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A growing problem at Robinson Middle School is the
drastic rise in the frequency of gambling among its students. Gambling
behavior has been observed to lead to violence and many other negative
issues in the school. Robinson Middle's YFJ team members decided to work
toward eliminating this problem from their schools. The team members
conducted a survey of their peers. Results indicated that a majority of
students in the school had gambled, many with cards and dice. Most of
the students surveyed gambled to earn money, though some did it for
entertainment. Almost half of the students surveyed said they thought
gambling was addictive. One-third of student said that they had been
involved in violence stemming from gambling, while two-thirds knew of
someone who had. Half of the students recognized that gambling in
school affects students’ learning.
This problem directly affects students in both middle school and high
school, and can often lead to violence, especially when money is lost.
The YFJ team took action by creating a catchy slogan that students
could have in mind when they considered gambling. The team coined the
phrase “How much you wanna bet? Gambling has a big effect!” The
members put the slogan on playing cards with candy attached to reinforce
the message. They also created posters listing the potential effects of
gambling and invited their School Resource Officer to speak about
gambling to the student body.
The team is investigating the causes of gambling
and how prevalent it is in the community. In the future, the team hopes
to extend the program out into the community in the hopes of eradicating
this problem at the source.
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