The Oil Spill: Criminal or Just a Freak Accident?

Ms. Baas, the red hall 8th grade math teacher.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was perhaps one of the worst things to happen to America in the last few decades. The result of it will stay with us for many many years to come. Some may think that the oil spill was really just an accident. Now BP, the company that owned the oil that spilled, now might be faced with criminal charges. Would our country really face this company with criminal charges if this "accidental oil spill" couldn't have been helped? This is what I wanted to know more about. I interviewed a few teachers in my school about this and here is what they said: Mr. Gross, the 8th grade science teacher in green hall said, "Since I'm not really an expert on oil spills, I can't really tell you what I think they should do but I think they should be faced with criminal charges because this oil spill was their fault.". Ms. Baas, the 8th grade math teacher in red hall said, "I think they should just continue doing the little things they are doing to help but also sit down and formulate some big ideas on how to stop this problem." Finally Mr. Badyrka, the 8th grade science teacher in red hall said, "These people are responsible for this problem. They are adults and they need to take responsibility for their actions." Using the information we gathered and the opinions of the teachers, we formed our opinions of whether or not we thought BP, the company that owned the oil that leaked, should be faced with criminal charges. I think that since there were many precautions they could have taken that they didn't, then it really is there fault and like Mr. Badyrka said, they should take responsibility for that. What's your opinion?
- Taylor T.