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 human rights abuses that don’t require a trip half-way around the world to discover.
Instead, he addresses one of the most gut-wrenching aspects of our broken, dysfunctional criminal justice system — the physical and sexual abuse of children in juvenile and adult correctional facilities across the country.
This is followed by an account of a 16-year-old arsonist in an adult prison who was raped and beaten so badly he ended up hanging himself.
So we have a couple of serious problems here: prison rape, youth sexual assault, and subjecting under-18s to adult prison. Though, of course, juvenile prisons are no better.
While incredibly beside the point, I’d also want to express my annoyance at the above article’s consistent referral to teens as children, which we NYRAnians are saying ad nauseum they are NOT! Of course, maybe the label is fitting here, in another thing we point out a lot, as these under-18s are subjected to adult time for adult crimes yet when law-abiding have no adult rights or privileges. But again, this is all a little beside the point, yet still merited a mention. (more…)
Kids these days spend so much time with electronic media — cellphones, iPods, video games and computers — that it might as well be a full-time job: more than 53 hours a week, a study finds.
Compared with peers a decade ago, young people spend 79 more minutes of free time each day listening to music, watching TV and movies, playing video games and hanging out online. Nearly twice as many now say they do at least two of these at the same time.
Oh the horror!
Or no, horror isn’t the word I want. I think the words I’m looking for are “so what?”
Why is this apparently a crisis? This is one of probably one or two “news” stories a week lamenting that, oh no, young people like to use the internet and play video games. Because, as we see repeatedly, young people’s lives are public property, every aspect of those lives must come under the big adult microscope and be scrutinized and analyzed and, most importantly, treated like a major social problem. (more…)
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 this petition:
Toxic, underage drinking is an urgent public health problem in our state, which the 21 year-old drinking age is not solving.
Despite total prohibition for young people under 21…
* Thirteen percent of 12-17 year-old Vermonters are binge drinkers. This rate is among the highest in the nation. 1
* Binge drinking rates among 12-20 year-old Vermonters increased from 24% to 28% between 2004 and 2006. Vermont was one of only two states in the nation to show a significant increase in binge drinking rates during this time period. 2
* In 2005, according to self-reports by Vermont students in grades 9-12, 21% had their first drink of alcohol, other than a few sips, before age 13. 3
The 21 year-old drinking age has not stopped underage drinking, instead it has driven it to basements, farmers’ fields, and dorm rooms out of sight of parents, educators, and law enforcement. In order to create a safer reality, we the undersigned call on the Vermont legislature…
* To support an informed and dispassionate public debate over the effects of the 21 year-old drinking age.
* To consider whether the 10% highway funding penalty posed by current federal law encourages or inhibits that debate.
* To invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol.
This petition is limited to Vermont residents
Please sign the petition here:
http://www.chooseresponsibility.org/VT-drinking-age-petition/
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 major pipeline into dangerous, abusive and emotionally destructive programs. Despite their unusually hostile reception, it is admirable they invited CAFETY to their conference.
Reports indicate the debate was one of the most discussed and highest profile events of their conference. It was definitely an event that put CAFETY and all of us opponents of abusive behavior modification programs on the radar of educational consultants. For those interested in it, IECA described the debate.
One of the most interesting parts of the debate centered on the question of the age of medical consent. Washington state requires that all individuals 13 and up consent to medical treatment. This law, as best we can tell, has had a major impact on reducing or eliminating abusive programs in Washington state and limiting the number of Washington state youth sent to programs in other states. As people debate the benefits of regulating the residential treatment industry (especially with HR 911 on the table), medical consent is a law that NYRA, CAFETY and others have thought of as an ideal, youth rights-centered way to reduce or eliminate the harm of the troubled teen industry. I am glad to see it be a major topic of discussion at the IECA conference. (more…)
According to that, as of January 10, 2010, only 10 senators are under 50 years old, the youngest being 40, while 27 are aged 70 or older, the very oldest being 92.
To be a US Senator, one must be at least 30 years old and have been a US citizen for at least 9 years. Interesting considering 9 years before you’re 30, you’re 21. Just like to be President, you must be at least 35 and have been a US citizen for, that’s right, 14 years. Because apparently if you’re under 21, you don’t exist.
So what we have here is a system that considers anyone under 21 to be non-existent, considers the time after that up until 25 or 30 or 35 to merely be infancy, and only upon reaching one of those ages are you permitted to actually lead. (more…)
Let’s say you have two middle school girls, whom we’ll call JC and CC. They don’t like each other. JC then makes a video of herself and a few other girls calling CC names, and then this video appears on YouTube. Obviously, CC is very upset by this. Perhaps she could create a counter video saying nasty slanderous things about JC. Depending on the former video’s actual content, she may have a case for harassment. In any case, JC is the nasty one here, given what is known anyway. That said… how in the hell is this case any of their school’s business?
The facts in this case arose when J.C., an eighth grade girl, videotaped a group of her friends “talkin’ smack” about their classmate C.C. The video featured this group of kids saying that C.C. was spoiled, and a slut. J.C. then when home and uploaded the video to YouTube, and informed several classmates, including C.C., of the video’s existence.
The next day, C.C. and her mother informed the school of the video’s existence. C.C. also met with a school counselor for no more than half a class period to discuss how she felt humiliated by the video.
School administrators, upon viewing the video, called J.C. out of class, and made her write a statement about the video. The administrators also demanded that J.C. delete the video from YouTube. Upon consultation with the school district’s lawyer, the principal suspended J.C. for two days.
J.C. sued the school district, arguing that the school had violated her First Amendment rights and did not have the authority to discipline her over a video made and viewed off campus.
Having been a victim of middle school bullying myself, I do feel very much for CC’s plight, but then again, I do have to side with JC here in that the school is majorly overstepping its bounds on this issue. YouTube is not under the jurisdiction of Beverly Vista School or any other school district, nor are the private lives and doings of students any of the school’s business. (more…)
You’d think I could read something as seemingly innocent as Scientific American without getting outraged. Until I see this:
A device that curbs speed eating could help obese children and adolescents cut the fat
Wolfing down a meal in record time can lead to more than digestive discomfort and possible acclaim in food-eating contests. Studies have warned that speed eaters can easily become overeaters, possibly because they lose track of how sated they are amidst hurried bites. Moreover, the pattern of consuming large portions of food quickly is associated with obesity in children, adolescents and adults.
Researchers in Bristol, England, sought to break this pattern in children and adolescents using a machine dubbed the Mandometer, which is designed to manage the pace of meals. The device features a computerized scale that calculates the rate of food intake and, like a hovering mother, constantly reminds the user if he or she should eat slower or faster. The device, first developed to help treat anorexia and bulimia nervosa, actually issues verbal feedback.
Oh, isn’t that just lovely? Obesity is a problem in all age groups, but when it comes to working on a solution, especially one that is as homicidally annoying as this Mandometer sounds, let’s just use it on kids and teens. It’s the same old story, that what is just annoying and a violation for adults is considered good parenting when done to someone under 18. A nice touch is that “hovering mother” comment, reinforcing the misogynistic idea that the ideal mother is nosy, obsessive, and coercive, traits that would be all kinds of abusive if committed by anyone else, regardless of intent. (more…)
So I came across this little gem while skimming through my Twitter feed, from user @youthvoices, a young girl’s blog post on their site:
Why do teenagers rush to be adults?
Well I came up with this question because me and my mom were talking about it. In a movie it would show a girl teen trying to grow her boobs because every other girl has boobs.Then for the guys it would be who has sex first and its ridiculous. Lol
This makes me laugh because teens are in such a rush to have a job, marry, live alone but I bet when they reach the adult hood age that they would want to be a kid again.
Just tell me what you think if you agree or disagree with me. Plus a good example of this is 13 going to 30.
This sadly is a very common sentiment, and this one in particular operates on a couple of assumptions:
1) That the “foolish” notion of teens wanting to be adults is somehow less valid than the foolish notion of adults wanting to be teens.
2) Since the writer bases this claim on movies, that movie directors have some infallible 20/20 insight into the mind of Every Teen. (more…)
Regardless of what the law or your teachers have to say about this, you are as human as anyone over the age of 18 or 21, yet, 'minors' are one of the most oppressed groups of people in the world, and certainly the most discriminated against legally. - Grace Llewellyn
Why don't you 
