To the City of Fayetteville: The National Youth Rights Association (NYRA) is a non-profit that upholds youth rights nationwide. The proposed youth curfew in Fayetteville will implement first-of-its-kind laws that restrict suspended students from being out of their homes during the business day from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm, and during the nighttime curfew hours….
The proposed youth curfew in Fayetteville, NC has been advanced 7-2 by the city council. It would prohibit minors aged 17 and 18 from being out of their houses 12 am – 5 am on weeknights, 1 am – 5 am on weekends, and would bar minors 16 and younger from being on the street…
In his 1776 manifesto, “Common Sense,” Thomas Paine established the national project of “securing freedom and property to all men, and above all things, the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience.” For Paine, it was all but common sense that people are free, and thus, free to choose their beliefs. In…
Observing the United States in the 1830s, the French political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his Democracy in America that “the position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in one.” Tocqueville was observing the exceptionality of American society, with its…
Reposted from our coalition’s website, We Warned Them. We are asking for your help. In Missouri, our friends from the TTI survivor community have drawn the line: Agape Boarding School has gone too far. Agape, a residential troubled teen program located in Cedar County, Missouri, is under investigation for their abuse and for using unsafe,…
Sometime in the past week was the tenth anniversary of my first attempt at running away from home. I was just as much an adult ten years ago as I am today. The difference is that ten years ago it was legal to hit me, vanish my relationships, and sequester me from society. I look…
“Keep the fight going, be involved, hold adults, leaders, and the justice system accountable for their actions.” As part of the Voices in Youth Rights series, this interview features Jarvus Turnley, a NYRA volunteer from Springfield, Tennessee. In addition to volunteering with NYRA, Jarvus works on the Robertson County Tennessee foster care review board, coaches…
As a high school student, I began to realize just how differently my female friends and I experienced school compared to our male peers. We faced discriminatory dress code enforcement that treated our bodies as “distractions,” and we were often left on our own to deal with sexual harassment that was downplayed as “jokes” or…
Reposted from Free Youth Now with permission from the author. If I see one more opinion, editorial, policy recommendation, or letter claiming that kids either should or should not be sent back to school, without any reference to the actual opinions or wishes of kids, I am going to lose my mind. I know, I know,…
When it comes to mainstream society’s understanding of the adolescent brain, we are often limited to research which perpetuates harmful stereotypes and myths. Teenagers are lazy. Teens take stupid and dangerous risks. They’re impulsive and obsessed with approval from peers. While the people who stand by these stereotypes may point to neuroscience as evidence for…
