National Youth Rights Association

At NYRA, we get emails. Many write to thank us for our work. Some write to share new ideas or to provide thoughtful feedback. And some write to scathe us for supporting the rights of youth. I thought I’d share one we got recently. Bear in mind, none of the “facts” in this email have [...]

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. Alcohol is dangerous! Why lower the drinking age? Do you actually want kids drinking?! Lowering the drinking age is not about wanting anyone to be drinking nor ignoring any possible [...]

More than 55 percent of Mlive.com readers say the best way to curb underage drinking is to lower the drinking age, according to a poll yesterday. Readers were asked “What is the best way to curb underage drinking?” and were given several options for solving the problem, including: lowering the drinking age, raising the drinking [...]

MIAMI, Nov. 11 (UPI) — The Royal Caribbean International cruise line says it plans to lower the drinking age on cruise ships sailing outside of North America from 21 to 18 next year. The company announced the new minimum age for passengers to be served alcohol on vessels sailing from ports in Europe, South America, [...]

This is my first blog post in far too long. In fact, I’ve been depressingly absent from NYRA for quite a while. Two things are bringing me back here. The first is that I suddenly find myself with a rare free few hours. The second is, oddly enough, my 21st birthday, which was almost two [...]

Because of the drinking age, people who attend underage drinking parties are sometimes afraid to report any emergencies. In some cases, this results in death. What do you call this? Is it a tragic accident? Is it his/her own fault for overdosing? The real question is this. What do you call it when someone needs [...]

One of our bigger campaigns here at NYRA is lowering the drinking age, the issue about which we’ve probably gotten the most press, as well as the most vocal opposition, whether angry opinion articles or pro-21 forum trolls or that time Alex Koroknay-Palicz was tabling and someone came up and screamed at him after merely [...]

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, [...]

Spotted a very interesting post over at the Institute for Democratic Education in America. It started as a response to the following comment: I used to direct an after-school program, which was housed in a public school classroom, and I tried to implement a democratic meeting with my middle school students (a diverse group in [...]

The 21 year old drinking age doesn’t work. You know it, NYRA knows it, Choose Responsibility knows it. Vote for this issue so the whole country can understand the harm that the 21 year old drinking age does: https://www.change.org/ideas/view/21_doesnt_work_change_the_drinking_age The top 10 ideas with the most votes on Change.org will be presented to President Obama [...]

Choose Responsibility (founders of the Amethyst Initiative) and the National Youth Rights Association are working together to pass legislation in Vermont that would open the door to lowering the drinking age in the state. This legislation is scheduled for a hearing on the 21st and we hope to have as many Vermonters as possible sign [...]

One major issue with the high drinking age, paired with the high penalties of underage drinking, is that an underage drinker may be left in fear of seeking help in an emergency if he or she has had something to drink. This blog entry I read today highlights get another terrifying problem: sexual assault victims [...]

I’m more inclined to agree with the first post here, but StudentActivism.net makes a good point that this case was about an injunction, not about the merits of the speech itself. Still, I can’t see how anyone could side with the high school on any issue related to this case. Sotomayor’s Bad 1st Amendment Decision [...]

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 [...]

MADD just sent out the following e-mail to their supporters.  They want to give Grand Theft Auto (GTA) an adults only rating because it features the crime of drunk driving (apparently all the murder, car jacking and other crimes in it are just fine with MADD).  “Drunk driving is not a game and not a [...]

Last night Instapundit picked up my appearance on Fox News a week or two ago: SEVEN STATES THINKING OF LOWERING THE DRINKING AGE: They should. And the Federal government should get out of the business of trying to regulate state drinking ages, a subject of no legitimate federal concern whatsoever. it’s also telling that MADD [...]

On Monday morning, NYRA’s executive director, Alex Koroknay-Palicz, appeared on Fox News’s Mike and Juliet Show. Joining him in a panel discussion of the drinking age was Candice Lightner, founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Since most of the panel was unreceptive to the idea of a lower drinking age, Alex broached discussion of the [...]

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 [...]

Tom from SSDP gave me a head’s up about an excellent op-ed in the New York Times today written by Anya Kamenetz.  She basically makes the Epstein argument that we should create competency tests to grant rights to youth younger and in a more flexible fashion.  Specifically she mentions voting, drinking, and credit card ownership, [...]

First, look at this news story. It was early last month when Jane Hambleton of Fort Dodge found the bottle under the front seat of her 19-year-old son’s pride and joy. Her next move was a call to The Des Moines Register’s classified advertising department: OLDS 1999 Intrigue “Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love [...]