# I need some help from train-hoppers... (interview)



## rowangrrl (Nov 13, 2007)

I am writing a paper on contemporary youth and society as it pertains to traveling and train hopping. I go to school for Activism and Social Change and am focusing on traveling youth with the aim of getting the Age of Consent Law changed in regards to affording the same civil rights of privacy to people under the age of 18. This would afford people under the age of 18 to recieve food, shelter, and medical attention without the authorities being required, by law, to notify their parents/legal gaurdians. 

Know that your answers will remain completely anonymous. 

If you are interested in helping me out with this please email me and I will send you the list of questions.


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## Dillinger (Nov 14, 2007)

Pack your shit.
Go to the closest yard.
Set out for 2-weeks.
Make constant entries in a journal.
You'll be able to answer your own damn questions.
Can't do it? Have responsibliities?
I'm sure your revolutionary school will understand.






Not to sound like a dick or anything.


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## Withoutatrace (Nov 14, 2007)

Naw this person works for UP railroad security.
It's not even a girl.
I'm not giving my name, age and where I'm from to someone I do not know anything about.

 L P


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## rowangrrl (Nov 14, 2007)

I can understand some of your hesitation. I attend New College of California. 

I am conducting interviews in person in San Francisco and Berkeley, as well as interviewing friends who live this lifestyle. I am also trying my luck websites such as these as possible sources of information.
I am not asking what trains you ride, or where you ride them. I am not asking for specifics like that. 

It is important to change, or at least ammend, the Age of Consent Law. The changes that we are aiming for will enable people under 18 to recieve food, shelter, and medical attention without the authorities being required, by law, to notify their parents/legal gaurdians. 

I myself had a run in with this law when I had to be admitted to an emergency room and was turned away because I was not accompanied by a parent. Every clinic and shelter in the state has what they call a 'Three Day Rule', where you can use their facilities for 3 days before they are required to notify the authorities. These days can be broken up, so one day here, one day there. But many people under 18 are not aware of this, and even if they are, dont trust it.


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## rowangrrl (Nov 14, 2007)

You can read New College of California's mission statement here:
http://www.newcollege.edu/mission/


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## finn (Nov 14, 2007)

I don't believe that hospitals can turn away someone for not being accompanied by a parent if emergency treatment is required. By law, they must treat anyone requiring emergency treatment- they may call law enforcement for certain types of injuries like gunshots, shrapnel, and burns to the hands.


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## rowangrrl (Nov 14, 2007)

If it is not life threatening (e.g. broken bones, abscessed wounds, etc) they can and do refuse you if not accompanied by a legal guardian.

What is it about this that is making everyone so angry and defensive?

I'm trying to get a law changed for the benefit of homeless youth. 

I cannot just walk up to the senator's office and ask that they change it, if I have no concrete facts and reasons why other than my own personal experience.


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## rowangrrl (Nov 14, 2007)

Widerstand said:


> If don't like something and I want to change that thing, I go and do it! Look thats activism!



What have you done, and how well did that work?


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## drunken marauder (Jul 10, 2008)

Ya know I guess this post is dead but its really pissing me off lol. I dunno i had my first case with FIA. If anyone remembers them when I was 16. And told them I was 16. I went to my first detox before that. No one asks how old you are they dont give a fuck. they can tell me when your a street kid or just some stupid fucking run away.


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## DanteWhisko (Feb 25, 2009)

yea, being young sucks sometimes.
i just had to sit in a holding cell for a long fucking time. then when they decided to check me in i was too young for population and had to sit in some crack pot florida juve with people i could have never thought could be so dumb.
put me in with the jits.
well, my dear mom came to help me and i took a plea, we hung out in the woods for a while and now im here.
good ol probation.
some one otta make it so If your not fucked, you can walk out of juve yourself.
very inconvient.


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## katiehabits (Feb 25, 2009)

did you make a profile on here just for this purpose? if you did i suggest you just stop useing this site and delete your profile. the internet is any unsafe, untrusting place.


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## Ravie (Feb 25, 2009)

no. no. no. I'm a minor and i think this is a bad idea. see, if a kid is smart enough to get around the system to travel then they are smart enough to survive. to just openly let kids leave is suicide for them. plus, not breaking the law makes leaving lose some of it's fun


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## IBRRHOBO (Feb 25, 2009)

Hmnn, I'll bite. So, for the sake of argument (and the IP address could be a 'drop') to change the 'age of consent' (aoc) would require FAR MORE than a simple 'law'. First, aoc pertains to a plethora of legal rulings which form legal underpinnings shaped by rulings (here I would suggest tracing the genesis of aoc back to Blackstone's Digests). Second, it would require the reshaping of the Child Labor Law Enactment around the early 1900's. Third, you have a problem of justicibility as common, contractural and criminal law applies. Let me give you the ONE hurdle that will NEVER be overcome: statutory rape. Now, if we say that we will start to erode the fundamental basics of aoc, by and through waiver of emancipation, do you have ANY idea how many statutory rape cases alone would be overturned? Yeah, I don't think society is ready to 'jump on that train' ... no pun intended.

Oh, I suppose you could construct some kind of civil legislation at the state level. Your problem is that federal supercedes state law in ALL matters pertaining to civil rights (42 USC 1983 et seq.). Chip a little here and there and the feds get a bit uptight as you start to deconstruct decades of federal heirarchy such as the aforementioned Child Labor Act, etc.

I would posit that your time would be better spent encouraging one-stop shops for minors dealing w/emancipation, health and hygine and G-d forbid simple, common fucking responsibility. There are proper avenues for ANY US citizen whom is a minor to address the issues they have. There are also repricussions for their actions when they stray outside of the law. This is why we are a society.

My two cents.


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## Angela (Feb 25, 2009)

I hate to tell y'all but I think this post is long dead untill y'all revived it. The person that originally started it seems to have gone away and not come back since she hasn't posted anything in over a year. Why do these get revived?


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## Ravie (Feb 25, 2009)

who pulled this back? ive never even seen this. it must be fucking ancient ahah


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## IBRRHOBO (Feb 25, 2009)

It's the ghost n the machine


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## Ravie (Feb 26, 2009)

....*cogh*....wha?


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## severegout (Feb 27, 2009)

I just want to drop my two cents:

Be nice, ya'll.


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## dirtyfacedan (Feb 27, 2009)

I wanted to hop a train once, but as i got closer to it, i realized it was too tall. I ride them often though.


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## Geoff (Feb 28, 2009)

rowangrrl said:


> It is important to change, or at least ammend, the Age of Consent Law. The changes that we are aiming for will enable people under 18 to recieve food, shelter, and medical attention without the authorities being required, by law, to notify their parents/legal gaurdians.



if you really want to make social change why don't you just feed and house these kids on your own. organize something. I really doubt interviewing a couple dirty train kids is going to get any politicians attention. Start a food not bombs (if there isn't already a local chapter where you live), or a free clinic these are things that really will make a difference. We shouldn't have to rely on the "kindness" of a state entity to feed, house, and take care of us. we're human beings and when someone is lucky enough to have resources enough to help someone else they should. Mutual Aid is where it's at. Not liberalization. By relying on government funded organization to take care of us we're only giving them more power over us and making ourselves, as a counter-culture, less independent.


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## mkirby (Mar 18, 2009)

Wow you're all being pretty harsh here. 
The op might have been a little out of line, but hear hearts in the right place, at least. She's trying to make things easier for homeless kids. Not all homeless kids are homeless by choice, you know. Some people depend on those government services that got cut severely under Bush. Maybe shouldn't be so quick to alienate people that could be our allies...or if not allies, at least people who aren't our enemies. 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I mean _come on._ Be cool.


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## Modern day hobo (May 17, 2015)

well said buddy ! kids are independent though, and are amazing at figuring out tactics to have fun and get what they want; their freedom and lifestyle on the road...


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