National Youth Rights Association

On Friday, Gov. Bill Haslam’s office confirmed that Gov. Haslam has signed the controversial bill into law. Even comedian Stephen Colbert chipped in on the nationwide controversy saying on his “Colbert Report” Television show, “Kissing and hugging are the last stop before reaching Groin Central Station, so it’s important to ban all things that lead [...]

Matt Smith, principal at Garrett High School in Indiana, recently expelled a student for Tweeting a swear word on his own time. In response, NYRA’s new Executive Director sent Smith the following message: Dear Mr. Smith, I was disappointed to hear reports that your school chose to expel a student for a Tweet he wrote [...]

From Facebook communications to tweets, you’re no doubt already aware that nothing you do online is truly private. But should you have a reasonable expectation that your superiors aren’t actively spying on you? That’s the question a lot of people are asking after Garrett High School in Indiana expelled a high school senior for cursing [...]

2012-02-15 Windy City Times http://www.windycitymediagroup…..36212.html 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 [...]

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 [...]

02/8/2012 Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-lukianoff/arizona-state-senate-to-c_b_1260291.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications   In what has to be the most hilariously unconstitutional piece of legislation that I’ve seen in quite some time, senators in the Arizona state legislature have introduced a bill that would require all educational institutions in the state — including state universities — to suspend or fire professors who say [...]

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 [...]

the First Amendment Center http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/student-loses-case-involving-religious-message-in-speech January 27, 2012   A school district in Craryville, N.Y., did not violate a former middle school student’s First Amendment rights when the principal told her to omit religious sentiments from her speech at a graduation-type event, a federal court has ruled. The student, known in court papers as A.M., [...]

IOWA — An Iowa appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of a former newspaper adviser who was reprimanded by his school, in the first case testing a post-Hazelwood student free expression law. In 2009, English teacher Ben Lange was issued two formal written reprimands from principal Dan Diercks at Waukon High School stemming from two [...]

Journalism students at Ballard High School say a proposal in front of the Seattle School Board violates their first amendment rights. They say the “new policy would remove student responsibility for content and set the stage for administrative censorship.” The proposal, which was introduced at the last School Board meeting, gives school principals the right [...]

Before the Montgomery County Council Testimony of Alex Koroknay-Palicz On behalf of the National Youth Rights Association on Youth Curfew July 26, 2011 Over the last two weeks I have been asked the same question many times: “What good reason is there for teens to be out after 11?” There are a number of good [...]

This morning, the Supreme Court released the opinion in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assn. By a vote of 7-2, the court found that the law was unconstitutional. The opinion of the court drawing a sharp distinction between violence and obscenity, it states that protecting minors from displays of violence is not exempt from the first amendment, and finds that the law is unconstitutional.

In a decision handed down today, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in our favor that video games are protected by the First Amendment and California can’t ban them to young people. The case, formerly Schwarzenegger v. EMA, now Brown v. EMA, is a huge victory for youth rights. NYRA, along with the National Coalition Against [...]

We talk a lot about how a great deal of anti-youth sentiment comes from the idea that those under 18 aren’t so much people as they are humanoid extensions of their parents. It’s boggling to think about just how deeply this affects a young person, how damaging this really is. Guidance counselors and the like [...]

There is an interesting back and forth going on right now between two great advocates for student rights, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and StudentActivism.net. Both seem to agree that offensive speech on campus needs to be protected. At issue is whether it must also be condemned. Roger Shibley of FIRE says no, [...]

Mahwah, NJ Police Chief James Batelli is telling parents they need to steal their kid’s Facebook password. As he did the last time some terribly misinformed local politician got hysterical about invading youth privacy, NYRA President Jeffrey Nadel will be going on CNN’s Headline News to bring reason, common sense and actual facts into the debate. As is typically the case, those advocating infringing upon the rights of youth are lacking in all three.

A few days ago, I spoke to Fox News about the upcoming video game Bulletstorm and its connection to young people. Dubbed by this recent story to be “the worst video game in the world?”, two psychologists (who somehow survived handling Bulletstorm themselves) countered my argument with unsubstantiated views that it would make young gamers [...]

I am not a parent and I do not know everything there is to know about parenting. What I do know is that parenting is very difficult and that being a good parent is one of the most important things a person can do in their life time. In order to do that I believe it’s very important to get some advice from experts and to realize that there are no simple solutions when it comes to raising kids.

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, [...]

NYRA Board Member, Usiel Phoenix, spoke today in front of the US Supreme Court during oral argument in the Schwarzenegger v. EMA case. Text of the speech is below: Today, the Supreme Court will decide whether states have the right to prevent the sale of video games to minors. Now, I’ll be honest. I’m not [...]