NYRA Vermont, one of NYRA’s most active chapters, held an event called “Know Your Rights Day” on May 16 at the Vermont Commons School in Burlington. The event attracted dozens of students, as well as members of the local press. “Know Your Rights Day” consisted of a series of workshops pertaining to youth and student…
Student representation is a concept the Buncombe County Board of Education does not seem to be able to grasp. Since February, I have written letters, delivered speeches and have called politicians at both the local and state levels of government about adding a nonvoting student adviser onto the local Board of Education. The student adviser…
There is a new bill pending in Congress that would cut government funding to any school or library that permits people under the age of 18 to access social networking websites such as Myspace. In addition, many schools are starting to punish students for pictures on their Myspace accounts. On May 22, reporters from ABC’s…
Adam King, of Asheville, North Carolina, spoke to the Buncombe County Board of Education about adding a student advisor for the third time on Thursday, June 1, 2006. Joel Burgess, of the Asheville Citizen-Times, was there covering this story and other stories taking place that night. After King had to sit through a two-hour meeting,…
The assault on MySpace is gaining traction. ABC News just covered the new policy at Libertyville High School in Illinois that would penalize students for content they’ve posted on their MySpace page. At the same time a bill in Congress called the Deleting Online Predators Act is increasingly getting attention. Those of us who care…
Adam B. Kushner has a great piece in the Washington Examiner about Sen. John McCain’s commencement address at Columbia last week that was “cloaked in a terrifically condescending homily about the arrogance of youth.” NEW YORK – Last week, as they sat in the pouring rain, John McCain insulted Columbia’s graduating class. He also delivered…
Somewhat related to the last post about the War on MySpace, now this is a case of schools using information posted on student’s websites and MySpace pages to punish them. The Chicago Tribune did a story on it, and asked for our comments. Excerpts: A north suburban school district could become one of the first…
Students’ rights are quickly becoming an issue of significant import in New York City. It is in the papers and on television, and NYRA members have overheard youth rights issues being discussed in the office of a very influential New York City Councilman. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has recently been enforcing a ban on cell phones…
On an unseasonably cold May afternoon, I left my internship a little early to meet some old acquaintances on the steps in front of New York City Hall. Another member of The National Youth Rights Association had heard about Lew Fidler’s bill to end the cell phone ban in New York City schools, and he…
As NYRA continues to grow, we feel that it is necessary to publish more documents and guides for youth, particularly students. A recent project that Stefan Muller and I have taken on is developing a “Student Rights Handbook” where we list all of the rights that students have at schools and any limitations on those…
