Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Straight, Inc. and Derivatives
the 72 hour law
FaceKhan:
Why would you need that law anyways It is already perfectly legal for parents or guardians to take their kids just about anywhere. Parents already have the authority they need, just a lot of them lack the will. Institutionalizing childhood (aka attempting to legislate a naturally occuring development period that is different for everyone) is just foolish. What they reallly need to do is make a law that lets kids leave abusive situations like the TeenHelp concentration camps and the hordes of unfit parents who parade their problems onto Ricky Lake and then expect to get respect from their kids.
You only need to look at a newspaper or a tv "news" program to see how much American adult society hates and fears children. It is evident in our schools, our shopping malls, and especially in our politics and media.
Schools are becoming more and more like prisons on a daily basis. People used to think more computers, new books, bigger libraries, and more teachers when it came to school budget increases, now they want more guards, more cameras, more rules, and more drug testing.
At least this war on terrorism has taken the heat off of teenagers a bit at least in the political realm. This is the first time in a long time, that I have not had to listen to the constant rantings over how bad kids are today.
As for those 12 year old crack whores, I think they were a drug war induced hallucination -just like Johnny, the 8th grade, heroin addicted, gang land drive-by-shooter, superpredator, who can't read or write . ( see "Why Johnny Can't Read" and other fairy tales)
Elle:
lock up It's so that police can take kids anywhere too. If a parent calls the police and says take my kid away, even if there's no legitimate reason they can lock them up somewhere for 72 hours.
Elle.
Antigen:
72 Hour Law - Implimentation In 1980 or `81, I had a completely different experience with a very similar kind of law. I'd landed up in Youngstown, Ohio. Someone who'd given me a ride had talked me into going to a timeout house to try and get some help getting established somewhere instead of just wandering aimlessly as I had been.
At the time, Ohio had a 48 hour law, but it was enforced a little differently. A runaway kid could stay any place they were welcome for up to 48 hours before any adult in charge had to rat them out. A lot of the kids in this timeout house made a lifestyle of just packing up their kits and moving from one house to another every other night.
The counselors there gave me a short interview, determined that I probably wasn't dangerous, invited me to stay and get some sleep and good food and asked that I volunteer for something on the chore list. They also let me call long distance to talk to my sister. The doors were not locked, there was no kind of coercion at all. I didn't care much for sharing sleeping quarters with half a dozen strangers. But that was the worst of it.
Also, I'd like to add that in all the time I spent hitchhiking around the country, mostly with interstate truck drivers, probably 4 or 5 months alltogether, not once did any pimp try to get control of me. Oh sure, I got the put out or get out ultimatum a few times. And it really did suck having to get out and walk in the freezing rain. But that was about the worst of that.
That's why I really don't give much credence to all these wild stories about 13 year old crack-whores. I know they exist, but I don't think the problem is widespread. I spent a good deal of time with habitual runaways and never saw any of that kind of thing. Mostly, they're just kids trying to find some fun and a dry place to sleep while they wait out their time till they're allowed to walk around free and hold jobs and apartments like real live humans.
Anyone who really wants to help runaway kids need only secure a commisary license and a building suitable for a rooming house. Lots of churches and private philanthropy organizations support youth hostiles like this. In the old days, they weren't even all that stigmatic, as teenaged kids and young adults used to go traveling 'just because', not as runaways.
Now, I haven't seen how this 72 hour law written. But if it's already on the books and if it's anything like some of the laws here, maybe the best strategy is to promote proper, beneficial implimentation while exposing and dunning AARC-style abuses?
-If there's a worse idea going than locking kids up for victimless crimes, it's probably locking them in close proximity to some tyrannical altruist bent on helping them even if it kills them.
Anonymigy Anonymous
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