The Concerns of Libertarian Youth
Young people and their struggle for freedom has been ensuing since the beginning of civilization. As a child approaches adulthood, the desire to rebel against parents and the establishment is often a natural consequence of a teenager's struggle between leaving the comforts of childhood behind for an adulthood filled with more freedom, albeit with new responsibilities. So when teenagers complain about their freedom being denied, their grievances often fall upon deaf ears.
In the public school realm, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students have the right to express themselves without punishment, with two specific restrictions: the time, place, and manner restriction, and the content restriction. These restrictions basically are to ensure that student protests don't disrupt the educational process. They are fair and reasonable, when implemented in a fair and reasonable manner. However, what the Supreme Court rules, and what the local school district actualy does can be vastly different. Libertarian youth organizations have many concerns, including curfews, zero-tolerance policies in schools, and boot camps for troubled youth.
Curfews are an extremely popular method for law enforcement officials in urban areas to curb youth criminal activity and violence. Results are mixed. While curfews may clear the streets of troubled youth, teenagers are quite resourceful and simply move their illicit activities to the underground. The Supreme Court has struck down some curfews as unconstitutional in the past, but now they usually pass the Court's test by including certain exemptions to the curfew, such as going to/from work, running an errand for a parent, etc. One Libertarian youth organization has found another interesting exemption to the curfew: political protest. If a minor is protesting an issue in any way, even so much as wearing a Greenpeace button, the minor is constitutionally exempt from the curfew because he is utilizing his freedom of expression and right to protest. Of course, this exemption does not stop law enforcement for ticketing or even arresting the minor in question, but if it goes to court, often charges will be dropped.
Zero-tolerance policies implemented in public schools are perhaps the most disturbing. They are simultaneously ridiculous and outraegeous. Of course, anyone can agree that a zero-tolerance policy on weapons in school is appropriate. Before the Ritalin craze, perhaps a zero-tolerance on drugs would have seemed appropriate; now it seems merely hypocritical. But even these two zero-tolerance policies can be taken to the absurd extreme by school officials, needlessly punishing non-problem students.
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