I'd planned on touching on this issue months ago, and now I think it should be moved back to the frontburner. The media has become careless about factual errors, but this is one that it's actually repeated.
The age of majority is the age that a person is considered an adult. A common misconception is that minors have no legal rights. In reality, however, a minor is supposed to have a minority of the control over their decisions (as opposed to no control at all), and a major (adult) is supposed to have a majority of such control. As an adult, one is no longer subject to parental authority.
The error in question is the media's repeated claim that the age of majority in Nebraska is 19. Even the respected New York Times claimed several months ago that this is the case. Now the AP has repeated this mistake.
Nowhere can the age of majority be 19. Nowhere! Not any place in the world.
There may be statutes in some states and countries that claim it's 19, if not higher. But these laws are no more valid than a law declaring 2 plus 2 to be 5. Under common law, once you're 18 - kablammo! - you're an adult. States and countries can set the age of majority lower - but not higher.
I've heard other misconceptions too. For instance, I've been told that in Kentucky it's 19 if you don't have your high school diploma yet. While parents of 18-year-olds who are still in high school might be able to collect child support in Kentucky, that does not increase the age of majority for those who have yet to graduate.
I hail from Kentucky and turned 18 before I graduated - and I guarantee I would've raised hell if I was not legally considered an adult. Discriminating against someone based on their educational level would be so much like the vainglorious approach that Kentucky lawmakers take to education, but I've yet to find a Kentucky law that robs anyone over 18 of adult status - and if there is such a statute, it's void under common law anyway.
If I was from Nebraska, I would've raised hell too. You can't legally claim someone is still a child once they're 18. You just can't.
This has come to the fore now because Nebraska has a new law that would potentially allow parents to abandon unruly teenagers at hospitals. So Nebraska tries making adults live with their parents until they're 19, but lets parents abandon their kids before they even turn 18? How's that for legislative doublespeak?
I guess the fact that a law lets kids be abandoned just because they got in trouble at school or listened to "druggie music" is a sign that today's America is a throwaway society. If someone or something isn't 100% perfect, they get tossed out like food wrappers in the street.
More hypocrisy? I would bet you that the first people who'd support seriously enforcing such a high age of majority would be the first who'd favor lowering the age at which a minor may be tried as an adult for minor violations of the law. You can bet the farm on this.
Another problem with both the high majority age and the abandonment of teens: Both of these are likely a boon for abusive teen confinement facilities. With a higher age of majority, there's more people who have the potential to be placed in an abusive program by parents. With teenagers abandoned, there's also a greater chance that the system will place them in such a program.
Government doublespeak can be quite profitable for "the industry."
(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080822/ap_on_re_us/children_safe_havens)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Age of majority can't be 19
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This is a great point and should be watched. Sneaky way to lock kids up who aren't even kids anymore.
ReplyDeleteOh I've had people try to tell me I'm not an adult because I'm not 21. It's a bunch of BS.
ReplyDeleteOnce you are 18 you are legally an adult. That might not mean that you are as mature as an adult, but legally you sure as hell are one. And there's nothing that can change that.
Out of all the people who are having their rights stolen from them, our youth are getting hit the hardest. And I for one am sick and tired of it.
Regardless of what "common law" -- and even common sense -- would seem to dictate, the age of majority in Nebraska is, by state statute, 19. This is not incorrectly reported, not a mistake -- just inappropriately legislated. (I did, in fact, have a sheriff's deputy tell me recently, in regard to an abused girl that was trying to leave the state now that she's 18, that she is required to live with her "mother" until the age of 19. She can't leave the state for other states, she can't elect to leave school...)
ReplyDeleteIt makes me wonder what happens to 18-year-olds that move to this state. One must be 19 to sign a legal document here, so renting is tricky, and not legal, before that age. For the record, I'm 40, but I was 18 once, and agree -- the law here is wrong, and should be changed.