KIDS: Fields of nightmares
Lakes Magnet Middle School teacher Diann Wandrey’s seventh and eighth grade students recently studied about children who labor in tobacco and farm fields in the U.S. alongside their families, and the horrible conditions many endure.
“The kids decided to write letters to the editor to help educate people about their suffering,” Wandrey said of her students.
Here’s a sampling of those letters.
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Why is the U.S. government allowing children that are only 8-15 in the fields? 20 percent of farm deaths are children! Children that pick tobacco have as much nicotine in their body as a smoker. It’s REPULSIVE to think that children MY age are working in fields of hell, and our government BARELY cares at ALL! Think about how helpless the children must feel about all this! It’s always scorching weather in the fields. Sometimes they don’t get water until the JOB’S DONE or EVERY 5 HOURS.
In the fields, the kids are exposed to pesticides. Imagine what it feels like when the chemicals touch your skin! That’s what these kids feel everyday; the sizzling, crackling and unpleasant sample of taste. Their houses! Don’t even get me started on those shacks .....It’s literally...hell. …that’s all I can say about their living conditions .... It’s even worse than jumpscares from a horror movie. So, people need to know about these type of things so we can make a change to help America becoming a better country.
TAIHA COLSTON
Lakes Magnet Middle School
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There are about 500,000 children working in the tobacco fields in the United States. These kids are poor and they’re taking huge risks. These kids are not supposed to work in the tobacco fields. Only children 12 through 18 years old could work in the tobacco fields. This job is not normal. It is a back breaking, sweating, no fun job. They work in the hot sun for 8-12 hrs per day. We have to stop this chaos.
When those kids finish working in the fields, they get very low wages. When they work in the tobacco fields, they will have the same nicotine as smokers do. These chemicals will cause cancer. 20 percent of farms fatalities (which is death) are children. So if you think this is O.K., think again. Half million children are getting worse every day.
ZACHARIAH J. EMERSON
Lakes Middle School
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There are over 500,000 kids in the United States working just for 12 dollars a week as farm laborers. They suffer long hours in the hot sun just so we can eat a cucumber or some oranges. Why are kids suffering for the food we eat? Why are we are sitting on our couch in a carpeted house with air conditioning when these kids live in dilapidated houses? The conditions they work in are deplorable.
It is not OK to let kids under 18 work on farms. Also they don’t get to be normal kids. They miss school and have no fun. So I say no! It is not OK for kids working in the fields. The labor laws need to be changed.
VADIN BARTLETT
Lakes Middle School
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Why are parents and the government letting their children work instead of getting an education? Children everyday are working in tobacco fields and are exposed to lots of nicotine. Parents and the government are forcing their children to drop out of school to work in the fields. The children are starting work at 5 to 6 in the morning and are working in the scorching hot sun. The children are only getting paid something like $1 a day most of the time.
It’s not OK for children to work in the fields for many reasons. One of the reasons is there is a high chance of getting cancer. Another reason is that children can easily split their skin while using the sharp tools. People need to pay attention to their children’s health because the children are dying from sharp tools and big machines.
MATTHIAS JOHN BRUNING
Lakes Magnet Middle School
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Do you know how many children work in the fields? 500,000 kids do in the U.S.
When people work in the fields, they need to be very careful. The children can get hurt. There are children that work 8-12 hours a day as farm laborers. They are not making minimum wage. When children work in the tobacco fields, they use sharp tools. When they use sharp tools to cut plants, they can get injured. There was a 10 year old driving a truck pulling a trailer of oranges and killed his little sister accidentally. Also, kids can get cancer because of pesticides being sprayed. It is very dangerous for children to be working on farms. The work is hazardous.
Children shouldn’t work in the tobacco fields. They get hurt and just make barely any money to get food! And the kids drop out of or miss school because of long hours spent in the fields helping their families. It is not OK for our country to allow this!
TRISTA WALKER
Lakes Middle School
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Kids dying. People injured. There are more than five hundred thousand minors working on farms. Do you want to know who gets your tobacco?
Well kids do.
Kids that are thirteen and older can work in tobacco fields. Kids work in extreme heat for eight to twelve hours a day. They end up missing a lot of school and even drop out of school. The government assented that it’s OK because agriculture is exempt from the child labor laws. They also get low wages that goes to help their family survive.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS
Lakes Middle School