For years, NYRA has worked to find one state or one community that would finally allow people younger than 18 to vote. On May 13, 2013 we achieved a breakthrough: Takoma Park, Maryland voted to be the first US city with a voting age of 16. “Other nations, from Argentina to Austria, have allowed 16-year-olds [...]
*** Update 5/13/13: We did it! *** Takoma Park, MD is poised to become the first city in America to let 16-year-olds vote. To make such a change, the city council must go through three public ceremonies. First, a public hearing where members of the public give their views on the proposal. Second, a vote [...]
*** Update: We’re winning. *** NYRA has long fought for a lower voting age, and we may soon have a breakthrough right on Washington, DC’s border. Takoma Park, Maryland is now considering a proposal to let 16-year-olds vote in local elections. If this succeeds, we may soon see other cites lose their fear of enfranchising [...]
Following widespread national media attention, outrage continues to grow surrounding the controversial suspension of a 16-year-old Florida student who reportedly helped disarm a gunman on a school bus, potentially saving at least one life. School officials dispute those reports. Now, however, a national youth-rights organization has officially become involved in the case to advocate on [...]
CAPE CORAL, Fla. – A national youth rights group is prepared to sue the Lee County School District, not for money, but to expunge the suspension given to a teen many are calling a hero. This comes more than a week after a Cypress Lake High School student was suspended after he wrestled a loaded [...]
A Florida high school student is alleging school officials violated her rights when they banned her from participating in an anti-bullying observance and then suspended her from school. In April of last year, DeSoto County school student Amber Hatcher, then 15, was making plans to participate in the National Day of Silence. The event is [...]
Terrifying teens by making them lie in coffins, forcing them to spend a night on a frigid street or a bare prison cell— these harsh measures are used in reality shows in an attempt to put delinquents back on the straight and narrow. But the strategies may make for better TV than treatment. On A&E’s [...]
Update: winner chosen! On social media, people love to share pictures that are interesting, funny, or make a good point quickly. An image that says something about youth rights could make a real impact if it goes viral. So NYRA is inviting youth rights activists to submit images for our meme contest. Make a graphic [...]
A group of youth rights activists offered NYRA a matching grant, matching dollar-for-dollar individual donations that reached NYRA in December. They set a cap of $1,300, never imagining that NYRA’s members, most of them students, would be able to raise that much in just a few weeks. Well, guess what. NYRA’s membership maxed that mother [...]
Senator Al Franken has introduced the Location Privacy Protection Act (S. 1223), which would ban spyware that sneaks onto your cell phone and tells someone else your GPS location or other sensitive information. Such apps are being marketed to employers who want to spy on their employees, to people who want to spy on their [...]
Inspired by a 2010 study that found that students’ feedback about their teachers helped predict how well the teachers’ students performed on state tests, New York City asked some schools last year to test out a student survey that could become part of new teacher evaluations. But if the city and its teachers union agree [...]
Forest Lake Area High School senior Max Hall was awarded the 2012 Excellence in Youth Volunteerism award from the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA) on Nov. 8. The annual award recognizes one young Minnesota volunteer who has distinguished accomplishments and has shown extraordinary interest in the area of volunteerism. Hall, who has documented more [...]
A Forest Lake High School senior recently received a state award for volunteerism. Max Hall was awarded the 2012 Excellence in Youth Volunteerism from the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration. Hall has documented more than 700 hours of community and volunteer service in the Forest Lake area, according to the school district. He is a [...]
In these tough times, NYRA, like many non-profits, faces economic challenges. We are tightening our belts, but with your help, we can keep fighting effectively for youth rights. To ensure that NYRA as you know it keeps running in 2013, we need you to step up and donate before December ends. You won’t be alone. [...]
What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they’ll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware. Whoa. The One Laptop Per Child project started as a way [...]
The Minneapolis Television Network recently held a live, one-hour special entitled “Youth & Politics,” and included among their guests Maxwell Hall (President, NYRA – Washington County) and Amy O’Connell (President, NYRA – Twin Cities). Here’s the first half: And here’s the second: Join the forum discussion on this post
Kyle Gilbert was a soldier in the U.S. Army. He was not allowed to join his friends at a local bar for a goodbye drink before he was shipped off because he was only 20 years old. According to ABC News, Kyle was killed in Iraq almost nine years ago while serving for his country. [...]
In the 1970’s, feminist Gloria Steinem wrote a famous essay considering ways the world might be different if men menstruated and women did not. Among other things, Steinem suggested sexist men would use women’s lack of menstruation to argue women are unsuited for the medical profession (“Women might faint at the sight of blood!”) or [...]
The oft-maligned teenage brain is getting some reputation rehab. When offered the incentive of a modest reward in a recent experiment, teens took more time than adults to make a thoughtful, reasoned decision. That surprising result, presented October 14 at the annual meeting for the Society for Neuroscience, counters the image of a flaky, impulsive [...]
Scottish 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds can vote in the upcoming referendum on Scotland disbanding from the United Kingdom. The Scottish nationalist leader, Alex Salmond, secured this option, believing 16 and 17-year-olds favor independence. Reuters news reports England considered this a large concession. There were other compromises as well, such as England demanding a single yes/no vote [...]
NYRA’s mission centers on challenging age discrimination against young people, both in law and in attitudes and supporting the basic freedoms afforded to young Americans in the Bill of Rights.