Educators and students help lead the charge in New York’s ‘Raise the Age’ criminal justice campaign Chalkbeat Article
Mr. Geballe and three 8th grade students were part of a campaign to “Raise the Age.” They went to Albany to lobby for legislation to raise the age. NY state is one of two states in the country that automatically charges 16/17 year old children as adults for all criminal offenses, be they violent or non-violent. This means that a 16 year who gets in a fight gets charged as an adult, if convicted gets sentenced as an adult, and then is put in the prison population with adults. Needless to say, this doesn’t work and is immoral.
It was a great learning experience for them as they easily transferred their knowledge and skills they work on each and every day at LMC which is an important issue that will potentially effect them, their friends and their families.
