Welcome to the new National Youth Rights Association website! After more than a year of planning, designing, coding, porting, and a lot of other things we just want to forget, NYRA and WireShout are pleased to present the new NYRA website! The current site has implemented many new features such as: Chatrooms for Chapters and [...]
The brief but controversial life of the proposed SonicScreen in Hastings, MN has ended. The SonicScreen is how the Mosquito device that NYRA defeated last fall in Washington, DC is currently being marketed to real estate developers, park commissions, shop owners, school boards and other decision makers around the country. The Park Commission of Hastings, [...]
The 2011 NYRA Annual Meeting, held July 29th through 31st, on the campus of University of Maryland – College Park was co-hosted by the UMD Chapter of SSDP and sponsored by the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Foundation. With nearly 70 people in attendance, this year’s conference was twice as big as 2010. Not [...]
NYRA, and much of the Washington, DC area was caught by surprise this month when Montgomery County, MD County Executive Ike Leggett proposed a youth curfew law for the county. What was surprising is that crime has been steadily declining in the county, so unlike other communities that consider curfews, there seemed to be no [...]
In exactly one week the 2011 NYRA Board Election will begin! We’ve got an impressive slate of candidates this year. Six incumbents are running for reelection and nine challengers are vying for a spot on the board. This is one of the more diverse and impressive fields we have seen. Current board members seeking reelection [...]
Young people are often censored and when they are NYRA is there to defend their right to free speech. The first amendment does not enforce itself and it’s of critical importance that there exist organizations willing to fight for the right to speak. NYRA is pleased this month to announce that we have joined the [...]
The American Library Association (ALA) assembled a panel to discuss Youth, Privacy and Freedom at this year’s Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in Washington, DC. NYRA was pleased to participate in the very successful ALA conference on Youth & Privacy in Chicago this March, and was honored to be invited to speak on this panel. [...]
NYRA has written a Memorandum of Support for a bill introduced in the New York Assembly & Senate that would allow New York City to appoint 16 and 17-year-olds to local community boards. These community boards have an important advisory role in dealing with land use and zoning matters, the City budget, municipal service delivery, [...]
Politicians often think of young people as recipients of services rather than actors in the process. This type of thinking can lead them to make some offensive comments. These comments are borne out of genuine prejudice against young people and the knowledge that no one will stand up to defend them. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) [...]
Two youth-led NYRA-allied organizations have made great strides towards making a lower voting age a reality. In 2002, Cambridge, Massachusetts passed a home rule petition to lower the voting age through the Cambridge City Council and that legislation has been waiting legislative action at the state level ever since. In 2004 the Cambridge Kids Council, [...]
We are proud to announce our special guest and keynote speaker for the 2011 NYRA Annual Meeting: Dr. Robert Epstein. Dr. Epstein is a prominent author and psychologist and die hard supporter of youth rights. He co-founded National Youth Rights Day and has written the ground breaking book, Teen 2.0. Dr. Epstein will be delivering [...]
On May 1-3 leaders from around the world gathered in Washington, DC to mark World Press Freedom Day, a United Nations organized event promoting freedom of the press. This is the first year the event has been held in the United States. As host, this was a great opportunity for our country to promote the [...]
NYRA-NYU experienced a great increase in activity over the past few months and has held three successful events as well as being approved as a full NYU club for the 2011-2012 academic year. For National Youth Rights Day, the chapter held an event on campus titled “Activism 101″, which taught a group of interested students [...]
Urgent! Stop Corporal Punishment in New Mexico! The state is very close to ending corporal punishment. A bill has passed the house and just a couple weeks ago the same bill resulted in a tie in the Senate. If Senator Michael Sanchez brings it to a vote in the next 3 days then New Mexico [...]
A bill to lower the voting age has recently been introduced in Washington State by Sen. Scott White, thanks to our newest chapter NYRA-Seattle. Senate Bill 5621 has created the possibility of a lower voting age in Washington, allowing 14 year olds to vote for school board members. Although the odds of the bill actually [...]
Two years ago NYRA joined its first amicus brief, in the case of Safford v. Redding, in which a middle school student was strip searched because school officials suspected she had Ibuprofen. We were proud to help Savana Redding win her case at the US Supreme Court. Last summer NYRA joined an amicus brief in [...]
On January 27th, NYRA had its first chapters meeting of the year. 10 chapters were present, including NYRA-Bergen County, NYRA-New York University, NYRA-Southeast Florida, NYRA-Los Angeles, NYRA-Stockton, NYRA-Potsdam, NYRA-Nanuet, NYRA-Austin, NYRA-DC, and NYRA-Berkeley. NYRA-Bergen County has managed to get the student government reinstated at Midland Park High School after their long fight with the Board [...]
Last night NYRA’s President, Jeffrey Nadel, took on New York State Senator and former police officer (better known for his crusade against sagging pants), Eric Adams, to defend the privacy and dignity of young people against his attacks. Sen. Adams published a video on YouTube urging parents to search the rooms and backpacks of their [...]
Today, New York State Senator and former police officer (better known for his crusade against sagging pants), Eric Adams, published a video on YouTube instructing parents on how to search the rooms and backpacks of their kids for drugs and weapons. His calls for parents to invade the privacy of their children has attracted considerable [...]
Recently, councilmembers in San Juan Capistrano, California considered proposals to enhance their existing curfew laws. Amongst the new ideas considered were a daytime curfew during school hours and increased fines for the parents of young people who dare to go outside. Realizing that council members weren’t completely sold on the idea and that they clearly [...]
NYRA’s mission centers on challenging age discrimination against young people, both in law and in attitudes and supporting the basic freedoms afforded to young Americans in the Bill of Rights.