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Gun-Related Deaths in America Keep Going Up

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President Trump Made It Easier for Mentally Ill People to Buy Guns

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President Trump rolled back a regulation that would have made it harder for people with histories of mental illness to purchase guns.

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The country is horrified by each mass school shooting - Umquaa Community College, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine. These tragic events grab national headlines and stir political debates about the role of guns in our society. But the vast majority of the more than 30,000 gun deaths each year in the United States are not from mass shootings. In fact, most gun deaths aren't even homicides or accidental shootings. Instead, they are suicides. And more than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide.

With such a complex problem, what's the answer to so many gun deaths in the United States?

After the recent shooting in Roseburg, Ore., that killed nine people, many in the local community said they thought that more guns might help keep them safer.

A week has passed since J. J. Vicari huddled underneath a desk while gunshots exploded in the classroom next door. Now he is thinking about guns. Not about tightening gun laws, as President Obama urged after nine people were killed at the community college here. But about buying one for himself.

"It's opened my eyes," said Mr. Vicari, 19. "I want to have a gun in the house to protect myself, to protect the people I'm with. I'm sure I'll have a normal life and never have to go through anything like this, but I want to be sure."

That sentiment is in line with a common refrain promoted by the National Rifle Association that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

On the other hand, many see the best answer to gun violence as changing the way we see guns. Whether they are intended for hunting, sport or self-defense, guns are a type of potentially dangerous equipment that kills many people, just as cars kill people. In fact, about as many people die each year by firearms as die in motor vehicle traffic deaths.

The Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes:

Cars exemplify the public health approach we need to apply to guns. We don't ban cars, but we do require driver's licenses, seatbelts, airbags, padded dashboards, safety glass and collapsible steering columns. And we've reduced the auto fatality rate by 95 percent.

And as for gun deaths by suicide, Margot Sanger-Katz writes:

Not all of those suicides are by gun, but a majority are. And while some people feeling suicidal impulses will choose another method if a gun is not at hand, public health researchers cite two reasons guns are particularly dangerous: 1) Guns are more lethal than most other methods people try, so someone who attempts suicide another way is more likely to survive; 2) Studies suggest that suicide attempts often occur shortly after people decide to kill themselves, so people with deadly means at hand when the impulse strikes are more likely to use them than those who have to wait or plan.

Students: Tell us ...

- What's the answer to so many gun deaths in the United States?

- Do you think it's possible for the government to find a healthy balance between protecting people's right to own a gun and public safety? Do you believe the government is currently striking the right balance? Why?

- Would you rather the government err on the side of protecting an individual's right to own a gun or the public's health and safety? Or do you feel this is a false choice? Why?

- After mass shootings or renewed fears that the government will ban gun ownership, many people instinctively go out to buy guns - perhaps to feel safer in times of insecurity. Americans own an estimated 300 million guns or more. Do you think people buying more guns will prevent gun deaths?

- Do you find Mr. Kristof's argument convincing, that guns should be treated as dangerous equipment, like cars, and should therefore have public health research help guide safety regulations, such as car airbags or smart-gun technology, to try to save lives? Or do you see gun safety regulations as just an excuse for taking away people's right to own a gun?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. All comments are moderated by Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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What Are Some Answers to America's Gun Violence?

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The country is horrified by each mass school shooting - Umquaa Community College, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine. These tragic events grab national headlines and stir political debates about the role of guns in our society. But the vast majority of the more than 30,000 gun deaths each year in the United States are not from mass shootings.

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How Should We Prevent Future Mass Shootings?

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What kind of “meaningful action” do you think the United States should take to prevent events like the one in Newtown, Conn., from happening again?

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Liberals And Conservatives Fight Labels And Stereotypes

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Library Guides: Evaluating resources: Home

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Library Guides: Evaluating resources: Home

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Student Editorial

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Some argue that the risks of hallucinogen use are too great to warrant their exploration as treatments for psychological disorders. However, hallucinogens do not have the same potential for addiction as alcohol, nicotine and opioids. In addition, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder - colloquially known as "flashbacks" - occurs in far lower frequencies than was originally thought in the 1970s and 1980s and is unlikely to occur in patients who take controlled doses of the hallucinogens in clinical settings.

Indeed, hallucinogens may be far safer than originally thought - not only physiologically, but also in the sense that their potential to treat high-risk disorders could save thousands of lives lost due to suicide, smoking-related cancers and overdoses each year.

Certainly, hallucinogens are no panacea. However, if their applications as treatments for psychological disorders are properly explored and their Schedule I status challenged, hallucinogenic drugs may prove to be the 21st century's next medical breakthrough.
Works Cited
Al-Harbi, Khalid S. "Treatment-Resistant Depression: Therapeutic Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions." Journal of Patient Preference and Adherence 6 (2012): 369-388. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

Hegarty, Stephanie. " Can a Hallucinogen from Africa Cure Addiction? " BBC News. The BBC, 3 Apr. 2012.

Hoffman, Jan. " A Dose of a Hallucinogen From a 'Magic Mushroom,' and Then Lasting Peace. " The New York Times. The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2017. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.

Mithoefer, Michael C., et al. "The Safety and Efficacy of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Subjects With Chronic, Treatment-Resistant Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The First Randomized Controlled Pilot Study." Journal of Psychopharmacology 25.4 (2012): 439-452. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.

Phillip, Abby. " Hallucinogen in 'Magic Mushrooms' Might Have Helped Smokers Quit. " The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

Santella, Thomas. Understanding Drugs: Hallucinogens. New York: Chelsea House, 2012. Print.

Williams, Alex. " How LSD Saved One Woman's Marriage. " The New York Times. The New York Times, 7 Jan. 2017. Web. 5 March 2017.

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Editorial Contest Winner | 'A Psychedelic Cure?'

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Some argue that the risks of hallucinogen use are too great to warrant their exploration as treatments for psychological disorders. However, hallucinogens do not have the same potential for addiction as alcohol, nicotine and opioids.

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Should we retire labels like capitalism or socialism? Can we embrace the messy, uncategorizable economic reality? Two economists discuss

Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis calls himself a libertarian Marxist Keynesian - or "completely confused," as he jokes. So it was hard to predict how he would react to Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, a more traditional proponent of free markets. The two economists spoke with TED's European director Bruno Giussani ahead of December's TEDGlobal conference in Geneva, where they argued that during these uncertain economic times we should question ideologies, discard certitudes and adapt to a messy, new economic reality. They share their views on how to revive the global economy (the text has been edited for length and clarity).
What's wrong with the world economy today?
Dambisa Moyo: We, the international community, very successfully convinced a whole swathe of emerging market countries that they should be more democratic and they should be more market friendly. You look at a place like South Africa, which in 1994 had about 25% unemployment; 20 years later in 2014 they had 25% unemployment and the population had increased. When you spend time with their policymakers, they say, 'We did everything right. We opened our market, we have trade, we started to take on more debt internationally so we could be more transparent. We did everything right, and here we are in a very dire situation.' Russia I would argue is somewhat on that path, as is Brazil, as are many other countries in the world. The fundamental point that I'm trying to raise is liberal democracies, market capitalism, state capitalism - those models are not fixed endpoints. It is a live and evolving issue. Right now there is a massive vacuum in the discussion about what sort of policies can create economic growth, and it's the same in the political frame.

Yanis Varoufakis: We have the largest saving rate in the history of capitalism and the lowest investment rate, and this imbalance is at the bottom of the various manifestations of a crisis that's been happening now for a while. 2008 as far as I'm concerned, was our generation's 1929. In exactly the same way that after 1929 the world ceased to make sense in terms that people used to understand their world prior to 1929. After 2008, it's a different ballgame. If you look between the 1940s and 2008, we have a situation where the United States of America was playing a rather efficient but complicated role in global recycling [of saved income]. Recycling [income] surpluses from where they were being produced to where there were deficits. Initially in the first twenty years after Bretton Woods, America was a surplus country and it was recycling its own surpluses politically, using political machinations, I mean, the Marshall Plan is just one example.

But with the end of Bretton Woods, which happened because America lost surpluses and could no longer recycle a surplus it didn't have, we moved into completely different phase, again with America in the driving seat, where the American economy, through its strong deficit spending, was recycling everybody else's surpluses. It didn't have surpluses to recycle itself so it recycled other people's surpluses by acting as a huge vacuum cleaner that was sucking into American territory. That broke down in 2008. Wall Street has lost the capacity to do this recycling in a way that maintains savings and investment. And the fact that our political sphere is imploding is a reflection of the breakdown of this global recycling mechanism.
Should politicians meddle with the free market?
YV: The marketplace is incapable, through standard market forces, of recalibrating the global economy, so there has to be political intervention. However controversial it may sound, we need to try something we haven't tried out in the last 300 years, and that's democracy - democracy as an economic mechanism for bringing about calibration in the international economy.

DM: My theme is really about ideology being in essence an enemy of growth, and I think that in a sense, perhaps we do agree. I'm really talking about the left and right-leaning public policies that are targeted at economies, and you'll be very familiar with many of them I'm sure. But nevertheless, if you ask me right now what sorts of political system might work, I think that we probably don't have a system that can stand the veracity of a lot of the challenges that the world faces today. If I were to critique liberal democracy, I would say it definitely needs to be more open-minded and basically draw in a lot of the perspective that comes from the Chinese model.
Neither capitalist nor socialist - the confounding case of China
YV: Many governments - particularly in emerging countries - are looking at [China] as an alternative to the Western democratic model. Tell me what you think should be absorbed from that and why you think that traditional Western democracies would be okay with that?

DM: I'm not here to be assigned a sympathizer to the Chinese. But I spent an hour with President Xi Jinping in Beijing and it became very clear to me that he's actually not wed to a particular economic sense. If tomorrow we could convince him that liberal democracy and market capitalism is the tool to create economic development and to reduce poverty, he would adopt it tomorrow.

Their ideology is really around economic growth, if I may use the term, "ideology." And so I think we are ones who ascribe on the Chinese that they are Communist, that they are state capitalists. They don't view themselves as that. They view themselves as evolutionary. They are now very open about saying, "Hey, this program that we've had for thirty years has worked pretty well for us. We've moved hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, we have not had a democratic system in place. There might be some merit to democracy, we're going to try and road test that at the lower levels and we're going to also try and open up our markets and move away from investment towards consumerism."I think that that is very emblematic of an openness that we don't see in the democratic stance.

YV: None of the institutions that I've dealt with were interested in growth, in liberal democracy, or indeed in free markets. Here I am, a finance minister of the party that goes by the name of the Alliance of a Radical Left, trying to convince the IMF people and the European Central Bank people that we should not be pushed to increasing corporate tax rates. We live in a very topsy-turvy, weird world when one has to be a radical left-wing Marxist in order to pursue a policy that Adam Smith would have appreciated in Europe. That just goes to show how crazy this place is.

But let me make a comment on China, because I dealt with the Chinese in secret and at some point I will write about it. It was along the lines of what Dambisa was saying, an excellent experience. I found them decidedly open-minded. Mind you it did help that on the third day I was in the ministry I signaled to them that I was quite happy to privatize the Port of Piraeus and give it to [China's state-controlled shipping firm] Cosco. So that opened doors in Beijing. But one of the things that I tried to do in the months that I was in the ministry and in the Eurogroup was to put the brake on the rather moronic and particularly baseless critique of China in Europe, at least on the question of its economic policy and open-mindedness. That is because I could see the Chinese model, despite many reservations that I have, that many of us have, is an essential part of the solution, not of the problem.
Illustration by Anna Parini for TED.

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What should the future of capitalism look like?

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Greece's former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis calls himself a libertarian Marxist Keynesian - or "completely confused," as he jokes. So it was hard to predict how he would react to Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo, a more traditional proponent of free markets.

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What school shootings do you remember? Why do they stand out to you?

In " School Shooting in Kentucky Was Nation's 11th of Year. It Was Jan. 23," Alan Blinder and Daniel Victor write:

On Tuesday, it was a high school in small-town Kentucky. On Monday, a school cafeteria outside Dallas and a charter school parking lot in New Orleans. And before that, a school bus in Iowa, a college campus in Southern California, a high school in Seattle.

Gunfire ringing out in American schools used to be rare, and shocking. Now it seems to happen all the time.

The scene in Benton, Ky., on Tuesday was the worst so far in 2018: Two 15-year-old students were killed and 18 more people were injured. But it was one of at least 11 shootings on school property recorded since Jan. 1, and roughly the 50th of the academic year.

Researchers and gun control advocates say that since 2013, they have logged school shootings at a rate of about one a week.

"We have absolutely become numb to these kinds of shootings, and I think that will continue," said Katherine W. Schweit, a former senior F.B.I. official and the co-author of a study of 160 active shooting incidents in the United States.

Some of the shootings at schools this year were suicides that injured no one else; some did not result in any injuries at all. But in the years since the massacres at Columbine High School in Colorado, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., gun safety advocates say, all school shootings seem to have lost some of their capacity to shock.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

- Do you think our society is becoming "numb" to school shootings? If so, why do you think this has happened? If not, why not?

- Ms. Schweit argues, "But I really don't think as a whole, in society, we're taking shootings more seriously than we were before - and that's wrong." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

- Have you participated in active shooter drills at your school? If so, what was that experience like for you? How do you think schools should prepare for the possibility of a shooting?

- How do you think lawmakers should grapple with the risk of school shootings? Are there any policies that you think should be put in place to minimize potential injuries and deaths?

- In our Civil Conversation Challenge for Teenagers, we asked students to weigh in with their opinions about gun rights in the United States. If you like, explore the resources we provide about the gun control debate and read through some of the student responses. Then add your own voice to the conversation by posting your thoughts in the comments section.
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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Are We Becoming 'Numb' to School Shootings?

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What school shootings do you remember? Why do they stand out to you? In " School Shooting in Kentucky Was Nation's 11th of Year. It Was Jan. 23," Alan Blinder and Daniel Victor write: On Tuesday, it was a high school in small-town Kentucky.

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Columnist Editorial

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Do you have any tattoos or body piercings? If so, were your parents involved in your decision? If not, why have you chosen not to get one?

In " When Adolescents Want Tattoos or Piercings," Perri Klass writes:

Tattoos, which were once viewed in pediatrics as evidence of a somewhat marginal and high-risk lifestyle, have become sufficiently mainstream that it is now possible to hear college students talk of marking their individuality by not getting tattooed. So many young people have tattoos that in 2015 the military relaxed the rules against them, which were discouraging too many potential recruits - though there are still restrictions against offensive tattoos or most that would be visible in uniform.

One of the report's lead authors, Dr. Cora Collette Breuner, who is a professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital, and the chairwoman of the A.A.P. Committee on Adolescence, said, "It should be brought up at adolescent visits: 'Have you considered getting a tattoo, a piercing, where?'" Pediatricians should be asking questions like, "Have you talked to your parents? Do you understand it's permanent?" Dr. Breuner suggests that a child who wants a tattoo might consider a temporary tattoo first to see what it's like to walk around with the decoration; parents can also suggest a waiting period, even for a young adult, before going ahead.

And the somewhat fraught area of "body modification" and "body art" can become an arena for discussing the nature of permanent decisions, body autonomy and personal health.

Opening the conversation could be an opportunity to emphasize the permanent nature of a tattoo (the report goes into the difficulties and the expense of tattoo removal, and also the limited success in many cases), and also to bring up the question of how a visible tattoo or piercing could affect employment opportunities later on. (And it's not just a question of not being able to get a job in a more conservative setting; I recently heard about young actors with tattoos who have to show up extra early to get their tattoos covered with body makeup, or who sometimes get passed over for parts.

"I don't think health care practitioners should be critical or judgmental," Dr. Breuner said. "That just drives the whole thing back into the alley."

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

- Should teenagers legally be allowed to get tattoos and piercings?

- Who should decide whether you get a tattoo or piercing - you or your parents?

- If you decide to get a tattoo or piercing, what should you take into consideration before doing so?

- If you don't have a tattoo or piercing and want one, what would you get, and why?
Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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Who Should Decide Whether a Teenager Can Get a Tattoo or Piercing? (Published 2017)

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Do you have any tattoos or body piercings? If so, were your parents involved in your decision? If not, why have you chosen not to get one?

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Contests

One of our 2017 editorial winners wrote about China's unofficial ban on Korean cultural exports, such as the boy band Exo. Credit... Starnews, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

The challenge is fairly straightforward. Choose a topic you care about, gather evidence from sources both within and outside The Times and write a concise editorial (450 words or less) to convince readers of your view.

Because editorial writing at newspapers is a collaborative process, you can write your entry as a team effort or by yourself. When you're done, submit it using the contest form below by Thursday, April 5, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. Be sure to read the rules, also below, before posting.

Our judges will then use this rubric (PDF) for selecting winners to publish on The Learning Network.

As teachers know, the persuasive essay has long been a staple of high school education, but the Common Core standards seem to have put evidence-based argumentative writing on everybody's agenda. You couldn't ask for a more real-world example of the genre than the classic newspaper editorial - and The Times publishes, on average, two of them a day.

And at a time when breaking out of one's "filter bubble" is more important than ever, we hope this contest also encourages students to broaden their news diets by using multiple sources, ideally ones that offer a range of perspectives on their chosen issue.

So what issue do you care about? Gun violence? Sexual harassment? Social media? You decide.

Good luck, and please post any questions you might have in the comments. We'll answer you there.

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Note: The submission form has been removed from this page. The contest is closed.
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Video

The New York Times's editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal provides seven tips for writing an effective editorial.

To help with this challenge, Andrew Rosenthal, in his previous role as Editorial Page editor of The Times, detailed seven pointers in the video above. And we have published related lesson plans, including " For the Sake of Argument: Writing Persuasively to Craft Short, Evidence-Based Editorials," " I Don't Think So: Writing Effective Counterarguments" and " 10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times," that offer additional teaching ideas.

We have also culled a list of 401 prompts for argumentative writing organized by category, to help inspire you - although, of course, you are not limited to those topics.

We encourage you to look at both our comments on last year's winners and the winning essays themselves. They can serve as excellent models, and they cover topics from active-shooter school lockdowns to Korean television shows in China.

In addition, you can watch our free, archived webinar, featuring the Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof and Kabby Hong, a high school English teacher.

1. Use at least one Times source. You can write your editorial about any topic, as long as you use at least one source from The Times. That should pretty much open the whole world to you, as you may be surprised how much you can find in The Times.

Be advised that nytimes.com has a digital subscription system in which readers have access to five free articles each month, but after that you will be asked to become a digital subscriber. The Times also offers K-12 digital subscription plans for schools. But all Learning Network activities for students, including our daily writing prompts, as well as Times articles linked from them, are free, so you can access them without exceeding the five-article limit.

2. Use at least one non-Times source. But make sure that the source you use is a reliable one. We encourage you to find sources that offer different perspectives on an issue.

3. Always cite your sources. Our submission form contains a required field for entering your citations. We include an example as well, though you can use M.L.A. or A.P.A. styles, or just list the website URLs. Even if you use a print source or an expert interview, you must provide a citation. Readers (and judges) should always know where you got your evidence.

4. Be concise. The editorial must not exceed 450 words. Your title and list of sources are separate, however, and do not count as part of your 450-word limit.

5. Have an opinion. Editorials are different from news articles because they try to persuade readers to share your point of view. Don't be afraid to take a stand.

6. Write your editorial by yourself or with a group. If you are working as a team, just remember to submit all of your names when you post your entry. But please submit only one editorial per student. If you're submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

7. Be original and use appropriate language. Write for a well-informed audience, but include enough background information to give context. Be careful not to plagiarize: Use quotation marks around lines you take verbatim from another source, or rephrase and cite your source.

8. Submissions must be from students who are 13 to 19 years old, and they may come from anywhere in the world. Unlike in previous years, students can now use their entire name if they want.

9. All entries must be submitted by April 5 at 11:59 p.m. Easternusing the contest form above. If you have questions about the contest, feel free to post them in the comments section, and we'll respond to you there.

10. Follow these instructions if you need proof that you entered this contest. Within an hour of submitting your editorial, you should receive an email from "The New York Times" with the subject heading "Thank you for your submission to our Student Editorial Contest." If you don't receive the email within an hour, even after checking your spam folder, then you can resubmit your entry. Be sure your settings allow emails from nytimes.com.

After two attempts and waiting over one full day, if you still have not received a confirmation email, you can contact us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com with the email address you used in the contest form. Use the subject heading "Please send me an email confirmation for my editorial contest submission." Be sure to include your name and editorial title (or subject) in your email. You may have to wait up to a week for a reply.

11. We will use this rubric (PDF) to judge entries, and the winning editorials will be featured on The Learning Network.

" Writing an Editorial" Unit Plan, by Lindsay Thompson

" Reader Idea | He Said, She Said, I Say: A Researched Argument Essay," by Danielle Harms

" Reader Idea | Using an Op-Doc Video to Teach Argumentative Writing," by Allison Marchetti

" Reader Idea | Using Room for Debate to Teach Argumentative Writing and Discussion Skills," by Gerard Dawson and Justin Rex

" Reader Idea | An Argument-Writing Unit: Crafting Student Editorials," by Kayleen Everitt

Good luck and have fun. We welcome your questions and comments if we have omitted details that might be useful. Let us know how we can help.

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The Learning Network runs contests for teenagers all year long. See our full calendar.

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Our Fifth Annual Student Editorial Contest: Write About an Issue That Matters to You (Published 2018)

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Contests The challenge is fairly straightforward. Choose a topic you care about, gather evidence from sources both within and outside The Times and write a concise editorial (450 words or less) to convince readers of your view. Because editorial writing at newspapers is a collaborative process, you can write your entry as a team effort or by yourself.

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Contests

One of this year's winners wrote about school lockdown drills. Related Article Credit... Alec Soth/Magnum, for The New York Times

Update | Read the work of _________ this year's 10 winners here and this year's runners-up here.
For the past four years we've invited students to write short editorials about issues they care about, and each year thousands take up the challenge.

Students often start with thoughtful questions from their own lives: Why is my school's athletic program better funded than its music program? Why do we hide in the corner of our classroom during active shooter drills? Why don't my classmates stand during the Pledge of Allegiance? And they develop sophisticated, sincere and well researched answers in response.

Students look at the nation's and world's problems and hunt for solutions - to improve the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in China, for example, or to reduce recidivism rates for U.S. prisons.

We really like this contest because it asks students to look closely at their world and find something, large or small, they want to change. So, if you don't like being last in line all the time because your surname starts with "Z," then take a stand. If you want more characters in books and movies to be more like you, then write about it. If you want society to be less wasteful or more tolerant, then tell the world. Change starts with noticing, thinking critically, and starting meaningful conversations - and that's what these students have done in their editorials.

But winning this contest? It's no easy task being selected as a winner out of 7,895 entries, a record. How do you make your writing stand out from the piles of other editorials submitted to our contest - especially when you have no more than 450 words to get your point across?

Here's one way: Start strong. Grab our attention in the first few sentences, but don't take too long to state your argument.

Here's another: Pick a fresh topic, or a new angle on a popular topic, and be very clear about what you are arguing. Often when students narrow in on a specific concern, their editorial becomes more persuasive.

What else? Write with an original, confident voice and avoid formulaic language and structure. And if appropriate, acknowledge, and deftly dispatch, counterarguments.

Below, we list 10 winners, 15 runners-up and 45 honorable mentions. We also include a PDF of all the finalists, including 58 who made the cut to the third round of judging, but didn't quite reach the winner's circle.

Starting May 22, we will be publishing one of the Top 10 essays each weekday in posts that we hope you will spread on social media, hang on school bulletin boards and perhaps even use as "mentor texts" for next year's contest.

Thank you for participating - and we hope you'll take part in our Summer Reading Contest, starting June 16.

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Each category below lists our favorites in alphabetical order by title. Where titles were missing, we came up with our own.
Top 10 Winners
" A Psychedelic Cure?" by Reagan Briere, age 16
" In Nothing We Trust" by Francesca Kelley, age 18
" Leave the Citizens to Their TV Shows" by Yijia Hu, age 17
" Losing the Internet" by David Scharts, age 15
" Reform the Prison, Then the Prisoner" by Katherine Leonard, age 16
" Stopping Bullets With Locked Doors and Silence Is Already Pulling the Trigger" by Daina Kalnina, age 15
" The Anguish of the Rich" by Yiqi Wang, age 17
" The Asian Misnomer: What the Affirmative Action Debate Misses" by Matteo Wong, age 16
" The Collateral Damage of Defending Democracy" by Sarah Heiland, age 18
" The Missing Anthropological Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History " by Alec Farber, age 16
_________ Runners-Up
"America First" by Safa Saleh, age 17
"America? More Like Ameri-Can't Vote" by Gianni Carcagno, age 17
"Climate Literacy: A Critical Step Toward Climate Stability" by Ella Shriner, age 14 and Hannah Witscher, age 15
"Cultural Appropriation: A Measure of Empathy" by James Chang, age 16
"Discourse Is Democracy: Allowing Uncensored Speech on College Campuses" by Abigail Hogan, age 17
"Drone Warfare: The Failing Fight Against the Modern Hydra" by Michael Levinger, age 16
"Generation Code Red" by Grace Scullion, age 16
"Humane Human Zoo?" by Ella Ward, age 15
"Paper or Plastic? How About a Paper ON Plastic!" by Melody Markert, age 17
"The Future Disintegration of American Democracy Through Athletics" by Julianne Yu, age 16
"The Case for Teaching News Literacy" by Mary Hannah Grier, age 17
"The Unspoken Alphabet Problem" by Stephanie Zhang, age 14
"The 'War on Drugs' Will Never Work; Legalization Will" by Kristina Vakhman, age 18
"There Is No Happily Ever After Without Once Upon a Time" by Bridget O'Leary, age 17
"When Will This Class Be Useful?" by Casey Stark, age 15
_________ Honorable Mentions
"#WorldChanger" by Joyce Zhou, age 17
"A Case for Impassiveness" by Lea Marchl, age 16
"A Scoop in the Right Direction" by Emma S., age 18
"AP Tests Don't Leave Enough Room for the Human Side of History" by Tom Malmgren, age 16
"Are My Shoulders Distracting You?" by Mairi Alice Dun, age 17
"Autism: Educated and Extraordinary" by Isabella Zhang, age 17
"Bittersweet" by Rena Rachlin, age 15 "Child Labor in the U.S. Today" by Jasmine Campos, age 16 and Charlotte Principal, age 16
"China Needs Silver Lining" by Wangchen Zhou, age 17
"Colleges Should Abandon Race-Based Affirmative Action to Achieve True Diversity" by Eric Davis, age 18
"Embrace the Mess" by Chi Yu, age 14
"Fast Fashion Is Destroying Our World" by Melissa Wang, age 17
"Food Stamps Need a Change" by Patrick Meara, age 17
"Governor Cuomo Frees the Plastic Bagss" by Jiayan Chen, age 17
"Help Wanted: Moderate Politicians" by Ireland Degges, age 17
"High School Should Not Just Be About Sports" by Swathi Kella, age 16
"How Far Can Post-Truth Democracy Take Us?" by Jiahe Yang, age 18
"How to Revitalize the Public Education System" by Dhara Yu, age 18
"Last Man Standing" by Kathryn Porter, age 16
"Leave Me Alone" by Celia Silver, age 17
"More Than a Morning Kick" by Emma Cary, age 16
"Multiple Choice: Not Multiple Enough" by Yi-Mei Templeman, age 17
"Picking Cotton: An Immigrant's Perspective" by Allan Njomo, age 16
"Post-Democracy" by Nadav Ziv, age 17
"Should Juvenile Offenders Receive Life Sentences Without Parole on Their First Offense?" by Tayler Gavetti, age 16
"Should Obamacare Be Repealed?" by William Pharo, age 16
"Single Payer: A Cure for America's Healthcare Woes" by Akshay Manglik, age 13
"Streaky Friendship" by Yuxin Long, age 16
"Technology: A Hindrance to Learning" by Zachary Weiss, age 17
"Teens, Technology, and The Pursuit of Happiness" by Sam Jagolinzer, age 17
"The Bluest Note" by Nicholas Dasoveanu, age 18
"The College Conspiracy" by Serenity W., age 17
"The Cost of Health Care May Be in Your Genes" by Sophia Lo, age 16
"The Demoralizing of the Elizabethan Language" by Olivia Seymour, age 14
"The Disposable Nightmare" by Tianxin Guo, age 14
"The Education Gap" by Adam Traweek, age 16 "The Environment in the Age of Trump" by Elliot Tuttle, age 17
"The Growing Problem of Screen Addiction" by Kaitlin Craig, age 16
"The Picture of Education We Must Change" by Danielle Naidrich, age 17
"Tipping the Pay Scale" by Ruhee Damle, age 14
"Untitled" by Melinda Hartz, age 16
"We Should Be Teaching Rap Music in Schools" by Jack Zuckerman, age 19
"What Do You Call Someone That Only Speaks One Language? An American." by Paige Patton, age 16
"Where Are All the Rainbows?" by Storm Viridian Murray, age 17
"Where Trump's Ban Stands Legally" by Marcus Linde, age 16
_________ And All the Finalists, Including 58 More Great Editorials That Made It to Round 3 (PDF) Judges: Amanda Christy Brown, Shannon Doyne, Caroline Crosson Gilpin, Michael Gonchar, Annissa Hambouz, Thomas Houston, Shira Katz, Willow Lawson, Linda Leavitt, Sue Mermelstein, Anna North, Roxie Salamon-Abrams, Katherine Schulten, Matt Schwarzfeld, Natlie Shutler and Kate Spence-Ado

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A Call to Action: Winners From Our Fourth Annual Student Editorial Contest (Published 2017)

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Contests Update | Read the work of _________ this year's 10 winners here and this year's runners-up here . For the past four years we've invited students to write short editorials about issues they care about, and each year thousands take up the challenge.