Alex Koroknay-Palicz

Alex Koroknay-Palicz (born July 2, 1981) is an American activist in Washington, D.C. He is currently the executive director of the National Youth Rights Association.^[1]

Biography

Koroknay-Palicz was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in Holland, Michigan. By high school, he began to articulate that inequality in terms of ageism and wrote articles for his school newspaper on the subject. Senior year at Holland High School, Koroknay-Palicz discovered several local businesses with policies limiting the number of students allowed inside at any one time. Recognizing these policies as ageism, he decided to do something about it. After much research he learned these policies were illegal under Michigan's Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Koroknay-Palicz demanded the city to enforce this law at a speech before a Holland city council meeting. The matter was referred to Al Serrano in the city's Human Rights Department, who succeeded in overturning the policies at all the stores in question.^[2]

In 1999 Koroknay-Palicz began attending American University in Washington, D.C.. After three years he left to begin his youth rights career. He quickly became involved in the youth rights movement, and has worked as the executive director of the National Youth Rights Association since 2000. Koroknay-Palicz has become a major figure in all aspects of the youth rights movement and has made fighting ageism his chief purpose.^[2] Koroknay-Palicz serves on the board of advisors for the Freechild Project, and is currently working on a Youth Rights book with Adam Fletcher. His writing appears in several publications and websites. In 2006 Koroknay-Palicz joined the Board of Directors of CAFETY.^[3]

Publicity

As spokesman for the National Youth Rights Association, Koroknay-Palicz first major media citation dates to 2001 when Slate.com interviewed him.^[4] Since then he has appeared on several television and radio networks, including two appearances on CNN^[5][6] and Fox News^[7][8]

Koroknay-Palicz has been quoted by several nationally-recognized publications on a variety of topics related to youth rights. They include the subject of student rights in the Christian Science Monitor;^[9] youth suffrage in the Boston Globe^[10] and the Los Angeles Times;^[11] the legal drinking age in The New York Times;^[12] internet censorship in the Chicago Tribune;^[13] curfews in the Jackson Free Press,^[14] and; the minimum driving age in USA Today^[15] and the Associated Press.^[16] He has also been cited in international publications such as The Guardian.^[17]

He has also been cited on the topics of ageism in the Olympics,^[18] graduated driver licensing,^[16] civics education^[19] public schools,^[20] the Bong Hits 4 Jesus trial,^[21] youth criminalization,^[22] and several other issues.^[23][24]

He has also been noted for his opposition to the drinking age limit policies of Mothers Against Drunk Driving who want to keep it at age 21.^{[25][26][27][28]}

Koroknay-Palicz and Robert Epstein co-founded the First Annual National Youth Rights Day which occurred on April 14, 2010^[29] Epstein wrote The Young Person's Bill of Rights for this event.^[30]

Many^[who?] within the movement have been critical of Koroknay-Palicz for alleged sexism as well as his refusal to engage on the full spectrum of youth rights issues, especially those affecting youth under the age of thirteen. He was criticized, for example, for once saying at a Board meeting that NYRA had no business defending twelve-year-olds who were paddled in schools.^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• Koroknay-Palicz, A. (2003) "Youth Demand a Voice and a Vote", Wiretap Magazine.
• Koroknay-Palicz, A. "Youth Rights," in Beale, S. and Abdalla, A. (2003) Millennial Manifesto. InstantPublisher.

See also

• National Youth Rights Association
• Youth rights

References

External links

• One and Four Alex Koroknay-Palicz's blog
• National Youth Rights Association website