In August, Harwich High School teacher John Dickson and his Advanced Placement government class began an ambitious project: lowering the voting age in Massachusetts from 18 to 16. Student Matt van Gelder explains, “If you start voting early while you are at home and involved, you’re more likely to vote in the future.” Now that…
Since June 15 of this year, Kansas City information technology expert Michael Mikkelsen has been waging a campaign in Missouri to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. This began at the Ron Paul Presidential rally, and has since drawn national attention. His group, Missouri 18 to Drink, believes the measure would end the…
The fight against corporal punishment continues in the United States. California-based organization Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education has taken up the cause, giving parents useful advice on what to do for their children when faced with violence from school officials. Executive Director Jordan Riak offers sound advice to the students themselves on how…
September 13 marked the premiere of the new Downloads section of the NYRA homepage. As of the unveiling, 116 files were available. Users are invited to add their own documents to this resource, sharing valuable information with peers in the Youth Rights movement. Current sections include Papers & Research, Flyers & Handouts, Activist Toolkit, Audio,…
Formerly NYRA-Paterson, this New Jersey chapter has recently expanded to include all of Passaic County. They have been campaigning heavily against curfew laws, under the leadership of Prospect Park resident Fredrick Mutooni. Mr. Mutooni, a parent of two whose children are both active NYRA members, received 1500 votes in his recent bid for a council…
Before you go any further read this news story and try to contain yourself. Alright? Have you taken it all in? Has the absurdity permeated every small part of your brain and caused you to think “What in the world?” (or probably something more profane, I try to keep my writing “family friendly.”) Do you,…
I see pretty appalling news stories every day on the youth rights news wire, but I have to say this one really got to me. Basically, school officials in Arizona forced a 13-year-old to strip down all the way, even removing her underwear, just because they suspected she had some ibuprofen. This happened four years…
I’ve taken a few courses on Constitutional Law, I’m not a lawyer, I’m not even a paralegal, but I feel I have a firm enough grounding on the fundamentals of Con Law to feel relatively confident in talking about constitutional guarantees to free speech. In a story that seems to come right out of the…
It may seem strange that I posted “Part 2” after this title, but there was in fact a Part 1. It was posted December 8, 2006, so you have to go back quite a bit to find it. The post was about the opposition a few other students and myself were putting up to a…
First, I’d just like to introduce myself, my name is Bryan Jennings and I’m an intern at NYRA’s National Office, cozy little place that it is, here in Washington DC. I’m at American University for the Semester, but I usually go to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Those interested in knowing more are…
