NEWSYOUTH RIGHTS

Lost in the debate about education reform is the undeniable fact that the public education system in the United States is one of the most violent in the world.

Despite overblown media reports about school shootings and daily exaggerations about youth crime, it is not the students who are perpetrating the majority of this violence. We’re talking about violence initiated by the teachers and administrators that we trust to safeguard our children’s education. Teaching is one of the most admirable professions -- which is why it’s a shame that this profession is muddied by one of America’s darker and more insidious legal practices – corporal punishment.

Of the 20 states that legally employ corporal punishment, Texas hits the most students every year -- nearly 50,000 during the 2005-2006 school year, according to the latest available statistics. In fact, administrators and teachers in Texas legally hit more students every year than the rest of Europe combined. That could change, though, if a bill to end corporal punishment at Texas schools passes this year.

New York State Senator Eric Adams is a serious man. You know he’s serious because he’s the spokesman for the “Stop the Sag” campaign that encourages young black males to pull up their pants.

"You can raise your level of respect if you raise your pants,” he advises the youth of today – adding, “we are better than this!” Now, Adams wants all parents to regularly search their children’s rooms because they’ll probably find guns, cocaine and crack pipes. He’s made a YouTube video -- that I refuse to link to -- that instructs parents on how to perform a thorough search of their child’s bedroom. He reminds parents several times that children do not have rights.

Having been a police officer for 22 years, Adams is qualified to demonstrate how to perform a search and while yes, parents have a right to search, that doesn’t mean they should – or that they have any reason to. He is not an expert on child development and he’s ignoring those child development experts who say that trust is an important component of the family unit. The decision to search a child’s room is one that should be taken very seriously. It should not be done cavalierly and it certainly shouldn’t be done universally.

The San Juan Capistrano City Council in Southern California is considering a draconian way to curb crime: a daytime curfew during school hours.

Not only does this send a chilling message about the value of young people, it's also ineffective, say Mark Lamb and Jonathan Huynh, high school students and leaders of the National Youth Rights Association - Los Angeles. They're urging other young people in the state to tell Council members that punishing youth for being young just doesn't make sense.

The council recently considered a complete overhaul of their youth curfew laws. When they couldn't agree on a proposal that combined a daytime curfew with a 10 p.m. curfew, they told city staff to go back to the drawing board. They're still considering curfews, but haven't made up their minds.

Many of the council members expressed various concerns with aspects of the proposal. Some members thought the 10 p.m. start time was too early, others were concerned that the cost of administering the fines might be too high, while others wanted to see more statistics on truancy rates.

These are valid concerns. However, none of them expressed the concern that curfews don’t work.

Five years ago, Mississippi’s Governor Haley Barbour signed into law a requirement that civil rights be taught in every grade in Mississippi’s public schools. That law will go into effect this fall.

The fact that the Magnolia State, with a dark civil rights history, is the first state to enact such a requirement is impressive and commendable. The press attention to this law is probably welcome to Barbour, the presidential hopeful who was panned last month for his insensitive remarks about white citizens councils.

All children should be taught and encouraged to know and defend their own civil rights. My organization, the National Youth Rights Association, believes this is a great initiative that should be replicated in every single state.

But Mississippi should go a step further and stop the unforgivable practice of regularly beating public school children.

If you've logged onto Facebook this week, you've seen a popular effort to raise awareness about violence against children. The campaign asks people to change their profile pictures to a picture of a cartoon they enjoyed as children.

This campaign very well may get thousands and thousands of people to at least think about child abuse for a brief moment. However, I suspect that the vast majority of those thoughts will focus on illegal child abuse. I’d like to take a moment to remind you that, in this country, we often force our children to endure legal abuse.

Operating mostly in secret, while making billions of dollars, is the abusive "teenage behavior modification" industry. Posing as schools, these unregulated monstrosities are praying on the fears of parents while physically, emotionally and sexually abusing young people in facilities that wouldn’t meet prison standards, let alone standards for schools or hospitals. These programs often look very much like boarding schools complete with websites that use words like “college preparatory” and “therapy.”

But punching a ten-year-old boy in the face for wetting his pants on a field trip is not therapy and I don’t know about you, but I was never forced to eat worms in college.

In the 1970s, we the people ratified the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, granting the right to vote to all citizens 18 and over. The 26th amendment was ratified more quickly than any of the 25 previous amendments. Americans realized the sick double standard inherent in sending 18-year-old soldiers to fight and die for their country while denying them the right to vote.

The amendment guaranteed that the “right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.” It didn’t say anything, however, about municipalities who wish to lower their voting ages below 18.

In fact, 12 states have passed legislation allowing people under the age of 18 to vote in primary elections, if they will be 18 by the general election. Outside the U.S., nine nations, including Austria, Germany and Brazil, have granted 16-year-olds the right to vote.

People under 18 are often heavily invested in their communities. They attend school and care about where they live. They pay $10 billion in sales tax a year and millions more in income tax. Despite record high youth unemployment numbers, 80% of teens work before graduation.

Last week, the Lowell City Council in Lowell, Massachusetts passed a home-rule petition by a margin of 8-1 to lower the voting age to 17 in that city’s municipal elections. That petition will now be taken up by the Massachusetts Legislature. Cambridge passed a similar measure in 2002, but it was never acted upon.