement of on campus mental health service. First, it is necessary that the presence of these services on school campuses are increased. In a report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, adolescents were more likely to receive mental health services when on site services were easily available. Second, diversity, identified by the report as a key component to effective on campus mental health services, should be considered; a more diverse group of health care professionals leads to lower dropout rates in mental health programs, and misdiagnosis of mental illness decreased when there were fewer cultural differences between provider and patient. Ameliorating on campus services by increasing and diversifying them will encourage teenagers to seek help and normalize doing so, creating an atmosphere where youth can comfortably discuss their mental health without fear of being treated as insignificant.
Moreover, improving the funding, education, and available services surrounding teen mental health will allow us to make this issue a larger priority in America. In doing this, we take care of our youth and improve their quality of life.
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