Red+Ribbon+Week+Activity


 * The Mexican Drug Wars, on Twitter: Using Social Media for Social Action**


 * Learning Targets:**
 * 1) **I can examine how social media is being used by various factions in the Mexican drug wars.**
 * 2) **I can draw conclusions to other examples where people have used social networks for other causes and actions.**
 * 3) **I can examine how drug trafficking cartels are terrorizing and extorting Mexican teachers and other citizens.**


 * Procedure:**
 * 1. Using the link below to the interactive map, read through the brief descriptions of the drug cartels and the numbers of Mexican citizens that have been murdered at the hands of Mexican drug traffickers.**
 * [|The Reach of Mexico's Drug Cartels]**


 * 2. After viewing the map, watch the short video using the link provided to familiarize yourself with how the cartels**
 * operate and flourish and the links between the illicit drug use in the US and Mexican drug operations.**
 * [|War without Borders]**


 * 3. Write in response to the following prompt and email it to me:**
 * What do you think it must be like to live in an area controlled by violent drug cartels? Imagine you are a resident of**
 * a town** **where drug cartels have threatened, terrorized and perhaps even killed people. How might the violent actions**
 * of drug cartels** **affect your daily life? How would it affect the things you do, what you think about or how you feel?**
 * How might you try to keep** **yourself and the people you love safe?**

__ [|“As Gangs Move In on Mexico’s Schools, Teachers Say ‘Enough’”] __ ** Questions | For reading comprehension: **
 * 4. Use the link below and read the following article and copy and answer the comprehension questions in the classwork section of your binder:**
 * 1) ** What are “protection fees,” and why are so many Mexican citizens paying them to drug cartels? **
 * 2) ** Why are teachers not “suffering in silence” like so many others who have been terrorized by the drug cartels? **
 * 3) ** Why do some drug cartels think that extortion is bad for business? **
 * 4) ** Security analyst Eduardo Guerrero is quoted as saying “the violence is very difficult to stop once it crosses a threshold.” What does he mean by this? Why do you think this is? **
 * 5) ** One teacher is quoted as saying that those perpetrating the violence are “spreading a psychosis among the population.” What do you think he means by this? What do you imagine this psychosis looks like in communities terrorized by drug cartels? What do you think the students at the schools that have closed are doing now? What will happen to them? **