Letters: Addiction resources available at Live Oak; reauthorize DACA

Students have access to addiction resources

As a student of Live Oak High School who is part of on campus support for helping students through and learn about addiction, called TUPE, I would love to fill you in on the environment within our restrooms. 

Yes, the restrooms are one of the more untamed parts of our campus due to vaping, smoking and drug use. However, this honestly isn’t the staff’s fault. 

On campus there are many resources just for substance abuse as well as a TUPE Club to inform students on the effects of tobacco and other drugs. Additionally, as you mentioned in your article (April 28), the school has recently hired bathroom monitors, who in my experience, do their best to stop these issues while maintaining healthy relationships with students. 

Some of the resources include the Wellness Center or the Counseling Office. Both buildings have information on addiction and can provide outside resources to students if their addiction is in need of more involvement to solve. The wellness center and the counseling office both heavily advertise how they can help support the student population with sobriety. It comes down to the students reaching out for help.

Finally, the restrooms aren’t terribly crowded with people doing drugs or smoking everyday. When they are, bathroom monitors are quick to remove these people. When the bathroom monitors aren’t there, staff are usually called in to remove the students. Our bathrooms are unruly but aren’t typically as bad as some parents illustrate them to be.

When it comes down to it, to solve the bathroom issue here at Live Oak, students and parents need to be held accountable rather than continuing to blame staff; believe me, they are just as fed up.

Tupe= Tobacco Use Prevention Education 

Bianca Kiyoko Appleby

Live Oak Student

Reauthorize DACA

I am writing today to urge our community and elected officials to support reauthorizing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 

Currently, DACA has not accepted new eligible applicants since October 2020. According to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services website (2022), DACA is a policy that came to life through an executive order from President Barack Obama. 

DACA provides temporary relief from deportation (deferred action) and work authorization to eligible young undocumented immigrants. However, it does not offer a pathway to citizenship. The eligible DACA recipients must reapply every two years to continue to receive deferred action to deportation and work authorization. 

This policy was created to give this population a middle ground to their situation. This means they would have some protection and the right to work lawfully but would not hold legal status in the U.S., thus not having U.S. citizen rights. 

DACA is a policy that helps the childhood immigrant population with protection from deportation and work authorization for its recipients (USCIS, 2022). DACA can be seen as a compromise from the DREAM ACT or a step toward fighting for the DREAM ACT. 

However, DACA continues to create fear and anxiety within its recipients. It is not accepting new applications, an issue for childhood immigrants eligible for DACA. It’s important to note that more than half of DACA recipients reported moving to jobs with better pay and benefits that are more closely aligned with their education and training; the CAP analysis states that DACA recipient households pay $6.2 billion in federal taxes and $3.3 billion in state and local taxes each year. However, they are not eligible for federal funding. 

Similarly, most undocumented immigrants file federal and state taxes, yet they do not qualify for those funding streams, causing this population to face disparities and inequalities. Providing DACA to active and allowing eligible applicants to gain DACA protections would benefit childhood immigrants and the U.S. economy. 

Erika Chagolla

SJSU Graduate Student