Declaration of Teenage Independence

         This was something I wrote for civics class. I my self don't like it much, but my teacher and others at school seemed to like it, and I was curious as to what you all might think of it. Please review!

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The Declaration of Teenage Independence

By: Becca Carrubba

We, the so-called adolescents, in an effort to eradicate sweeping generalizations, ephebiphobia, and discrimination on the sole basis of age, demand the fair and equal treatment of those called “teens.”
         From age fourteen a person is held legally accountable for their actions in a court of law in the United States of America. Yet that same person who could be treated as an adult in negative situations is not considered a proper “adult.” It stands to reason that if a person is considered responsible enough to be held liable in event of a criminal accusation they would also be mature enough to act in all situations as an adult- not only in a criminal sense.
         Though often referred to as “young adults,” those aged thirteen through nineteen are still treated as children. Laws, societal leaders, and “older adults” in general seek to guard teenagers from the world, as well as guard the world from teenagers. Sacrificed in this endeavor to protect, and, more rightly, control the nation’s youth are the rights of the very persons that are, apparently, being protected. Evidence of such is found in voting age restrictions and curfew laws. While, in the eyes of the census, everyone fifteen years and older is considered an adult, teenagers are not allowed to vote, are forced to be dependant upon their parents, and, most importantly, forced to attend school. It is most evident, out of all places, in schools that our specific age group is considered a type of quasi-person rather than fully human beings. Supposedly the schools give a basic level of comprehension, reading, and mathematics. Not only is this a most painfully evident fabrication and falsehood, as various studies will show, but the institution itself is little more than a part-time penitentiary. On a daily basis students are subjugated, bent to the will of the administration. Their rights suppressed, if not entirely eliminated. In public schools students are told what to wear and what they can’t, what they can’t say, even what side of the stairs to ascend and which to descend. Perhaps the most telling is the fact that any dissent is harshly punishable, regardless of whether or not the rule in question. In addition, some seek to deny teenagers even entertainment such as video games.  Jack Thompson and people like him, in a stunning show of ageism, ephebiphobia, and double standards, argue that while an adult who plays violent games is simply pathetic, an adolescent who plays that same game is in danger of becoming a deadly sociopath.
         Most teenagers never do much to improve their station and treatment as adolescents. Viewing the years between ages thirteen and nineteen as a merely transitory state that will soon be over leads to few efforts to make the societal changes necessary to give teens the rights deserved. What attempts that have been made seldom have any impact on the real world. Organizations such as ASFAR and NYRA, while having sound intentions, repeatedly fail to get their message across and to instigate change.  Within public schools, establishments focused solely on youth, students are given hardly any say; Principals take paltry measures to survey students and such superficial associations as student government plan dances rather than attending to real issues.
         No longer will we be complacent, ignoring injustices until we have aged into impunity. We hereby declare the independence of teenagers, adolescents, young adults from “adult” standards, assumptions, and accusations. Call us what you will, we are competent enough to speak for ourselves and we say “enough.”