5a) Read the Essential Question, Pro/Con articles, and Viewpoints to learn about the claims of your Leading Issue topic of argument. What are all the claims related to the Leading Issue topic of argument you selected? (A claim is a position on a topic you will argue with evidence to support it).
Schools mostly dismiss bullying as "kids just being kids", however bullying is a human rights violation. It is full of attacks against the powerless by the powerful. At the beginning of "An End to Bullying", a teacher actually taught students that Mexicans were to blame for drug trafficking, and therefore a Mexican 5th grader was bullied and suspended for misconduct. Most schools rely on staff to help stop the bullying, but they don't do or say the right things. They're not as good as students in said situations. Schools don't do as much as they should to stop bullying, despite the anti-bullying speeches and programs. There is also cyber-bullying, where students can't escape because it is everywhere. That caused more suicides than bullying at school. Parents do try to defend their kids from bullying, but deny or ignore the fact that they raised bullies.

5b) Think about which claim you would like to be the focus of your argument. Think about this: 'Which claim do I most strongly agree with?' If you want to challenge yourself even more, select a claim you do not strongly agree with for a more challenging topic of logical argument.
I think all of the claims are good causes for bullying. I would mostly use either how the school does not do enough or how parents actually let this happen.
5c) Decide on the main claim of your argument. Review all the claims related to your selected .Leading Issue topic of argument. Which claim is the focus of your argument?
 The main claim of this argument is that people either do nothing to stop bullying or not enough. People like bystanders, scared adults, and parents let the bullying continue. If people actually use common sense and make an effort to end the bullying, we wouldn't have so many suicides or depressed teenagers. School and life might actually be better. 

5) Explore what you already know. Access Leading Issue summaries ("Topic Overview" or "At Issue" Pages) and Timeline (under Research Tools) from the SIRS Leading Issue you have chosen. In 3-5 sentences, summarize the background and historical information of the Leading Issue you selected. Include main controversies, key figures, important organizations, and key events.

Briefly list what you know about your topic already. Consider the following:

• Surprising facts or statistics- Schools do more harm than good when it comes to bullying. Half of bullies take out their anger on people from other forms of abuse, while the other half do it under peer pressure.

• the extent of the problem- The extent of the problem is that most suicides are caused by bullying and 2,000 teens commit suicide each year.

• important people or institutions involved- The "It Gets Better Club" of CSI,  William S. Burroughs, ALL SCHOOLS, LGBT club

• key schools of thought- I.S.51 middle school, Port Richmond high school

• common misconceptions- School counselors keep saying "Go to an adult." or "come to me if you need help", however these cannot stop bullying at all. If the bully finds out, things can only get worse.

• observations you've made- There are three types of people in a bullying society: Bullies, victims, and bystanders. Bullies do the harm first and attack the victims. The victims take the abuse, go under depression, and die. Bystanders do nothing out of fear.

• important trends- Pornography, Violence, Cyberbullying, Rape, Abuse,
• 7 in 10 young people are victims of cyberbullying.
• 37% of them are experiencing cyberbullying on a highly frequent basis.
• 20% of young people are experiencing extreme cyberbullying on a daily basis.
• New research suggests that young males and females are equally at risk of cyberbullying.
• Young people found to be twice as likely to be cyber bullied on Facebook as on any other social network.
• 54% of young people using Facebook reported that they have experienced cyberbullying on the social network.
• Facebook, Ask.FM and Twitter found to be the most likely sources of cyberbullying, being the highest in traffic of all social networks.
• Cyberbullying found to have catastrophic effects upon the self-esteem and social lives of up to 70% of young people.
• An estimated 5.43 million young people in the UK have experienced cyberbullying, with 1.26 million subjected to extreme cyberbullying on a daily basis.

• major controversies- The major controversies of bullying are 

1. The uncovered bullying controversies of California
2. Victims are afraid to stand up and tell someone or fight back.
3. Schools try to hide the facts they have bullies
4.  

4b) Why are you most interested in the topic of argument selected?
         I am most interested in bullying because I am a victim of bullying. I want to try to stop it, or at least help victims through it. Bullying causes depression and teen suicide, so I can talk about those topics, as well, which is very beneficial to me. I want to discuss bullying because I have always felt really strong about this topic. I have joined several clubs on this topic, gave awareness to others, and helped my friends who go through it everyday so there isn't any casualties. 

4a) Make a final decision about your logical argument research topic. What is it? Questions to ask yourself:

What have we been studying in class this year?
We have been studying on how to correctly use search engines, the different search engines, and how to research topics. Apparently, this is what we'll be doing in college.
Which subjects appeal to me?
All eight of my topics appeal to me. I guess, for the most part, it is bullying and depression with a little dash of teen suicides.
What are people writing about?
People are writing about global issues and social issues. They write about wars between countries, citizens, and our own internal conflicts. People basically write about problems, however they never write about the answers.
What's most interesting to me?
I guess my strength is the most interesting thing about me. I could be bad. I could have dissolved into the immature, average teenager and completely fail everything. I could not have been able to take responsibility and take care of me or my family. However, despite everything happening around me, my background, everything that turns a cliche movie character into the "bad guy", I remain good deal with things in a semi mature way.
Can I find information about that?
Oh, I hope so. I want to research a person's mental strength and capability of evolving into a mature adult despite everything around them. I want to test a person's patience, knowledge, sanity, and maturity, so hopefully I can research this topic.