#16tovote on the 16th a success!

#16tovote on the 16th a success!

Last month NYRA board member, Katrina Moncure announced plans to organize an awareness campaign for lowering the voting age. Named #16tovote on the 16th, the campaign had its first even on the 16th of February. Youth rights supporters are encouraged to “tweet” about lowering the voting age on Twitter and include the hashtag #16tovote. For…

NYRA Joins Coalition Against School Paddling

NYRA Joins Coalition Against School Paddling

The Coalition Against School Paddling filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office on February 6, 2010, for Civil Rights against the state departments of education in the twenty states where corporal punishment is permitted. The twenty states that permit corporal punishment in schools are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,…

Vulnerable Behind Bars

Vulnerable Behind Bars

Earlier, the ACLU blog posted about how vulnerable young people are in adult prisons: 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…

Teen Brains, Medical Consent & Behavior Modification

Teen Brains, Medical Consent & Behavior Modification

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…

Old Senators are Old

Old Senators are Old

Check this out: List of current United States Senators by age 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…

Talkin’ Smack About CC

Talkin’ Smack About CC

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…