With the presidential election quickly approaching, the Oracle sent out an anonymous survey asking all Archer students, grades six through 12, to share their opinions on eight popular political topics.

After three days, 222 out of 495 Archer students had completed the survey, answering questions about their thoughts on gun control, equal pay, global warming, abortion, immigration/border security, foreign terrorism suspects, police brutality/criminal justice and government spending. Here is what the final results revealed. 

Gun Control

The Second Amendment is “the right of the [American] people to keep and bear Arms,” as written in the Constitution. Some American citizens are questioning what the limits of the Second Amendment should be.

What do Archer girls think?

Equal Pay

According to the IWPR study, “In 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent.” Although there is technically the Equal Pay Act of 1963, “aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex,” many feel that women are still facing inequality in the workplace today. The Paycheck Fairness Act is “a proposed US labor law that would add procedural protections to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Fair Labor Standards Act as part of an effort to address the gender pay gap in the United States.”

What do Archer girls think?

Global Warming

Based on the Wikipedia definition, the global warming controversy concerns “the public debate over whether global warming is occurring, how much has occurred in modern times, what has caused it, what its effects will be, whether any action should be taken to curb it, and if so what that action should be.”

What do Archer girls think?

Abortion

Abortion is “the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy,” according to Google definitions. Currently, all American states are required to allow abortions early in pregnancies, but may have the power to ban them after 24 weeks, based on the information provided on the What to Expect website. There has been discussion as to whether this law is constitutional in the ways in which it affects both the woman and the embryo. According to I Side With, the two most common opinions are  known as pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-choice allows the women to chose (within the first 24 weeks) whether she continues her pregnancy or not. On the other hand, pro- life makes it obligatory for the woman to carry the pregnancy to term. In addition, some pro- life advocates are willing to make exceptions in the cases of rape, incest or danger to the health of the woman.

What do Archer girls think?

Immigration/Border Security

According to the Pew Research Center, there are 11.3 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States today.

What do Archer girls think?

Foreign Terrorism Suspects

How do you think America should treat foreign terrorism suspects in questioning? As I Side With asked, “should foreign terrorism suspects be given [the same] constitutional rights [as citizens]?”

What do Archer girls think?

Police Brutality/Criminal Justice

According to the Washington Post, as of Nov. 7, 820 people have been shot and killed by police in 2016. Twenty-four percent of those people have been identified as African American. In addition, in 2010 (latest record), 40 percent of the United States incarcerated population was African American — despite the fact that they only make up 13 percent of the total population.

Because of statistics like these, there has recently been lots of advocacy protesting against police brutality of African Americans in the US. Some citizens believe that this stems from racial discrimination and prejudice. Additionally, some have called upon the government to reform the criminal justice system to account for racial biases.

What do Archer girls think?

Government Spending

Based on the U.S. Nation Debt Clock, the Federal Government is currently $19.5 trillion in debt. As asked by I Side With, the main question is, “should the government make cuts to public spending in order to reduce the national debt?”

What do Archer girls think?

Based on the results, it appears that the majority of Archer girls who took the survey share similar views on equal pay, global warming, abortion and police brutality/criminal justice. However, the community is most divided on immigration/border security, foreign terrorism suspects and government spending.