Jacksonville television station WJXT quoted a woman Feb. 19 who said she was turned away on a recent Sunday when she tried to bring a 2-year-old boy she babysits to services at Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.

“They said for the next two weeks, no children are allowed,” said Wanda Evans. “This is the second Sunday, no children, so next week’s Sunday, kids will be able to be allowed.”

The congregation on Jacksonville’s north side has had to make adjustments since opening its pulpit to Darrell Gilyard, who recently served three years in prison for sex crimes with two girls committed while he was senior pastor at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

As a registered sex offender, Gilyard, 49, is not allowed to be around minors. His attorney withdrew a motion Feb. 11 seeking a change in Gilyard’s probation status to allow minors in the sanctuary when he preaches after a judge called it “premature” pending input from a licensed therapist.

Gilyard vowed in a text message to the Florida Times-Union to somehow prove “that life isn’t over when one has committed a crime for which he receives this heinous label.”

“You don’t have to languish on the fringes of society,” Gilyard said.

Gilyard’s return to the pulpit prompted sidewalk protests by a group calling itself the New Black Panther Party. “A minister who has done such evil should not be restored to the pulpit until his repentance is as notorious as his sin,” George Harvey, pastor of nearby Mt. Charity Baptist Church, told WJXT.

Gilyard, once seen as a rising star in preaching circles, including the Southern Baptist Convention, has a ministry long marred by scandal. Prominent Southern Baptists including Paige Patterson, Jerry Vines and Jerry Falwell were all strong supporters until a falling out in 1991 when Gilyard resigned from a church after admitting to several extramarital affairs. That was after allegations of sexual misconduct at three previous churches.

Gilyard went on to serve 15 years as pastor of Jacksonville’s Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation that under his leadership grew to 7,000 members. He resigned in 2008 after he was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct for sending inappropriate text messages to two underage girls.

Gilyard’s current preaching assignment is more modest. About 150 attended his first service Jan. 29, up from a normal attendance of five to 10.

Tiffany Croft, a Jacksonville woman who says she resisted unwanted sexual advances by Gilyard 20 years ago and in 2008 started a blog urging others with similar stories to come forward, called his return to the pulpit barely two months after his release from prison a mockery. She marveled at why people who regard child sexual abuse by a teacher or priest as an abomination are so quick to forgive a pastor because they like to hear him preach.

“Darrell Gilyard talks a good game,” Croft wrote in her blog Feb. 11. “He preaches amazing sermons of words and uses holy scriptures.” Responding to those who argue it would be a waste of those talents to not allow him to preach, Croft offered, “There are a whole line up of victims behind every one of his sermons.”

February 21, 2012
Word and Way

http://www.wordandway.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2447&Itemid=53

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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

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That’s why Jan. 29 was an exciting day, Dault said. That’s the day they installed their sculpture “Warrior Within” in front of the Mat-Su Borough School District’s largest high school. Three days later, however, the $100,000 work of art, contracted through the state’s Percent For Art Program, was covered by tarps and has remained under wraps since.

The reason? Some students think the stone and concrete sculpture that features a pair of shields surrounded by feathers resembles female genitalia. The oblong shields, one made of aluminum and another of bronze, are emblazoned with warrior symbolism, the artists say in a description of their project.

“Emerging from the powerful stone form are two warrior shields encircled by glowing feathers,” the description says, adding the art is a monument to the warrior spirit. “The bronze shield has a hand impression showing ‘good deeds.’ The aluminum shield has a flame symbol representing the ‘spark of inspiration.’ The stone form represents the strong material from which a warrior is made.”

That’s the message the artwork conveys, Dault said, and he and Dobson are now working with the school to help educate students and parents about the art and its ties to Wasilla High and its Warrior mascot.

Before installation, the work was fully vetted by a Percent For Art Program committee and approved by the school district before work began, he said. The Alaska Legislature passed the Percent for Art in Public Places statute in 1975, which created the Percent For Art Program, that requires the expenditure of 1 percent of the capital construction costs of public buildings for the acquisition and permanent installation of artwork.

“People need to slow down,” Dault said about the brouhaha. “It’s a sculpture. It needs to be experienced up close, personally, because it is in three dimensions.”

For Wasilla High School Principal Amy Spargo, she said she doesn’t view her decision to cover the sculpture as censorship. After receiving complaints from students and parents, she decided to revisit the issue of whether the art is best suited for display at a high school. Also, she said she is worried that vandals might damage the artwork.

“The hubbub started since the piece got delivered,” she said. “There was quite an outcry from parents who were hearing what kids were saying (about the sculpture). My concern was the piece would be damaged. Clearly, we needed to do some education. There was such a disconnect from the piece and the (school), I just wanted to re-engage the public process.”

That disconnect, she said, is partly because two of the main players on the committee are no longer at the school. Spargo said she plans to convene another committee that includes students, parents, staff and school administration to examine the art project. Also, the artists will give a presentation at the high school Feb. 24 to educate students about the symbolism in their art.

“I have a problem with the lack of public process,” she said. “It’s a high school, and the one-liners (poking fun at the situation) abound. We have to back up a little and be more purposeful about our conversation.”

Jocelyn Young, state curator for public art in Anchorage, stands by the public approval process used for all Percent for Art installations. Although Young’s focus is on the Anchorage area, she said she frequently helps the local school district with its Percent For Art projects. She said the committee that approved “Warrior Within” relied on feedback from students, parents and the school board.

“It was vetted and went through a process,” Young said, adding that making another committee to examine the issue won’t produce the same results the state art program intends. “A new committee will be a Wasilla High School committee and no longer a Percent For Art committee. They have chosen a route that is going to be much more difficult in terms of trying to get lots and lots of input.”

Spargo said no decisions have been made about the future of the artwork. It could be left where it is, could be moved to another location on the school’s campus or be removed entirely.

Whatever the decision, Young said she’s concerned about the precedent Wasilla High School’s actions could set.

“We’re talking about art. Everyone’s going to have an opinion,” she said. “Some people are going to like it and some people aren’t going to like it. In the end, who do you listen to, the loudest person? This is about not just this year and next year, this is about the life of the building.”

“Warrior Within” is Dobson and Dault’s 10th work of art produced through the Percent For Art Program, and they’ve never had a problem with one of their pieces before, Dault said.

And while Spargo says she doesn’t view covering up the sculpture and making another committee to examine the artwork as censorship, the Palmer Arts Council disagrees, said Howard Bess, a Valley community activist and PAC board member.

The council’s board of directors convened an emergency meeting to discuss the Wasilla High art issue Wednesday, Bess said, and the PAC wants to meet with Spargo before taking any formal action. The council’s message to the principal will be clear, he said.

“We do not believe that there are any circumstances that justify the covering of a piece of public art,” he says in an email sent following Wednesday’s meeting. “It is unfortunate that this particular piece of public art was covered, no matter what the motives might have been.”

Prior to that meeting, Bess said he’s also concerned about Spargo’s leadership and handling of the controversy.

“If I were in that position of hearing threats that people would deface art, I would never be intimidated by a threat,” he said. “If it was a student and I knew who the student was, that student would be immediately suspended. I would never bow to any kind of threat from a student. Society cannot tolerate threats, you can’t.”

Spargo said she welcomes all opinions to the debate, but those who cry censorship “never had to run a school before. This is my judgment on how to move forward. The artists have been delightful people, they’re wonderful professionals, they delivered what the contract says. … But the (negative) response was large, and it was pretty consistent that there wasn’t a lot of appreciation; however, I don’t think there was any prep work on my part to prepare the student body for it. It’s a great concept about thinking about what it really means to be a warrior.”

As artists, Dobson and Dault say they have a fondness for the Percent For Art program, Dault said. Dobson also has been a teacher for 24 years.

“We poured our heart and soul into that piece, worked on it for nine months,” he said. “We are proud, and I think there needs to be some time spent with it, as with any piece of art.”

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
http://www.frontiersman.com/schools/under-wraps-wasilla-high-school-sculpture-covered-after-concerns-voiced/article_855dcbd2-5924-11e1-a773-0019bb2963f4.html

Join the forum discussion on this post

#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…

Mbicesk8r #16tovote on the sixteenth

youthrights It’s easy for elected officials to talk and legislate about teens as if they were objects. The teens couldn’t elect them. #16tovote

sciville My impression of someone against lower voting age: “Help! Someone younger than me might have an equal say in society! Oh noes!” #16tovote

youthrights School boards the students can’t vote for allow admins to endanger student health by restricting bathroom access. #16tovote

youthrights Happy Birthday #16tovote!! Today, NYRA’s #16tovote Twitter campaign reaches the ripe old age of two. Will it need… http://t.co/0QEWTqj4

youthrights 16-year-olds attend the schools AND their income taxes fund it. Yet they still cannot vote for school board or anyone else. #16tovote

youthrights Local politicians enact youth curfew laws, giving adult voters’ false sense of security priority over teens’ right to go outside. #16tovote

FoxfireBurns Never mind the rent! The VOTING AGE is too damn high!! #16tovote

sciville “Teens are stupid! Stupid people shouldn’t vote!” Uh oh. I think you just disenfranchised yourself! #16tovote

sciville Why oppose lower voting age? Think a teen voting would undermine the sanctity of your vote somehow? #16tovote

youthrights Social services for youth keep suffering budget cuts? Of course. Youth can’t vote for those who decide what to cut! #16tovote

teh_maxh Blydd drwg in Norwegian is dårlig ulv. #16tovote

youthrights Indiana is trying to punish student speech even outside school: http://t.co/rCCzntwt And students can’t vote against it! #16tovote @SPLC

Rylee_Ann Why is it that when you turn 18 you are immediately considered mature enough to vote, isn’t that kind arbitrary? #16tovote

youthrights You can be “tried as an adult” long before you can vote. So can’t join adults at the polling place but can… in prison. #16tovote

youthrights Politicians are voted in by adults who fear youth, not by youth themselves, so we have ridiculous “tough on youth crime” measures. #16tovote

youthrights Just want some basic lower voting age information? Check out our Voting Age page: http://t.co/hcLtzUbt #16tovote

Zapwoman Hmm…@youthrights U can b “tried as an adult” long b4 u can #vote. So u can’t join adults @ the polls but can in prison #16tovote #youth

JonSM99 Homeless and foster youth are among the worst hit by WA budget cuts the last 3 years. Yet they can’t vote. #16tovote

JonSM99 “It’s always the old who lead us to war/it’s always the young who fall” -Phil Ochs. Maybe if teens could vote we’d have less war. #16tovote

JonSM99 16 year olds not smart enough to vote? Like adults have done so well? #16tovote

JonSM99 Joan of Arc would support voting rights for 16 year olds. #16tovote

Jordan_Carr #16ToVote because nothing in the Constitution says that the voting age has to be 18.

ErikBraghirol Because an injury to one is an injury to all. #16tovote.

Rylee_Ann Voting age should be determined by maturity and knowledge, not an arbitrary age or majority. #16tovote

Rylee_Ann 16 year olds can be just as affected by laws and taxes as adults. Just because you can’t vote doesn’t mean you laws don’t apply. #16tovote

youthrights Good morning! Today we’re celebrating the second anniversary of #16tovote on the 16th!

ErikBraghirol Because the best way to learn about civics is hands on. #16tovote.

youthrights Check it out! Two years ago today, the very FIRST run of #16tovote on the 16th! http://www.youthrights.org/2010/02/17/16tovote/

youthrights How many more constitutional rights violations must students put up with before they can vote out the school board allowing it? #16tovote

youthrights Disenfranchisement means marginalization and demonization. Stop marginalizing and demonizing teens! Lower the voting age! #16tovote

youthrights Forbidding students from using the bathroom, Concord NH? http://www.wmur.com/r-video/30451224/detail.html Why can’t students vote out board allowing THAT?! #16tovote

Schmidt_Law State legislatures are considering restricting or expanding students’ free speech http://wp.me/p1QqhJ-2q and they have no say #16tovote

ammaarahk didn’t know there was legislation to bring the voting age down to 16.. #16tovote god, would I have been a happy camper 3 years ago!

ammaarahk …esp bc I was one of the kids who actually KNEW what was going on rather than the “older” voters who voted blindly, along lines. #16tovote

ammaarahk after all, age simply is arbitrary — it doesn’t constitute “how smart” someone is. #16tovote

youthrights Teens pay taxes just like anyone else but have no say in how money is used. Taxation without representation! #16tovote

ErikBraghirol If Rick Santorum can vote, why can’t 16 year-olds? #16tovote.

youthrights Ridiculous stereotypes about maturity don’t constitute compelling state interest in denying voting rights to teens. #16tovote

youthrights Want politicians to protect young people’s rights, services, interests? Make sure the young people can vote for those politicians! #16tovote

youthrights “I am 16. I have a job and pay taxes.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7XtMb6ig38 Our 2008 voting age TV ad by @nyrasefl! #16tovote

youthrights Obama wants to forbid under-18 dropouts. Because when you can’t vote, officials happily keep you in school against your wishes. #16tovote

ErikBraghirol If 16 year-olds could vote, maybe schools wouldn’t have zero tolerance rules that have nothing to do with the real world. #16tovote.

FoxfireBurns More than 100 years after Susan B. Anthony, we’re still waiting for “universal suffrage.” #16tovote

youthrights The solution to fears of uninformed young voters is informing them, not restricting and silencing them. #16tovote

youthrights Today is #16tovote!! Spread around NYRA’s awesome ad about lowering the voting age! Share this video widely!…
http://t.co/SO5iEQ3k

SnipeMe #16tovote has been going on for 2 yrs as of today. Yes it’s been 2yrs of saying the same shit 80x every month. Einstein defined insanity.

youthrights Some say teens wouldn’t vote even with the right. But then why oppose suffrage if you think things would be the same anyway? #16tovote

arclights Smack your wife: horrible crime. Smack your teen
daughter: perfectly legal. Why? Who wrote the laws? #16tovote

arclights “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men become equal when they turn 18.” Oh, it doesn’t say that? #0tovote, #16tovote 2 start

arclights No taxation without representation! Teens pay taxes. They’re entitled to representation. #16tovote #0tovote #tcot

arclights How much debt for older people’s benefits has been imposed on kids who aren’t allowed to vote? #16tovote #0tovote

arclights If you think it doesn’t matter that teenagers can’t vote, go shoot your own laptop. #16tovote #0tovote

youthrights The 26th Amendment forbids raising the voting age above 18, but it does not forbid lowering it! #16tovote

pacifist22 It’s possible that some 16 and 17 year olds have a lot more political sense than some people older than 40. #16tovote

youthrights So why are we saying 16? Get asked that a LOT! It’s explained here: http://www.youthrights.org/2011/10/14/why-sixteen/ #16tovote

youthrights “Human rights can have no age limits!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVFWwGyPAX4 It’s @UsielX on free speech and voting rights at SCOTUS! #16tovote

youthrights Some say teens would just “vote like their parents”. In other words… someone might vote the same way as someone else! #16tovote

youthrights Even 40-year-olds may “vote like their parents”. Not a valid standard for voting rights! Why place it on teens? #16tovote

youthrights “Teens would vote like parents” assumes parents vote same. Wasn’t wives “voting like husbands” an anti-women’s suffrage excuse? #16tovote

youthrights Voting rights are about “consent of the governed.” Yet teens can’t vote, and are very governed, so such governance is unjust. #16tovote

youthrights Second Anniversary of #16tovote on the 16th is going GREAT! Once again… Top 10 Reasons to Lower the Voting Age!
http://t.co/C32NX8O3

youthrights Too young to vote for lawmakers who restrict your employment options yet make you work for free as a “graduation requirement”. #16tovote

kstarks17 @youthrights no taxation without representation #16tovote

youthrights Teens can’t vote. Adults who hate teens can. Politicians want votes. That’s a factor in all youth policy decisions. #16tovote

youthrights Is it important for youth to have the right to vote? Of course! Youth Rights 101, Part 4: The Right to Vote
http://www.youthrights.org/2012/02/13/yr101-4/ #16tovote

youthrights When too young to vote, law says you can’t leave your abusive home until someone else deems it abusive enough for that. #16tovote

youthrights When too young to vote, lawmakers choose adult comfort over science by restricting your access to emergency contraception. #16tovote

youthrights Politicians can safely advocate parenting methods that would be human rights violations if done to adults. The kids can’t vote! #16tovote

tKochers Its been over 30 years since the 26th amendment was passed, giving 18-20 year olds the right to vote. Its time to do it again. #16tovote

tKochers Age is no different than race, gender, or creed. @youthrights #16tovote #0tovote

ammaarahk @youthrights In my family, I was advising MY PARENTS who to vote for. Ever since I was 15. Not my fault I read my news. #16tovote

ammaarahk 5 years ago, 8th grade assignment was “what law would you change?” Most did driving law. I did #voting law. been a dream since #16tovote

zombieramen Perhaps if young people could vote, police squads would be a bit more careful about upholding the shooting of laptops. #16tovote

youthrights Anthony Michael Hall’s character in “The Breakfast Club”, the straight A model citizen, had a fake ID… so he could vote. #16tovote

Amy33Amy33 People all think that young people will all vote democrat, Those people are out of touch #RonPaul #16toVote

Amy33Amy33 #RealLoveiswhen I can turn in my ballot without having to worry about my age #16toVote

Amy33Amy33 #Thingsthatbotherme When people don’t think I should vote because of my age #16toVote

youthrights Great #16tovote tweets today, everyone! Once again… here’s @nyrasefl’s 2008 voting age TV ad! http://t.co/ZoKnXN02

Amy33Amy33 @PhyllisKahn @keithellison , @youthrights ‘s #16toVote Is going on right now! You should join =)

sciville If you thought teens would likely vote for your candidate, would you still oppose their voting rights? Think about it! #16tovote

sciville Fear of teens voting would presumably mean fear that teens would vote against one’s interests. Source of fear is anyone’s guess. #16tovote

Amy33Amy33 #16toVote My awesome I can’t vote shrinky dink http://t.co/hvNSCpNl

youthrights If you feel teen disenfranchisement is necessary for protecting your interests, you probably need to rethink your interests. #16tovote

youthrights When Ann Coulter said “raise the voting age!” Our own @kpalicz said “no! lower the voting age!” http://t.co/Yp3gDU1A #16tovote

youthrights You can vote at 16 in Austria and Brazil, and parts of Germany, Switzerland, and UK. Time to happen here, too! #16tovote

sciville The creepy neighbor who watches the kids walk to school has more say in who’s on the school board than those kids do. #16tovote

studentactivism #16tovote #15tovote #14tovote #13tovote #12tovote #11tovote… Honestly? I don’t give a damn. Votes for everybody, and keep ‘em coming.

youthrights Anyone who says “teens would just vote for celebrities” obviously isn’t familiar with Reagan, Ventura, or Schwarzenegger. #16tovote

youthrights Really we’re not interested in how teens would vote. They’ll vote any way they want, if at all. You know, just like adults! #16tovote

youthrights Once teens can vote, those in charge will be more obligated to actually listen to them and respectfully address youth issues. #16tovote

sciville “Youth aren’t capable of voting! They’ll just vote liberal!” Okay, I don’t think you quite get this whole elections thing. #16tovote

sciville Lower the voting age! “What’s it now?” 18. “Lower to what?” 16! “What! Teens don’t know enough about politics to vote!” *facepalm* #16tovote

youthrights Teens are subject to laws, some aimed at them only, yet had no say in who enacted these laws. This is inherently unjust. #16tovote

youthrights Three hours to go for #16tovote on the 16th – Second Anniversary Edition! Going great! Thanks so much, everyone!

youthrights Once again… here’s our always fabulous President @UsielX demanding free speech and voting rights at SCOTUS: http://t.co/LP8enpOg #16tovote

youthrights That teens don’t (usually) have spouses, children, property, etc. does not matter. Adults without any of that can still vote! #16tovote

youthrights Teens who are married parents still aren’t allowed to vote. Voting age isn’t substitute for some marriage/parenthood requirement. #16tovote

youthrights I doubt those who say teens don’t have enough political knowledge to vote agree on exactly what knowledge should be required. #16tovote

youthrights We don’t worry about adult voters’ political knowledge, so makes little sense to worry about it with teens! Double standard! #16tovote

youthrights It’s not about knowledge or maturity. Voting age boils down to “these ‘other’ people don’t matter as much and don’t get a say.” #16tovote

youthrights A voting and socially aware teen might encourage non-voting and/or apathetic parents to vote and care more about issues. #16tovote

youthrights Not just about voting itself. It’s also the many rights violations youth suffer because they have no say in government. #16tovote

youthrights It’s 10pm. If you go outside right now, would you be arrested? Because of a curfew law set by officials you couldn’t vote for? #16tovote

youthrights At school tomorrow, will you be paddled, searched, or otherwise mistreated in ways sanctioned by school board you can’t vote for? #16tovote

FoxfireBurns “What do you need a fake ID for?” “So I can vote.” – No one should have to fake it. #16tovote

kstarks17 @youthrights always the possibility of a random locker search by drug dogs! invasion of privacy I can do nothing about. #16tovote

kstarks17 @youthrights end schools’ rights as “special districts” allowing them to strip my constitutional “inalienable” rights #16tovote

JonSM99 The mentally disabled vote. People w/dementia vote. Why not 16 year olds? #16tovote

JonSM99 @ammaarahk I was one of those too. Volunteered in politics since I was 14. #16tovote

JonSM99 Age of consent for sex in WA is 16. Many states let you marry at 16. But not vote?? Crazy! #16tovote

JonSM99 Constitution guarantees voting rights for 18 year olds, but state & local gov’ts can go further. They should. Who’ll be first? #16tovote

JonSM99 Letting 16 year olds vote will ruin society. Just like letting women, black people, and non-land owners vote did. #16tovote

youthrights Letting adults vote on school issues but not students is like saying only the Swiss may vote in US elections. #16tovote

sciville My dog has the same voting rights as your honor student. #16tovote

youthrights You don’t get good youth policy by excluding youth from the process. Include them equitably. Give them a REAL voice! #16tovote

EIFY Because lying politicians should be punished like lying children. #16tovote

youthrights Teens’ tax dollars pay for the streets they can’t walk at night because of a curfew law set by politicians they couldn’t vote on. #16tovote

youthrights No one who can vote for teen driver restrictions will be subject to them. Hence they are pointless, ill-conceived, and unjust. #16tovote

youthrights Less than half an hour to go for this Second Anniversary of #16tovote on the 16th! Let’s give it a good finish!

youthrights Lowering the voting age IS youth empowerment! A vote is a REAL voice, REAL power, influencing a society that DOES include youth! #16tovote

youthrights Without voting rights, policies treat youth as merely the sons and daughters of citizens rather than as citizens themselves. #16tovote

youthrights Without being eligible voters, youth are seen as something voters must deal with, their own interests largely ignored. #16tovote

JonSM99 There’s no IQ test to vote. There’s no maturity test to vote. There’s no civics test to vote. #16tovote

JonSM99 Shouldn’t the internet and social media be regulated by people who understand them? #16tovote

JonSM99 Maybe we’d have real laws against child abuse if young people could vote. #16tovote

youthrights Two years now we’ve set aside the 16th of every month for raising awareness on here of lowering the voting age! #16tovote

JonSM99 Maybe we’d make real investments in education if 16 year olds could vote. #16tovote

JulianRCorbett There is no such thing as just inequality. There is either equality or injustice, but never both. #16tovote

youthrights We know the injustices youth suffer due to lack of real representation. We know how much we’ll all benefit from lower voting age. #16tovote

JulianRCorbett True equality may be a big dream, but America has never been afraid of dreaming big. If anything, that’s our national pastime. #16tovote

youthrights We see the double standards placed on the young, the idea that youth must earn the rights adults automatically have, like voting. #16tovote

JulianRCorbett In any democratic society, there is no such thing as a “wrong opinion.” Yet why is that always the argument against #16tovote ?

JonSM99 Those affected by curfew laws should be able to vote on them. #16tovote

youthrights We see youth looked down upon, refused a voice, degraded, denied, treated as lesser, as property. Enough! Lower the voting age! #16tovote

youthrights Lower voting age is one of very many rights youth need, but with it, more rights can be secured. #16tovote

JonSM99 If we’re going to try “juveniles” as adults, shouldn’t we let them vote as adults? #16tovote

JonSM99 “Power is never granted voluntarily by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed. -Martin Luther King #16tovote

youthrights Youth deserve better than rights violations and oppression. They need a vote. They need involvement. We all need change! #16tovote

youthrights And… that’s it for the Second Anniversary of #16tovote on the 16th!!! Thanks, everyone! Timeline clogging credits up shortly.

evilfoods I still have time for #16tovote

evilfoods When we have a segregated bathrooms (as at my school) then we need change #16tovote

evilfoods “Kids will just vote the same as family” Is there a wrong way to vote? #16tovote

evilfoods Oppression feeds oppression, until we have #16tovote and then #0tovote were doomed to more operation.

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @ProjectScenario @KidsHaveRights2 @sciville @Mbicesk8r @FoxfireBurns @VoteIndeCan @MichaelCoholich

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @teh_maxh @Rylee_Ann @VonGleason @SamCEllis @Jordan_Carr @ErikBraghirol @JonSM99 @Schmidt_Law @ammaarahk

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @SnipeMe @arclights @pacifist22 @underbellie @faithvoid @silverwolf1977 @TeacherSabrina @RittaFromMars

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @RPGProse @ChannelOneNews @unschoollife @Leseguenni @lilliaffe @oinonio @Chipmazing @louton01 @kstarks17

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @tKochers @nickj47 @studentactivism @SchoolSurvival @tomwburke @ConsiderAnew @zombieramen @Amy33Amy33

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @Pay2PlayTV @SebastosPublius @OnBradstreet @urbanrezlife @EIFY @_mattjohnson @girl_onthego @cjohanns

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @cerinmerin @JulianRCorbett @evilfoods @forevercheyanne @jasonspriggs @gerrycanavan @daniel_immke @heoj

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @cerinmerin @JulianRCorbett @evilfoods @forevercheyanne @jasonspriggs @gerrycanavan @daniel_immke @heoj

youthrights Thanks for the #16tovote tweets! @curiouscliche @UnifiedLeft And anyone we might have missed!

taradinoc #16tovote because different doesn’t mean worse: http://t.co/hMH6GGxC

youthrights Onto the third year of #16tovote on the 16th! Next is of course Friday, March 16! We do it all again! Goodnight, everybody!

Onto another great year!

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A federal district court ruled today that the Camdenton R-III School District must stop censoring web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities through discriminatory filtering software. The ruling orders the district to not block content based on the viewpoints expressed by the website.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit against the district in August 2011 after repeated warnings that its custom-built filtering software discriminates against LGBT content. The filter has a category that blocks LGBT-supportive information, including hundreds of websites that are not sexually explicit in any way. The filter does, however, allow students to view anti-LGBT sites that condemn homosexuality or opposed legal protections for LGBT people.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Camdenton High School student and LGBT organizations whose websites are blocked by the filter: PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride and DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBT organization. The plaintiffs were also represented by Thompson Coburn LLP.

“The court correctly recognized the constitutional rights of all students to viewpoint-neutral access to information,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “It is absolutely possible to protect children from sexually explicit content while also protecting their First Amendment rights. Like thousands of other school districts across the country, Camdenton R-III will now begin using a filtering system that blocks pornography without discriminating against LGBT-related content.”

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri said that the district's filtering system “systematically allows access to websites expressing a negative viewpoint toward LGBT individuals by categorizing them as 'religion,' but filters out positive viewpoints toward LGBT issues by categorizing them as 'sexuality.'” Although the district argued that it would unblock individual websites upon request the court held that “students may be deterred from accessing websites expressing a positive view toward LGBT individuals either by the inconvenience of having to wait twenty-four hours for access or by the stigma of knowing that viewpoint has been singled out as less worthy by the school district and the community.”

The court also concluded that other filtering systems are available that “are much more effective” at filtering out pornography “and do so without burdening websites that express a positive viewpoint toward LGBT individuals.”

“The filtering system that had been installed at Camdenton R-III was arbitrary, ineffective and discriminatory,” said Anthony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “Today's ruling affirms that students will be free to search for resources for their gay-straight alliance, seek support against bullying and research history as it pertains to LGBT people, just as they would for any other subject.”

More about this case can be found at:http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-right…..l-district

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http://www.splc.org/wordpress/?p=3199

Unless an outbreak of common sense sweeps through the Statehouse, Indiana is about to become the most frightening place in America to be a kid.

House Bill 1169, pushed by the special-interest lobbyists for school administrators, would unleash school principals to control essentially anything their students do – anytime, anywhere – that they disapprove of.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, would let public schools suspend or expel students who do or say anything that may “reasonably be considered to be an interference with school purposes or an educational function,” even on a Saturday at the shopping mall.

A hearing on the bill is set for Wednesday in front of the Senate Education Committee. It has already passed the House.

While the bill is being sold to the public as a response to cyberbullying, the word “bullying” appears nowhere in it, and the authority it would grant to schools is in no way limited to policing student-on-student attacks.

If the bill becomes law, schools will be able to completely shut down the discussion of any topic they find disagreeable, since it is almost always possible to argue that stirring up public dissent “interferes” with school purposes. Whistleblowers and journalists will be the first to suffer.

Students have already lost the ability to discuss controversial issues on school grounds during school time – thanks to principals like Illinois’s Bob Miller. Last school year, Miller used his authority as principal of St. Charles East High School to stop student journalists from writing about public reaction to the removal of a popular coach, and about the prevalence of hazing among athletic teams.

It is this kind of “public-relations-run-wild” behavior that House Bill 1169 would unleash on students 24/7. Students will face suspension or expulsion just because the principal decides that a student’s comments in a letter-to-the-editor of the local newspaper, or in an interview with a television station, might “interfere” with his ability to promote a positive image.

Because students can no longer blow the whistle on school wrongdoing and mismanagement during the school day, it’s essential that they can safely to do so when they leave the campus without fear of retaliation.

Schools can already punish illegal off-campus conduct, such as being caught dealing drugs. If the behavior is not illegal but is merely unhealthy or antisocial, there are remedies short of suspension – chief among them, calling in the parents. (Remember them?)

The disciplinary system in most public schools is already badly broken. Study after study has documented that suspensions are handed out in a racially discriminatory manner, for minor (and at times imaginary) violations that used to be dealt with by a stern lecture. Dumping thousands more cases into that system is the equivalent of pouring ten gallons of water into a leaky five-gallon jug.

If HB 1169 becomes law, it will not be long before we see principals suspending the girl whose weekend wardrobe “interferes” with the school’s ability to promote a professional appearance, or whose fondness for rap music “interferes” with the teaching of proper grammar.

Worse, the principal seeking to conceal his school’s hazing problem will be empowered to tell student journalists, “Not only am I pulling that story from the newspaper, but if I catch you complaining to the school board or the press, I’ll consider that ‘interference with school purposes’ and have you expelled.”

Anyone who doubts that principals would behave so nonsensically need remember only two words: “Zero tolerance.” We have already seen the disastrous consequences when school administrators are turned loose to punish anything that remotely resembles a weapon or a drug. A principal who cannot tell the difference between a cake-cutter and a chainsaw cannot be trusted to distinguish between bullying and journalism.

Fortunately, HB 1169 is certain to collapse if constitutionally challenged. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent ruling on student speech rights, Morse v. Frederick, Justice Samuel Alito – who cast the decisive vote – wrote an opinion that strongly cautioned against giving schools authority over anything that “interferes with a school’s educational mission,” almost the exact words chosen by Rep. Koch.

“The ‘educational mission’ of the public schools is defined by the elected and appointed public officials with authority over the schools and by the school administrators and faculty. As a result, some public schools have defined their educational missions as including the inculcation of whatever political and social views are held by the members of these groups,” Alito warned.

We would be outraged if any government agency other than a school lobbied for the power to silence criticism and dissent. We should be equally outraged when the lobbying comes from principals and superintendents. Government officials who seek to insulate themselves against questioning are the ones most urgently in need of it.

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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

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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?

It is such a sobering reminder of, really, just how hated teenagers are. I shouldn’t even need to point out that he’s the one who’s completely out of control here. But so many support him. Why? Because for some reason she deserved it because she was “disrespectful to her parents”. It’s an obligation of respect that serves only to make adults happy and comfortable and preserving what they think is a “right” to maintain superiority over those younger, just because they lived longer. In reality, there is absolutely no other “value” to maintaining blind respect or reverence towards parents.

And parents who steal and destroy your property because you vented to your friends about them are not people deserving of respect, ever. It doesn’t matter how “spoiled” everyone thinks the girl must be, and they’re hearing only from her dad on that one anyway. And it’s common to think of teens in general as spoiled and therefore deserving of bad things that happen to them. And a lot of bad things do happen to them, usually because of or perpetuated by this very mindset.

But there’s another thing about this that terrifies me. That is that it will happen again and this is not the first time. Just a few months ago, there was another viral video depicting child abuse, of Texas family court judge William Adams beating his 16-year-old daughter (who has cerebral palsy) for being online and downloading things. The daughter herself put that video up in that case, and thankfully, the judge did not get nearly the accolades the above laptop shooter did, but there were some. Numerous stories come out of parents forcing their teens to stand on the side of the road holding a sign saying “I Get Bad Grades” or something similar. There’s Amy Chua, too, proudly talking about her excruciating control of her children. A few years back, there was Jane Hambleton who stole and sold her son’s car because she saw a beer bottle in it. And every single one of these parents wears proudly the title of being “mean” and “tough” toward their kids, and they have a fair share of teen-hating fans out there praising them and, sooner or later, perhaps emulating them. And they probably are, as there are so many more YouTube videos of parents humiliating their kids, whether for discipline or just some sick pleasure. They don’t all go viral, but it’s frighteningly condoned.

This is why we have to continue to say a big loud NO to all of this. You don’t need to be a parent to see this kind of treatment is wrong. Lots of parents would never dream of doing something like any of this, no matter how frustrating the family environment gets. Here’s one great parent who knows full well this sort of thing is horrible!

And, parent or not, we all need to call out people who refuse to accept the fact that teenagers are respectable people, no matter how “surly” or “bratty” or “impossible” their parents or others think they might be. There’s no reason that innocent young girl has to have her father (someone who’s supposed to be loving and nurturing, right?) and millions of his sadistic online fans do this to her. How many more like her will there be? When will this stop?

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Parents angry about Facebook use now have their poster child. He’s a dad wielding a .45 pistol, who posted a YouTube video showing him firing bullets through his daughter’s laptop computer as an act of discipline.

The shooter, who identifies himself as Tommy Jordan from North Carolina, has not yet responded to requests for comment, so it’s not possible to verify the authenticity of the stunt, in which he allegedly “executed” the laptop after his daughter posted a profanity-laced note on her Facebook page.

No matter: it’s sparked a firestorm of debate. In less than 24 hours, the laptop-pistol video has garnered more than 1.5 million views, many of them parents cheering the uploader’s depiction of tough love.

“I thought the video was great. I can only imagine the look on his daughter’s face when she saw that on her Facebook page,” wrote one.

“Sometimes to get your point across to a child (especially a teenager) you have to get their attention. These days that’s hard to do. So he found a way to get her attention.”

Still another: “I applaud it. She’ll think twice before she hits the enter button next time. PS. Nice shot.”

Other parents reacted with shock at the public humiliation apparently inflicted on the teenager by her father.

Monica Vila runs an online forum for parents struggling to deal with technology and teen issues called The OnlineMom.com. She falls into the shocked crowd.

“When I saw it for the first time, I got chills,” she said. “And when I saw people cheering him on, I got chills again.”

She’s heard from thousands of frustrated parents through her site, and she’s even heard stories of parents hurling laptop computers out the window when children were disobedient. But she’s never seen such a public attempt to embarrass a child.

The shooter in the video isn’t acting like a parent, she said: he’s acting like a peer, taking out his frustration.

“For the life of me I can’t understand what the lesson here is,” she said. “If you think about it, he basically just threw a similar temper tantrum to the one his daughter threw, except this one with bullets.”

In the video, the man says his daughter had posted a profanity-laced comment on Facebook criticizing him, believing he couldn’t see it. Using his skills as an IT worker, he did, a fact he mentions several times in the 8-minute video.

“Her actions merited some punishment, but he’s basically saying, I’m more badass than you,” said Vila. “Plus, the way the whole thing is choreographed. It’s not about parenting. It’s about him, he’s mad, and he has a gun.”

Parents have plenty of reason to feel angry — even desperate — about kids’ use of social networks. It’s not unusual that they’d try something extreme to get their kids’ attention, she said.

“I do see the frustration parents feel,” she said. “But the applause of other parents saying, ‘Yay,’ comes from their unwillingness to jump in and be parents in the platform that their kids are playing in.”

Betsy Brown Braun, a child development and behavior specialist, is sympathetic to the anger parents feel when faced with rebellious teen-agers. She even conceded that the video has high entertainment value, with the dad puffing on a cigarette while sporting a cowboy hat.

“The reason it’s gotten people cheering it on is because parents are frustrated, she said. “ Teenagers are impossible. He was doing what any parent would like to do. They are living vicariously through him.”

In fact, most parents have probably fantasized about doing something similar. The difference is, they thought better of it, Braun said.

“The sane parents have stopped themselves,” she said. “The difference between a sane, mature person and a child is that the mature parent is able to stop their impulses and do appropriate things that can help a child grow. It may not be what you want to do right now, what feels good, but it’s the thing that’s going to benefit the child three months, six months, years from now.”

When Braun works with parents, she often hears some version of, “You don’t know what it’s like!” But as the mother of triplets, she had to deal with three teenagers at once. Some of her experiences are chronicled in the books she’s written on raising children, including “Just Tell Me What To Say,” and “You’re Not the Boss of Me.”

She said her main concern about the father’s actions in the video is the example they set.

“This models exactly what you don’t want kids to do when they are upset,” she said. “This is about how you handle rage. It’s the

poorest example of shooting from the hip you could imagine.”

But she saw something in the video that many observers might have missed.

“I heard this as a cry for help. This guy is in trouble. The communication is so bad between them that, in this case, they are both acting like angry 5-year-olds,” she said. “Teenagers can really be impossible. … You get to the point where you say, ‘I’ve had it. You are driving me crazy!’ But he needs other tools for dealing with this.”

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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

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