Lesson Plan #6 -
Sample Opinion Article by SNN Reporter
Note: We recommend that you print this article
and distribute it to your students.
Piercings do not make us bad
people
By Jessie Kidd, Hope Secondary
School, Hope, British Columbia
"Oh my, look at her." "She's
a bad kid!" "She must be a drug addict." "I
bet she steals!"
These are all things that I hear being
said about me while I innocently walk down the street. Why, you
ask? Well, it is because I like to have piercings.
I am a good person. I help out whenever
I can and I enjoy it. Yet, anywhere I go I see people looking
at me like I am going to steal something. Little old ladies get
scared and cross the street when they see me coming.
I get frustrated when people assume that
I do drugs all the time because I am a teenager with six piercings.
I don't see how people can judge me and say that just because
I have piercings I do drugs all the time. I have known drug addicts
that haven't even had their ears pierced.
Teenagers are not the only people who get
piercings. People in their 20's, 30's, and 40's can be
seen with piercings as well. Even though they are adults, taking
care of themselves, making a living, people will still stare
and make rude comments.
Most people, yes even those with piercings,
are good people. I do not get in trouble with the law or even
with my parents. In fact, my mother has told me that if I were
to take out my piercings, I wouldn't be me.
The curious people are almost as bad as
the judgmental ones. I get questions like, "did that hurt?"
and "why did you do that?" all the time. Well, to
tell people everywhere right here and now, no, they did not hurt.
If they had hurt me, I wouldn't have kept getting more. I am
not sadistic. I don't like pain! For the next question, why do
I do it? Personally, I think they look good. They give a person
character.
I have liked body piercings for years now.
I was seven years old when I wanted my first piercing and 13
years old when I got it done. I don't think people should go
out and have something pierced just because it is the "trendy"
thing to do at the moment. The more people get pierced, the less
original it is. I did not put rings in my body because everyone
else was doing it but because I wanted to.
I could just as easily judge people who
do not have piercings by saying that they must be boring or that
they are goody-goodies, but I don't. What a person wears and
looks like is not the important thing. What is important is how
the person acts. No matter how clichéd this phrase is,
it is totally true and people should live by it, "don't
judge a book by its cover!"