NYRA is deeply invested in addressing real-life instances of discrimination. For more than a year, NYRA staff has been involved in pursuing a discrimination complaint against Crazy Ray’s Autoparts, a small chain of autosalvage yards located in Maryland. The complaint stems from a policy that prohibits the entry of persons under 18 into the yards….
NYRA has offered its full support to the New York Civil Liberties Union’s (NYCLU) suit against New York City’s school safety officers over excessive force and wrongful arrests of students. The lawsuit documents numerous incidents in which students engaged in non-criminal conduct were handcuffed, arrested and physically assaulted by police personnel at school. The police…
We had our second #16tovote on the 16th yesterday, and it was even bigger than last month’s! #16tovote on the 16th is our monthly event on Twitter to raise awareness of lowering the voting age by tweeting about the voting age throughout the day with the hashtag “#16tovote“. A total of roughly 52 people made…
The 21 year old drinking age doesn’t work. You know it, NYRA knows it, Choose Responsibility knows it. Vote for this issue so the whole country can understand the harm that the 21 year old drinking age does: https://www.change.org/ideas/view/21_doesnt_work_change_the_drinking_age The top 10 ideas with the most votes on Change.org will be presented to President Obama…
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…
I’m pleased to say yesterday’s first run of #16tovote on the 16th was a complete success! Yesterday, as our newest voting age awareness campaign, many youth rights supporters posted to Twitter their feelings on lowering the voting age, as well as relevant links, and retweeted each other’s voting age tweets, all with the hashtag #16tovote….
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…
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…
It is not often a political candidate comes along who challenges the norm; politics in general is a fairly routine affair. Then there is Brett McClafferty. At the age of 19, he ran for mayor of the city of Streetsboro, Ohio. After the election – an election he lost by a single vote – the…
One of NYRA’s most legally active chapters, NYRA Southeast Florida has continued their good works in fighting against the enforcement of an illegal curfew in the city of West Palm Beach. The lawsuit itself, their piece de resistance, is tentatively scheduled for July 2010. It is a milestone for NYRA as a whole, as it…
