The Youth Suicide Hysteria

In honor of the one-year anniversary of Modern School, I am reposting some of my favorite articles from the past year. The following is a very short piece, but it represents one of my favorite themes: debunking common misperceptions about youth. 

Teenagers are routinely portrayed as irresponsible risk takers and drug abusers who have rampant unprotected sex, contract STDs, get pregnant and kill themselves in droves. All of these are gross exaggerations. In fact, rates of pregnancy, STDs, drug abuse and suicide for teenagers have all been steadily declining and are generally lower than the rates for their parents' generation.

Youth Suicide Hysteria

Youth suicide rates are at the lowest levels ever recorded, with today's rate less than half that of 40 years ago. Youth suicide rates are far lower than adults, too.Only 1 in 2500 teens (13-19) kill themselves, whereas 1 in 900 parent-aged adults do.

While teen suicide, indeed all suicide, is tragic, what is generally not discussed, are the actual reasons for it. In today's media, we have been barraged with accounts of teens taking their own lives after being bullied, yet a far more common trend among teen suicides in not a history of bullying, but a history of living in an abusive family, according to Mike Males.

America Eats Its Young

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

A new report released by the Economic Policy Institute (and reported in the WSWS) said that the jobless rate for young workers in the U.S. is the highest since records started to be tracked in 1948. To make matters worse, there is virtually no safety net for youth. Unemployment insurance is only available to those who have already been working and who lost their jobs, not for people trying to enter the workforce for the first time.

The unemployment rate for young people ages 16-24 not attending school has roughly doubled since 2007. While the official unemployment rate was 9.6% in 2010, the rate for 16-24-year olds was at 18.4%. Recent high school graduates have been hardest hit with an unemployment rate of 22.5%. However, even recent college graduates are struggling, with their unemployment rate more than double that of college graduates who are 25 or older. The situation is even bleaker for youth of color. The unemployment rate for 16-24-year old high school graduates is 22.8% for Hispanic youth and 31.8% for African-Americans.

                                                                                                                      

Not only are younger workers having a tough time finding work, over half of all college graduates also have at least $20,000 in debt. Furthermore, youth are ineligible for most of the social safety net programs that are available to struggling families. Welfare is only applicable to parents with children and, like unemployment insurance, has work requirements. Another safety net program, the Earn Income Tax Credit, also requires employment.

Contrary to the propaganda of the Obama Administration, the high unemployment rate for young workers is not due to their lack of education. U.S. businesses have been making record profits, so the money for hiring is there. However, they are not hiring. They have pushed up productivity to unprecedented levels by downsizing and speeding up, squeezing more work out of fewer employees. Rather than giving these highly productive workers a raise, they have pocketed the profits and created a growing army of surplus labor, so desperate for an income that they are willing to work for less, accept non-unionized jobs, and even scab on unionized workers. It is in the bosses’ interests to maintain this army of unemployed workers to help drive down wages and weaken unions.

In contrast, it is in the interests of labor and youth activists to organize among the unemployed, especially the young, something that is not happening. Historically, the unions have accepted the ruling class lies that other workers are their enemies, perpetuating racist, sexist and nationalist antagonisms. A similar situation looms today, with a potential scapegoating of youth, blaming them for job losses or declining wages. Rather, labor and other activists need to proactively organize workers and unemployed, alike, to resist the escalating class war against the rest of us.

No Miranda Rights For School Children

Up Against the Wall Motherhugger (Image by sass_face)

The Supreme Court heard a case last week in which a 13-year-old North Carolina boy was interrogated by police, at his school, without being read his rights. Until a person is officially in custody, they are not entitled to Miranda rights, the L.A. Times reported. The police argued that the boy was not in custody.

The boy was suspected of being involved in two break-ins. He was questioned in a school conference room without being arrested. The police officer even told him he could leave at one point, indicating that he was not in custody. However, to a 13-year-old, the situation would certainly feel like an arrest and the boy confessed, as a result. 

Under such circumstances, a teenager is unlikely to feel free to get up and leave or to refuse to cooperate, particularly with police and school officials hovering over him. Even an adult under these circumstances might feel like he didn’t have any choice. However, a child has much less experience and knowledge of his rights than an adult and is much less likely to feel confident enough to assert his rights when confronted by authority figures.

Additionally, schools are increasingly starting to feel like prisons. It has become common to find armed police on campus. Indeed, many now have their own liaison officers stationed on campus. Furthermore, many schools now have metal detectors or require some form of security clearance to obtain entry. Kids are monitored by video and closed circuit cameras. Their laptops have video cameras that spy on them. Their movements are controlled on campus. For many students, the distinction between being at school and being in custody may be negligible.

Alito, Scalia and Roberts were skeptical of the arguments in defense of youth Miranda rights and seemed unlikely to rule in favor of youth rights. Nevertheless, however the Court rules, it is critical that adults educate kids about their rights and how to protect themselves from harassment by other adults such as the police, ICE, employers and child exploiters.

Why (and How) Your Students Swear: The Science of Swearing

Here are the results from an interesting (and really important) scientific study on Teen Swearing, originally reported by science blogger and psychiatrist Vaughan Bell at Mind Hacks (and covered by David Dobbs, from Wired Science.)

London Teens

East Coast American Teens:

Bell found it disheartening that London teens were forsaking the work “bollocks.” Perhaps he was feeling nostalgic or maybe he fears that classic British slang is being lost, like classic Yiddish. I find it disheartening that whenever I call someone a putz they think say, “thanks.”

It is interesting that East Coast American teen girls overwhelmingly preferred “god” as a pejorative compared with boys, who preferred “Jesus Christ.” My hunch is that “Jesus Christ,” (as in “Jesus fucking Christ,” or “Jesus H. Christ,” or “Christ on a fucking crutch,”) is seen as more vulgar and forceful than plain old “God,” or “Oh my God!” This might also explain boys’ preference for “Goddamn,” compared with girls’ preference for the less emphatic “damn.” (However, this hypothesis belies my own prejudice that boys and men are more provocative and belligerent).

I also found it surprising that “gay,” or “that’s so gay,” did not rank on the list. My guess is that the study had a heterosexist bias and didn’t even consider these to be pejorative or vulgar. (It would be difficult to compare British and American teens’ use of the word “fag” for instance). And what about the huge preference for “bitch” by girls? Does this indicate that feminism is losing ground among teen girls (or that the boys are civil enough to avoid the insult?) Or have young women reclaimed the word, as many in the LGBT community have reclaimed “dyke” and “queer,” or many black youth have reclaimed the word “nigga.” This seems unlikely. Based on my own 14 years working with teenagers, I have seldom heard the word “bitch” used to express camaraderie, like “Was up, bitch?”

I’m also curious why the American teens had no profane references to sex organs on their list. Do American teens really use the words penis and vagina with each other when adults aren’t around? Seems unlikely, but they were east coast teens, who everyone knows are considerably more conservative and prudish than other teens in the U.S.

Violence Prevention Undermined in SFUSD

In 2009, the San Francisco Board of Education (BOE) eliminated violation prevention program funding and replaced it with a number of policy directives based on recommendations by the Coalition for Fair and Caring Schools (FairCare). The change was intended to promote alternative disciplinary processes, professional development, increased accountability, and a “culture shift” in how SFUSD addresses discipline, with the goal of reducing suspensions and expulsions, and the disproportionate number of black, Latino and Pacific Islander suspensions.

Implementation has been slow, due in part to the SFUSD corruption scandal, but also due to bureaucratic problems, like the Restorative Justice program not being phased in quickly enough (as of December, 2010, it was still in the planning stages). The program has only been implemented in four schools so far. In short, existing violence prevention programs were eliminated and replaced with a program that will not be fully implemented for years, creating a vacuum that may have devastating consequences for San Francisco youth.

Consider the data for last year:

• 3098 suspensions, 21 expulsions out of a student population of 60,000
• African-Americans, who comprise 10.8% of the student populations, made up 45% of the expulsion referrals and 62% of those actually expelled
• 12.6% of students cut class for safety concerns
• 9.5% carried a knife or club as a weapon on school property
• 34% reported being harassed because of their race or ethnicity
• 22% of middle school students seriously considered suicide
• 29.5% of LGBQ students seriously considered suicide

The Youth Suicide Hysteria

Youth suicide rates are at the lowest levels ever recorded, with today's rate less than half that of 40 years ago. Youth suicide rates are far lower than adults, too.Only 1 in 2500 teens (13-19) kill themselves, whereas 1 in 900 parent-aged adults do.

While teen suicide, indeed all suicide, is tragic, what is generally not discussed, are the actual reasons for it. In today's media, we have been barraged with accounts of teens taking their own lives after being bullied, yet a far more common trend among teen suicides in not a history of bullying, but a history of living in an abusive family, according to Mike Males.

Student Written Play on School Reform Banned in New York

Students in New York were prevented from staging a satirical musical, based on Antigone, that was critical of  Joel Klein, Mayor Bloomberg and their school reform movement.

For the full article, please visit Valerie Strauss' blog, The Answer Sheet.

Will Students Save Our Schools?

Thanks to Schools Matter for finding this video: