Ninth grade students in Stephanie Hurt’s English class at Brodhead High School have participated in the National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community-Ready Writer’s Program (C3WP) all year. Students learned to consider multiple perspectives around an issue and to write evidence-based arguments asking for change. For their final argument, students chose an issue they care about, researched the conversation surrounding the issue, and wrote an evidence-based letter to a real audience, such as these letters to the editor. 

From Braxton M. Mather

Brodhead High School

To the editor:

Drug overdoses are very popular in the U.S. The reason is because there are people doing drugs that could kill them. The thought of people dying from drugs is a thought that people probably wouldn’t want to have in their mind. If there is a person that thinks about doing drugs they should think before trying something that could end their life. People shouldn’t take drugs unless it’s a medical drug or if a doctor gives you permission.

It’s sad to hear that people are dying from drug overdoses because they could have had a life to live for but it all stops when stuff like that happens. Drugs should be illegal in all states because people choose to do them and then something bad happens to them. According to Drug Abuse.org “Drug overdose deaths involving any opioid ― prescription opioids (including methadone), synthetic opioids and heroin ― rose from 18,515 deaths in 2007 to 47,600 deaths in 2017; 68% of deaths occurred among males. From 2016 to 2017, the number of deaths involving prescription opioids remained unchanged with a decrease reported for deaths involving prescription opioids without synthetic opioids.” According to what this is showing they are proving how just how deadly drugs can be and how addictive drugs can be.