Are body bags better than books for educating the next generation? Is vomit really proper food for teens? Should children be forced brush their teeth with toilet water? If you say, “Yes,” Mitt Romney is the President for you. One wonders how it is that parents are rooked into spending $20,000 to [...]
A favorite story among Mitt Romney’s backers for establishing his cred as both a good guy and a man of action concerns the time he helped find a business partner’s missing teenage daughter. The story is spellbinding and there’s no debate that Romney’s quick and resolute action helped locate the girl — but The Daily [...]
What a week for youth rights! At times like this, I am thrilled to be a NYRA member. With our tiny budget but a great deal of passion, NYRA was able to have a significant impact on all three branches of government this week. It makes me happy to see what our organization can accomplish, [...]
Earlier, the ACLU blog posted about how vulnerable young people are in adult prisons: Regular readers of The New York Times know that columnist Nicolas Kristof is a forceful advocate on behalf of human rights around the world. In his column on Thursday, January 28th — “Kids in Crisis (Behind Bars)” — he addresses serious [...]
In early November, NYRA’s project, the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth were invited to speak at the North Carolina conference of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). IECA is a trade organization representing educational consultants, many of whom refer parents (and their teens) to abusive behavior modification programs. These referrals constitute a [...]
With all the attempts at modifying the behavior of young people, the youth get a chance to get back at the APA with a taste of their own medication.
Great post the other day from NYRA Board of Advisors member, Robert Epstein: Juvenile Injustice: The Scandal in Pennsylvania Is the Tip of an Ugly Iceberg
A great new commentary from Henry Giroux about the criminalization of youth and the conspicuous absence of concern for youth in our growing economic crisis and recovery efforts. A good read. Some of the juciest bits: Increasingly, children seem to have no standing in the public sphere as citizens and as such are denied any [...]
So I’m doing some research on Redding v. Safford (more on that later) and I see the US Supreme Court granted certiorari to another case on the same day as Redding. It looked to be about special education and who gets the bill for it. Somewhat dry stuff from a youth rights perspective, so I [...]
This was recently posted in the Behavior Modicification board on the forums. The post tells the story of a boy sent to a treatment program by his father without the mother’s consent. Despite this being a sad story, nothing struck me as particularly surprising about it. People send thier kids off to behavior modification programs [...]
What should be NYRA’s and any other youth advocate’s top priority now is HR 5876 (read full text here) Take action on the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 here. Bill could give federal oversight to private clinics for children and would require FDA inspections In a move that could [...]
Why do we defend the rights of youth? Among the numerous reasons, we’ve had enough of the testimonials. So many young people come to us with their accounts of their lives at home and school. To what many people would dismiss as dramatic teenage whining, we listen. Unlike everyone else in their lives, we take [...]
The following is a transcript of this video. Politicians and public interest groups are always looking to protect youth. They have a long list of so-called bad guys that they believe are a danger to young people. Even if in all this, they ignore the very many actual dangers youth face every day. Maybe there [...]
When the Government Accountability Office actually uses the word “nightmare” in a report about you. It would appear that the Federal government is finally paying attention to something that’s so glaringly obvious that it would require a lobotomy not to take notice of; behavioral modification camps are both ineffective and potentially deadly. In a report [...]
First of all, let me say that it is ridiculous to have to defend a TV show that hasn’t even aired yet, but with the shrieking opposition to it (again from people who have never seen it) something needs to be said. Kid Nation is a new show for CBS that is slated to begin [...]
This is a message to desperate parents out there. Parents of young folks who’ve made some bad choices here and there. Parents with loved ones they fear are taking dangerous roads in life. Parents of the psychologically troubled who just don’t want to have to deal with it. Don’t you love your children? Don’t you [...]
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.