National Youth Rights Association

This is part of the Youth Rights 101 series. Please check out Youth Rights 101: Introduction for the rest of the series and more information.

Aren’t curfew laws necessary to keep kids safe and out of trouble? Should kids really be out so late?

The real question is, should anyone be out so late, of any age? Why is it so questionable for 16-year-olds to be outside late at night, that some cities and counties have set youth curfew laws legally requiring them to stay home during certain hours, while 36-year-olds outside late are presumed innocent?

Some claim curfews are to keep youth safe from dangerous city streets, yet the 36-year-old, who is no safer on those streets, need not fear arrest for such “self-endangerment”.

Curfews don’t make cities safer and, when enacted for that supposed purpose, are an admission that the city is unsafe and its officials don’t care to do anything real about it. You don’t keep people safe by treating them like the criminals. Using curfews for this reason is to say that, if a teen is attacked late at night, it was her own fault because she “shouldn’t have been out”. This is victim blaming!

If curfews are the answer to an out of control crime problem, wasting already-insufficient police resources on innocent teens only gives real criminals of any age less chance of being caught! So it is unsurprising that, even though many cities still look to curfews for crime reduction, curfews have shown to be useless in that area!

Some have claimed curfews help parents enforce their own curfews, yet this forgets that not all parents want this “help” (especially since some curfews punish parents whose kids violate it), that law enforcement should not get involved in a simple matter of household rules. And even so, it is up to the teens themselves when to be out, not the parents, and certainly not the government.

For something so simple as the right to move around, to go outside your house, why is this simple right for youth so often denied in many places and in jeopardy in others? Why doesn’t “innocent until proven guilty” apply to teenagers? It comes down to, as with most or all anti-youth policies, seeing youth as some “other” kind of people entirely, who aren’t as entitled to the rights and respect of the majority, and that what freedoms they do have can be sacrificed (without their consent as they’re too young to vote) to give the voting public the illusion of safety and therefore score political points for those in charge.

What do you think? What are some other ways youth are harmed when their ability to go outside is legally inhibited? Tell us in the comments!

See Also:
Curfew FAQ
Our Curfew page
Our Curfews and Status Offenses forum
Our Curfews blog posts and articles
Our Curfews papers and research
Alex Koroknay-Palicz’s Testimony Against the Montgomery County Curfew

Join the forum discussion on this post

It’s been two years since that February Tuesday we decided to try out the idea of a day dedicated to promoting lowering the voting age on Twitter, using a hashtag. The chosen hashtag was, of course, #16tovote, a term used previously by NYRA of Southeast Florida’s lower voting age campaign. Watching others on Twitter use hashtags to promote campaigns or ideas, as well as using them for “chats”, these ideas inspired what we know and love (tolerate?) today as #16tovote on the 16th. After the first run on February 16, 2010 exceeded expectations and was well-received, we did it again on March 16, with many more tweets and participants. And we’ve done it again every month since!

#16tovote on the 16th is more than a social network awareness campaign. It’s a declaration of support and solidarity. It’s a demonstration that this supposedly fringe issue has real merit and real people who want to make it happen. It’s a learning experience, too, in that with everyone participating and sharing their own views on lowering the voting age, we can find points and benefits we might not have noticed before!

Two years now we’ve done this, and of course, we’re doing it again and again, onto the third year! Every 16th of the month, and because it’s an election year, in November, we’ll be doing #16tovote on Election Day, too!

Next is of course on Friday, March 16. For now, the recap!

youthrights And… it’s two years old! It’s #16tovote on the 16th! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to LOWER THE VOTING AGE! http://t.co/RRS0Ridu

youthrights For two years now, we’ve taken a day out of every month to remind all of you fine people why the voting age is too high. #16tovote

youthrights And you’ve all been terrific in joining in and helping us promote the cause for a lower voting age! #16tovote

youthrights So let’s get into it. On into #16tovote on the 16th – Second Anniversary Edition! And our lower voting age tweeting…
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

This is part of the Youth Rights 101 series. Please check out Youth Rights 101: Introduction for the rest of the series and more information.

Is it really so important for youth to have the right to vote?

Of course! While some may debate how low the voting age should go, under what conditions, and other factors, what we do know is 18 is too high a voting age, that those below that age should have a true voice and say in our government.

Some campaigns seek to lower the voting age just for school board or other education-related issues, as the students are the most directly affected and most likely to have greater insight as to the conditions and needs of their own schools, yet they have less say than adults in their communities who aren’t students, teachers, or parents, who wouldn’t likely know much or anything about what the school needs.

Voting rights are seen as the “consent of the governed”, that voters give their consent to the laws to which they are subject by voting in the legislators, but those under 18, who are subject to even more restrictions, are unable to vote, thus never gave their consent to these restrictions, and thus these restrictions are (more) unjust.

Some say youth don’t have the necessary political knowledge to vote, yet they don’t stop adults who don’t meet this standard from voting.

Some say youth don’t have the maturity to vote, yet they do not define this maturity nor stop adults who don’t meet this mysterious maturity standard from voting.

Some say youth would be pressured by parents to vote a certain way, yet they assume adults are never so pressured, by parents or others.

Teen workers must still pay income tax, but without the right to vote, this is taxation without representation!

People under 18 are often subject to being charged “as adults” for crimes, meaning young people are welcome to join adults in prison but not at the polling place.

The right to vote is considered such an essential right that it may only be withheld if there is some compelling state interest, yet what compelling state interest there is in stopping those under 18 from voting has never been made clear, not in any way that hasn’t been easily-defeatable excuses.

Benefits to a lower voting age include:
-requiring political candidates truly listen to youth
-earlier start to voting encourages habit of always voting and caring about issues
-teens voting might encourage non-voting and/or apathetic parents to vote and care about issues
-increased voter turnout
-reduction in anti-youth legislation
-true youth empowerment that helps teen self-worth
-and many many more.

The current voting age, like most or all other age restrictions, exists primarily due to the prevailing idea that those under a certain age are “other”, are not as entitled to equal respect or consideration as those older, and that giving them any real power is somehow dangerous. But in reality, how the current voting age truly benefits adults or youth is unclear, far from compelling interest, and thus it should definitely be lowered, maybe even abolished entirely.

So what do you think? What other ways is lowering or abolishing the voting age beneficial and necessary? Tell us in the comments!

See Also:
Top Ten Reasons to Lower the Voting Age
Our Voting Age page
Our Voting Age forum
Our Voting Age blog posts and articles
Our collection of Voting Age papers and research
Vote 17 Lowell
Votes at 16 (UK)
The Disenfranchised

Join the forum discussion on this post

So, by now, we’ve all heard about that horrible man who made a video shooting his daughter’s laptop because… he was upset over something she said about him on Facebook. Something he only even knew about because he hacked into her account somehow, apparently.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the idea this even happened is that so many people out there are praising him for doing this! Even that article, while condemning his actions, comes at it from an angle of “we understand, teenagers are such awful people and it’s tough to get through to them!”

So, let’s review. Man gets upset that his daughter got frustrated with him. (A daughter frustrated with her father about something! So unheard of!). Daughter vented her frustrations on Facebook in an apparently non-public message (because it’s not like looking down your Facebook feed at any given time won’t turn up at least ten similar vents about someone’s family or friends!). Daughter is apparently also not helping around the house as much as her father would like (again, such unheard of problems! Good God!). So far, the daughter’s whole “crime” seems to be… speaking freely and not being subject to unpaid, pointless, unappreciated labor. Surely she must have done something else… no, that’s about it. So what does her supposedly mature and responsible dad do? He steals and destroys her property (yes, her property), destroys it with a deadly weapon, and does so in a video he uploads publicly. Remember, her Facebook posting was non-public, but his video is public. She just didn’t do some chores, but he took something of hers and destroyed it.

Yet, considering all this… so many people think HE is the hero here?
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

This is part of the Youth Rights 101 series. Please check out Youth Rights 101: Introduction for the rest of the series and more information.

How are young people’s free speech rights violated?

Look no further than the meme of “washing” a child’s mouth out with soap if she utters a swear word. Many probably know superstitions aren’t real, but when it comes to the idea that a child’s mouth must be made “clean” with actual not-for-ingestion soap because she said a “dirty” word, many parents out there haven’t gotten the memo. Schools have rules against use of “foul” or “adult” language, often with harsh consequences.

It’s not necessarily about specific words but also topics or even tone. Some parents and teachers will punish a youth who speaks against their political views or other opinions. A young person’s mere rebuttal to something an adult says is often pegged as “talking back”, a punishable offense.

Schools have even been known to punish students for writing disparaging remarks about the school or principal on their personal blog (Doninger v Niehoff, for example).

Youth are also expected to maintain an over-the-top respectful demeanor when speaking to adults, when the adult has no such requirement toward them.

Many students have been punished for wearing a t-shirt or bracelet with a political or other message that made the school officials uncomfortable.

Student newspapers are censored all the time.

The list could go on and on and on!

Schools use the excuse that the punished or censored speech “disrupts the educational environment” even though there’s no proof of any such thing, and punishing these students certainly disrupts those students’ own education!

While most of these anti-speech actions by schools are in fact unconstitutional, they are often unaware of this, don’t care, or don’t believe the student can or will fight back. And, unfortunately, some Supreme Court rulings, such as Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier and Morse v Frederick, have ruled against the censored students.

The prevailing attitude is that youth may only say what adults allow them to say, and that if they convey an objectionable idea or word choice or tone, oftentimes objectionable only because of the young age of the speaker, it is considered within the adults’ rights to silence and punish that youth. There is no reason for this “right” to restrict and censor the speech of young people other than to exert arbitrary control over those who happened to be born after a certain date, to have the idea that the young are little more than “property” of families or schools.

Of course, nowhere does the First Amendment say it only applies to adults. Freedom of speech is one of if not the most sacred right in our country, and age-based censorship is a poor way to pass such values on to the next generation!

So what do you think? What are some other ways young people’s speech and expression is senselessly silenced or punished? Tell us in the comments!

See Also:
Our “Freedom of Speech” Forum
Our “Freedom of Speech” articles and posts
Two Youth Rights Views on Sonia Sotomayor (regarding Doninger v Niehoff)
Student Press Law Center
National Coalition Against Censorship

Join the forum discussion on this post

This is part of the Youth Rights 101 series. Please check out Youth Rights 101: Introduction for the rest of the series and more information.

Does youth rights mean thinking children and adults are the same?

No. Obviously there are physical, developmental, and other differences between children and adults. There are also plenty of such differences among adults alone or among same-age children alone. Nor does one stop growing and developing in any meaningful way upon reaching adulthood. These differences do not mean one group is inherently “superior” to another.

The question is just how exactly these developmental differences should affect one’s rights and responsibilities, if at all in some cases. Can you really be “not developed enough” to enjoy free speech rights, for example?

For many, youth rights focuses primarily on teenagers, and teenagers are not children. They are far more similar to adults than to children, and in other times and places are/were considered adults already, yet here and now they are under almost all the same legal and other restrictions as children. What good does this reduced status and compulsory dependence do them, when other people (their adult guardians) have the final word on decisions about them that they are perfectly capable of making on their own?

When dealing with children (let’s say under 12, give or take), of course, issues of development are more likely to come into play, depending on the specific issue and person. Again, of course, this begs the question of whether development or maturity truly matters in some cases and just how much. Generally, the child’s wishes should be taken into account as much as possible, and any coercion should be avoided and any questions should be answered, all as respectfully as possible, since such basic respect is another thing you can’t be “too young” or “not developed enough” for. I can’t get into much more detail than this, since there’s a lot of debate among youth rights supporters and theorists on such rights when it comes to children, but those are the basics anyway.

So, no, we do not think adults, teens, and children are all “the same” per se, but we question how much these differences can justify all the restrictions placed upon the young, and recognize that there’s too much variety in the specific issues and specific people to draw such an age line across the board. And these differences are certainly no excuse to consider the young inferior to adults in any way!

What do you think? What ways, if any, do you believe developmental or other differences between adults and youth do or do not matter when it comes to rights and responsibilities? Tell us in the comments!

Join the forum discussion on this post

This is part of the Youth Rights 101 series. Please check out Youth Rights 101: Introduction for the rest of the series and more information.

What IS Youth Rights anyway?

Youth rights is a very broad term referring to the civil rights and freedoms of young people.

This may include specific rights and liberties such as:
-voting rights
-freedom of speech
-reduction/elimination of age restrictions
-religious freedom
-educational choice
-access to information
-freedom to travel and assemble
-privacy rights
-medical rights
-freedom from coercive and violent parenting
-greater ability to leave an abusive home or school
-economic rights
-and countless others.

It also may include raising the standard of treatment toward young people in every day society, such as:
-treating youth with as much respect as an adult would be presumed entitled to
-avoiding stereotyping
-respecting their choices
-avoiding taking control over them in any way
-including youth in decision-making especially where they are directly affected
-acknowledging their concerns and opinions as legitimate
-and numerous other little ways to fix a culture that deems it acceptable to treat young people as lesser.

Youth rights is the idea that youth are to be seen as separate individuals on their own, and not merely the charges of their parents and schools. It is acknowledging young people are just as much a part of the real world as their elders and should be respected as such. It is about inclusion of youth in most or all aspects of society, not casting them aside as “too young”. It is that a person’s age tells you only their age and little or nothing else about this person’s abilities or maturity.

Some use the term youth rights to refer specifically to the rights of teenagers and young adults (roughly ages 13 to 30), while others include children in that definition as well, whether for all issues or just some.

What does “youth rights” mean to you? Tell us in the comments!

Join the forum discussion on this post

Welcome to Youth Rights 101!

The words “youth rights” mean a lot of different things to different people. New people to our cause who may have only talked to a few people or seen some articles may not quite see the underlying philosophy that holds it all together.

So here I’m putting together a collection of quick introductions to various youth rights issues to answer some common questions, as well as inviting comments on them from those of you who have something to add. This is a work in progress, so be sure to check back for new installments and comments!

Keep in mind a couple of things, though!

1. This is NOT a manifesto! This does NOT mean “if you don’t agree with every word of this, you are an Evil Ageist!”. This is simply a guide, a simple introduction to what and how youth rights
supporters and activists generally think and operate. Even if you don’t agree with it all, the point is to at least give it some serious thought and consideration, to understand better where we are coming from. After all, youth rights supporters are hardly of one mind about all the issues!

2. These are NOT official positions of the National Youth Rights Association! This should not be taken as such, should not be taken as any implication of what direction the organization is moving. (Positions are voted on by the board and then the membership. I’m just one board member writing this up on my own here!)

This is a general introductory guide to youth rights, and the issues and points are examples. I don’t at all claim to know all there is about every issue (and this guide can only scratch the surface), so please if you have something to contribute that I might have forgotten or not gone into much detail, leave a comment on it! Please keep comments on-topic, relating directly to the particular issue, either contributing something to it or answering the question. Any off-topic stuff should be taken to the forums. Thanks!

Youth Rights 101
Part 1: What IS Youth Rights?
Part 2: Different but Equal
Part 3: Free Speech Is For ALL Ages!
Part 4: The Right to Vote
Part 5: When Going Outside Is a Crime

Join the forum discussion on this post

Two months ago, NYRA petitioned against Obama’s Health and Human Services Agency discriminating against teenagers trying to get emergency contraceptives. It’s great to see the administration now taking a position for college students, at least, enjoying equal access to birth control.

Beginning in 2013, most health plans will be required to cover contraceptives, including the health plans universities offer students. Some Catholic-run universities have pressed the administration to give them an exemption so they can continue to deny birth control pills to the students they cover, but Obama’s HHS has rightly figured out that what counts is the religious and moral views of the individual student, not of the guys running her school.

This morning, NYRA joined other organizations supporting the administration’s stand for students’ right to follow their own conscience.

Read the joint statement here.

Join the forum discussion on this post

JOINT STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO BOOK CENSORSHIP
IN THE TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
January 30, 2012

The undersigned organizations are committed to protecting free speech and intellectual freedom. We write to express our deep concern about the removal of books used in the Mexican-American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District. This occurred in response to a determination by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal that the program “contained content promoting resentment toward a race or class of people” and that “materials repeatedly reference white people as being ‘oppressors….’ in violation of state law.” The books have been boxed up and put in storage; their fate and that of the program remain in limbo.

The First Amendment is grounded on the fundamental rule that government officials, including public school administrators, may not suppress “an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” School officials have a great deal of authority and discretion to determine the curriculum, the subject of courses, and even methods of instruction. They are restrained only by the constitutional obligation to base their decisions on sound educational grounds, and not on ideology or political or other personal beliefs. Thus, school officials are free to debate the merits of any educational program, but that debate does not justify the wholesale removal of books, especially when the avowed purpose is to suppress unwelcome information and viewpoints.

School officials have insisted that the books haven’t been banned because they are still available in school libraries. It is irrelevant that the books are available in the library – or at the local bookstore. School officials have removed materials from the curriculum, effectively banning them from certain classes, solely because of their content and the messages they contain. The effort to “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, [or] religion” is the essence of censorship, whether the impact results in removal of all the books in a classroom, seven books, or only one.

Students deserve an education that provides exposure to a wide range of topics and perspectives, including those that are controversial. Their education has already suffered from this political and ideological donnybrook, which has caused massive disruption in their classes and will wreak more havoc as teachers struggle to fill the educational vacuum that has been created.

Book-banning and thought control are antithetical to American law, tradition and values. In Justice Louis Brandeis’s famous words, the First Amendment is founded on the belief:

that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; … that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination …. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, [the Framers] eschewed silence coerced by law …. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

The First Amendment right to read, speak and think freely applies to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or national origin. We strongly urge Arizona school officials to take this commitment seriously and to return all books to classrooms and remove all restrictions on ideas that can be addressed in class.

American Association of University Professors
Cary Nelson, President
1133 19th St., NW, Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20036
202-737-5900
[email protected]

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
Chris Finan, President
19 Fulton Street, Suite 407
New York, NY 10038
212-587-4025
[email protected]

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona
Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director
P.O. Box 17148
Phoenix, AZ 85011-0148
602-773-6006
[email protected]

Antigone Books
Trudy Mills and Kate Randall, Owners
411 N. 4th Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85705
520-792-3715
[email protected]

The Arizona English Teachers’ Association
Jean Boreen, Executive Secretary
Northern Arizona University
English Department
P.O. Box 6032
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6032
[email protected]

Association of American Publishers
Judith Platt
Director, Free Expression Advocacy
455 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
202-220-4551
[email protected]

Association of American University Presses
Peter Givler, Executive Director
28 West 36th Street, Suite 602
New York, NY 10018
212-989-1010
[email protected]

Atalanta’s Music & Books
Joan Werner, Owner
38 Main Street
Bisbee, AZ 85603
520-432-9976

Authors Guild
Paul Aiken, Executive Director
31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212-563-5904
[email protected]

Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking
Dr. Kathryn F. Whitmore, President
N275 Lindquist Center
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
319-335-5434
[email protected]

Changing Hands Bookstore
Gayle Shanks, Bob Sommer and Cindy Dach, Owners
6428 S McClintock Drive
Tempe, AZ 85283
480-730-0205
[email protected]

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
Charles Brownstein, Executive Director
255 West 36th Street, Suite 501
New York, NY 10018
212-679-7151
[email protected]

Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliate of the American Library Association
Barbara M. Jones, Executive Director
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
312-280-4226
[email protected]

International Reading Association
Richard M. Long, Ed.D.,
Director, Government Relations
444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 524
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 624-8801
[email protected]

Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association
Laura Ayrey, Executive Director
8020 Springshire Drive
Park City, UT 84098
435-649-6079
[email protected]

National Coalition Against Censorship
Joan Bertin, Executive Director
19 Fulton Street, Suite 407
New York, NY 10038
212-807-6242
[email protected]

National Council for the Social Studies
Susan Griffin, Executive Director
8555 16th St, Ste 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301.588.1800 x 103
[email protected]

National Council of Teachers of English
Millie Davis
Senior Developer, Affiliated Groups and Public Outreach
1111 West Kenyan Road
Urbana, IL 61801
800-369-6283 ext. 3634
[email protected]

National Youth Rights Association
Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Executive Director
1101 15th Street, NW Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
202-835-1739
[email protected]

PEN American Center
Larry Siems, Director, Freedom to Write & International Programs
588 Broadway
New York, NY 10012
212-334-1660 ext. 105
[email protected]

PEN Center USA
Adam Somers, Executive Director
P.O. Box 6037
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
323-424-4939
[email protected]

People For the American Way
Debbie Liu, General Counsel
1101 15th Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, D.C. 20005
202-467-4999
[email protected]

Reach Out and Read
Anne-Marie Fitzgerald
Senior Director of National and State Programs
56 Roland Street, Suite 100D
Boston, MA 02129
618-455-0600

Reading is Fundamental, Inc.
Carol Hampton Rasco, President/CEO
1255 23rd Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20037
202-536-3500

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Lin Oliver, Executive Director
8271 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
323-782-1010
[email protected]

Spark Teacher Education Institute
Educational Praxis, Inc.
P.O. Box 409
Putney, Vermont 05346
802-258-9212

Student Press Law Center
Frank LoMonte, Executive Director
1101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1100
Arlington, VA 22209-2275 USA
703-807-1904
[email protected]

TESOL International Association
John Segota, CAE
Associate Executive Director for Public Policy & Professional Relations
1925 Ballenger Ave., Suite 550
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-518-2513
[email protected]

Join the forum discussion on this post

First #16tovote on the 16th of the year and it lands on MLK Day! How nice. Just when everyone’s minds are on Dr. King’s legacy, here we are promoting expansion of voting rights to youth! It also happened the same day as the Republican presidential candidate debate in South Carolina, which provided some nice evening material. So many young people were watching the debate, watching some men they won’t be able to vote for discuss issues the young people care about and occasionally making factual errors the young people caught. Newt Gingrich talked about how 12-year-olds should be doing janitorial work! Maybe give youth some equal rights and abilities and protections before saying middle school students have a “poor work ethic” because they aren’t employed! Lowering the voting age is a good start.

Next month #16tovote on the 16th will be two years old! Can’t believe it! You all are great for not only helping to keep this going every month, but even coming out in greater and greater numbers, as this run, for the third month in a row, broke yet another participation record! Yay!

So we celebrate the second anniversary on Thursday, February 16, but for now… the recap!

youthrights It’s a new year. It’s 2012′s first… #16tovote on the 16th!!! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to LOWER THE VOTING AGE!!!! http://t.co/RRS0Ridu

youthrights Can already vote at 16 in some countries, plus you can work and pay taxes, drop out, and do other things. Why not vote? #16tovote

youthrights Why cling to the myth of inherently immature teen while ignoring the MANY responsible teens? Empower teens with voting rights! #16tovote

youthrights Teens can’t vote for those who continually set curfew laws and other harsh restrictions on them. Unacceptable for a just society! #16tovote

sciville Some fear teen voters would be tricked for votes. But teens are already exploited to get adults to vote a certain way! #16tovote

sciville Until you define maturity and disqualify adults who don’t meet it, don’t tell me teens are too “immature” to vote! #16tovote

Mbicesk8r #16tovote if I’m mature enough to be tried as an adult why am I treated like a child when I want to vote? @youthrights

youthrights How come an adult completely unfamiliar with the local school system can vote for school board but the actual students can’t? #16tovote

bicyclingfish Adulthood = Maturity? Yeah, right. Let’s eliminate the voting age TODAY for a better tomorrow. #16tovote
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

Every year around this time, we hear the same soundbites from Martin Luther King’s poetic but relatively innocuous “I Have a Dream” speech. In some schools, textbooks include King’s more thought-provoking essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” but they usually censor the thought-provoking parts. What those in power are most eager to hide from young audiences are the parts of King’s philosophy that apply to life today for youth across America.

In the uncensored “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King declares, “A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law.” Doesn’t this sound like an argument for lowering the voting age? Teenagers in America are a minority: both a numerical minority (being outnumbered by their elders) and a power minority (having less power than middle-agers). When 16-year-olds are denied the right to vote but can be thrown in prison for breaking laws enacted by adults, King reminds us this is undemocratic, and he calls such laws unjust.

In the uncensored “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King declares, “An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.” How would this idea apply to curfew laws or the drinking age-limit? The majority group (people older than 21) imposes these restrictions on the minority group (youth) but refuses to impose these restrictions on itself. Adults do not subject ourselves to a curfew. Adults do not deny ourselves alcohol. We instead single out a minority that appears too small to fight back.

On this Martin Luther King Day, let’s remember the real Martin Luther King: a man whose ideas are as provocative today as they were in his own time. But let’s do more than remember King. Let’s use King’s ideas to tackle today’s problems. Let’s follow King’s example of fighting unjust laws. Let’s work to extend King’s legacy by moving America another step closer to the ideal of all Americans enjoying freedom, dignity, and the recognition of our civil rights.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Years before I even was one, I had only ever heard the word “teenager” in a negative context. I got the clear impression that once I turned 13 I’d become mean and rude. Then I actually turned 13 and passed through my teen years, realizing I was not particularly mean or rude, but simply myself. But everyone else assumed I was mean and rude. Often when they never met me and knew nothing about me except my age.

Our society encourages this. News reports emphasize crimes committed by teens over those by adults. Crimes by 17-year-olds are seen as representative of all teens and a sign of a youth crime wave, while a 37-year-old criminal, if his age is even given, is acting alone and other 37-year-olds remain innocent. It’s common to look at teens as lazy, spoiled, and prone to “misbehavior”, all taking a toll on “their poor worried parents”. As a result, parents, school officials, and politicians see teenagers as those to be controlled against their wishes, those to be forced into submission, those incapable of making sound decisions on their own, so our policies come to reflect this, and teens become more and more restricted.

But… it doesn’t have to be this way.

It doesn’t have to be that there are still 19 states that allow schools to paddle their students, something the practice’s proponents claim is necessary because of how “unruly” the students are. No adult can be legally paddled for any reason, yet such violation of bodily integrity is seen as justified for young people because it’s more important they are obedient, submissive, and “well-behaved”.

It doesn’t have to be that, around the country, for these “misbehaving” youth, there are unregulated behavior modification facilities that withhold food, water, and medical care, that harmfully restrain and seclude young people, all as part of their “treatment”. Usually they were sent there not because a judge ordered it but their parents merely gave the word, decided their son/daughter needed to be “fixed”, and that was all that was needed to subject this teen to such life-threatening conditions. And in many cases, the teen’s only “crime” was slipping grades, questioning the family’s religion, or being gay.

And all of these things are still legal, being kept legal by politicians the young victims cannot vote against. These young victims are the result of a culture that insistently fears young people.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

We all know it doesn’t have to be this way or the countless other ways our ephebephobic culture hurts youth. For the past 13 years, NYRA has known and operated under the ideal that it doesn’t have to be this way. For the past 13 years, our organization has grown and our chapters and members have run big and small campaigns to make change for youth rights, because it doesn’t have to be this way. We stand up and challenge the anti-youth assumptions and policies that hurt young people, even when “common knowledge” and prejudices are so widely against us, because it doesn’t have to be this way.

That is what Usiel Phoenix says at rallies and protests.

That is what Jeffrey Nadel says in his TV and radio spots.

That is what Samantha Godwin says in scholarly journals.

That is what Chris Hardy says to rights-violating schools.

That is what Alex Koroknay-Palicz says in testimonies against ageist legislation.

That is what we all say, all the time.

Our ever-growing strength to turn the tide, to right all these anti-youth wrongs, has always come from one place: YOU! It is devoted members like YOU who carry and spread the ideal that it doesn’t have to be this way, that it shouldn’t be this way, that our anti-youth culture hurts youth and helps no one. You spread the word in conversations and on social media, on blogs and in letters. You may come to our online forums and chats and talk with us about your views and ideas. You tell school officials and politicians their anti-youth policies are unacceptable. You may have seen us tabling at your event and talked with us. You may have attended our annual meeting. Even where our individual specialties and visions differ, we still all share the same ideal that discrimination against the young is a serious problem, and that it doesn’t have to be this way. That things MUST change! We’re all in this together!

So to help make 2012 an even greater year for our cause, to help NYRA grow and become even stronger against ageism, please consider making a donation!

http://www.youthrights.org/donate/

Your generous contributions help us to reach new audiences and run bigger campaigns. Your contributions help maintain our current projects and expand into new areas. Your contributions help us make a bigger and more lasting impact in eliminating anti-youth policies and increasing youth rights and freedom.

We just helped stop a curfew proposal in Montgomery County, MD. Help us to grow and expand, to spread support for youth rights, and make it so curfews are no longer even considered anywhere! Help us change curfews and other anti-youth policies from a current oppressive reality to just a shameful thing of the past.

Because… it doesn’t have to be this way. So we’re changing it!

Katrina Moncure
Secretary, Board Member
National Youth Rights Association

Join the forum discussion on this post

Just completed the final #16tovote on the 16th of 2011! Had some easy material this time around, such as the recent decision to not allow under-18 girls access to emergency contraception without a prescription despite the FDA giving the greenlight, as well as the, uh, quirks of some of the Republican presidential candidates! The health and medical rights of youth are impeded to score political points, and we’re upon another presidential election year where those whose 18th birthdays will not yet have occurred by November will be left out of this important process.

So that’s why we do this month after month to continue spreading the word that this must change. And spreading it is, slowly but surely, as not only did last month break the previous record for most participants, but this one broke that record!

We do it again for the first #16tovote on the 16th of 2012, on Monday, January 16. But for now… the recap!

youthrights Christmas in 9 days, Chanukah in 5, but now… #16tovote on the 16th! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to LOWER THE VOTING AGE!!! http://t.co/RRS0Ridu

youthrights Teens, of any political persuasion… don’t you think you should have a say between the candidates at tonight’s GOP Debate? #16tovote

FoxfireBurns How mature do you have to be to choose one of these clowns over the others? #16tovote

youthrights Rick Perry thinks the voting age is 21. Yet many think people under 18 (the actual voting age!) shouldn’t vote?! #16tovote

youthrights So much basic knowledge high school students (too young to vote) know that presidential candidates keep getting wrong! #16tovote

youthrights Convenient it’s those who can’t vote that HHS Secretary Sebelius decided don’t need non-prescription emergency contraception! #16tovote
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

In this 22nd run of #16tovote on the 16th, we hit a record high number of participants! Terrific! The wonderful usual participants as well as some excited newcomers made this run a huge success. This one focused a lot on the double standard aspect of the voting age issue, particularly how 16-year-olds who work must still pay income tax (also known as “taxation without representation”). Mentioned also, as always, was how without voting rights teenagers’ consent or input in laws that affect them, particularly laws that affect only them, is not given, rendering such laws unjust (or moreso, as is often the case). What is apparently supposed to be gained by so unjustly blocking youth from their own government remains a mystery!

Anyway, the next #16tovote on the 16th, and final one of the year, will of course be Friday, December 16! Until then… the recap!

youthrights What time is it? Time for #16tovote on the 16th! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to LOWER THE VOTING AGE!!! http://t.co/RRS0Ridu

ErikBraghirol Maybe if younger people could vote they would not have to protest for months on end. #16tovote.

youthrights Last week’s municipal elections likely lamented low turnout. Yet they have citizens who would vote if not for wrong birth year! #16tovote

sciville Told county councilman to lower voting age. He thought I was nuts. He wants to restrict people by age yet *I’m* nuts? #16tovote

UsielX ’70s = attack on war fed by draftees young as 18; 26 Amd. ’10s = attack on corruption fed by wages of workers young as 16 #16tovote #ows

youthrights Teens can’t vote against officials who use their tax dollars to enforce age restrictive policies against them. #16tovote

UsielX I’m sick of talking about what will someday be possible. If teenagers are our future, why not take that new world now? #16tovote #ows

UsielX Old enough to get kicked out of the house for being #lgbtq, old enough to vote (and sign contracts, consent to medical care, etc.) #16tovote

UsielX Old enough to run away from an unsafe place and take care of yourself because no one knows you better, old enough to vote. #16tovote

UsielX Old enough to synthesize information and form an opinion, old enough to vote #16tovote (if you don’t have *that* down by 16, you never will)
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

Can also be seen on One and Four: How Was School Today? Fine.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Robert A. Heinlein stated that “Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.” However, the current legislation surrounding youth minority in the United States implies that our concept of minority and the Christian concept of sin are not unrelated.  Much as Christians surrender control to their God, minors are forced to surrender control to custodians and adult officials. Where Christians are expected to be pious, youth are expected to be reverent of authority. When searching for the rationale behind laws that disenfranchise youth, it is important to trace them to their source. Though the United States may be nominally secular, laws are passed by people: people who have emotions and biases and who, overwhelmingly, subscribe to some variant of religious ideology.

Minors in the United States are; through a system of curfews, closed juvenile courts, custodial subjugation, and behavior modification camps; systematically denied seven of the eight personal rights set forth in the Bill of Rights: the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure, the right to due process, the right to a public trial, the right to trial by jury, and the right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment (the only one of the eight personal rights afforded to minors, the right to protection from involuntary quartering of troops, is generally nonapplicable, as minors cannot enter into the contracts necessary to purchase property). Proponents of these age-based deprivations claim they are not meant to punish a crime or sin, but to protect those who do not yet know proper from improper behavior and so are unprepared to handle such privileges. While on its surface, this argument may appear to sever any link between the disabilities of minority and the concept of sin, further analysis of the Christian classifications of sin reveals an undeniable parallel.
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

When debating the more minor issues of youth rights, one is often faced with a question, such as “Why do you care?” One person quoted the issue of curfews as failing a hypothetical “so what” test. Much of the difficulty in debating this type of question is the assumption that any given issue is discrete from others. This post attempts to explain the notability of the more minor and cultural issues of youth rights.

The main connection is relatively obvious: biased opinions of youth will lead to adults dismissing any proposals to improve their legal status. Even when not unconsciously relied upon, such biases can be summoned. A vivid example of this concept is illustrated in this article. The  idea is relatively simple: by activating primeval beliefs, one can shut down logical thinking through the cleverly placed stereotype. The article narrates the story of a young person who is placed on trial because when he observes a victim of police brutality, he refuses to move away on police request. During the trial, the prosecutor is quoted as saying “This young man has been watching too much TV”. Having been biased from the start, the voters will make excuses and pick the option which they were originally inclined towards.

(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

Can you believe it? Just completed the 21st run of #16tovote on the 16th! Been doing this a while and the recaps of them all can be found right here on this blog. And yet, despite it being single-issue, despite it having been done 21 times now, each run is unique! I admit it. I still get excited to see what points for lowering the voting age people come up with. I still get excited to see people participate, whether curious Twitter followers or long-time members. The voting age has been tied to several other youth rights issues, due to the inherent centrality of the right to vote in any rights discussion of course. And it is far reaching, that being unable to vote not only means not being able to cast that ballot, but it removes a politician’s requirement to treat you respectfully and reduces you to a voiceless political pawn. So, with all else going on, we do this every month, we get on Twitter and talk about lowering the voting age and get others thinking about it and demanding it. Far more must be done than merely tweeting, of course! This is mostly a start, a cultivation of ideas. And it’s going great!

We do it again on Wednesday, November 16. Be sure to follow us on Twitter! For now, the recap!

youthrights Once again, here we are for another… #16tovote on the 16th! Here’s Top 10 Reasons to LOWER THE VOTING AGE! http://t.co/RRS0Ridu

evilfoods Corporations are people, youth are not? #16tovote

youthrights If only that idealistic, uncompromising youthful energy that demands change had a greater voice at the ballot box! #16tovote

ErikBraghirol Whatever issues young people might have will never be resolved unless they can actively participate in the solutions. #16tovote.

ErikBraghirol Look in the streets around the country. Young people clearly care about their world and deserve to be heard. #16tovote.

sciville 18th birthday? Been there. Done it. Nothing about it made me “mature enough” to vote. #16tovote

evilfoods #16tovote because youth need a seat at the table… and I don’t mean the kids table
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post

Another #16tovote on the 16th is coming up on Sunday, and perhaps the most common question I get during and about it, just as any of us campaigning for this lower voting age in some way, from supporters and opponents alike, is “why sixteen?”

Well… why not sixteen?

True, this organization’s official position on lowering the voting age does not specify an age, and there is no intention to change that. After all, whether you are campaigning for lowering the voting age to 17, 16, 14, or whatever, we support you!

So why are we saying sixteen in so many of our campaigns and literature despite this being unspecified in our positions? Well, the short answer is… it’s a nice round number. Our most common talking point is that under-18 workers must still pay taxes, and 16 is the usual age one can begin working, and thus these teen workers are paying taxes but have no representation. So 16 makes sense there. Can also drive, even if with limitations. Can marry if parents consent. Can drop out of school. So in the interest of pointing out where teens carry many social responsibilities granted earlier, 16 makes sense.

Also, we’re hardly the only ones campaigning for 16. You can vote at 16 in Austria, Brazil, and many other countries and territories. Scotland is about to lower their voting age to 16. Norway is giving 16 a trial-run in some municipalities. Several countries in Europe and Africa have considered it. Many places around the US and Canada have considered it. A proposal of lowering the voting age to 16 certainly frightens many who feel personally bonded to the idea that only at age 18 (at the lowest) does a person really become a person who matters, and yet, when looking globally, it seems to be the trend! American ageists may balk at the idea of 16-year-olds voting, that it would surely mean death of society and government somehow, yet ignore that Austrian and Brazilian 16-year-olds have had the right to vote for a while now!
(more…)

Join the forum discussion on this post