- It's messy. It's freedom and it's rules. 
- It's rights and responsibilities. 
- It's conflict and resolution. 
- Both empowerment and compromise. 
- It is justice. 
- It is individual. 
- And it's collective. 
- It is fairness. 
- Respect and values. 
- It is equality. 
- Equality. 
- Equality. 
- Equality. 
- It's truth. 
- It is government. 
- And it's choices. 
- It's passionate. 
- It's problem solving. 
- It's action. And it's possible. It's me. 
- My family. 
- And my community. 
- Democracy it is!

- Hi, I'm Ulysses. 
- Hi, I'm Ashley. 
- My name's John. 
- And I'm Alli. When you think about democracy, you probably think elections. 
- Yeah, like for governor or president. 
- But you can take part in our democracy even before you can vote. 
- Young people have the power to do a lot. 
- We're about to see some amazing stories about democracy in action. 
- Stories about youths like you. For example, Kyle Corbin. 
- Kyle was only 17 when he decided to run for office. 
- That's why it says "Write in" at the top of this homemade campaign sign. 
- You may be surprised what happened next.

(cows mooing)
 
- I live in Union, Oregon. And I'm 18 years old. Union has about 2,000 people. It's a beautiful community with lots of historic buildings and open-ness and hills all around it. 
(train whistle)
 I was born and raised here. I've grown up seeing people I looked up to, friends of my parents, friends of my grandparents that are in city government, arguing and yelling at each other during council meetings and things like that. And it's kind of disheartening to see that in your community. So when I finally became old enough to do something about it, I decided what better way to do that than to try to run for city government. How's it going, guys? 
- It's goin'. 
- This is Union High School. I went to school here for six years. Four years of high school and two years in junior high. 
- My mom used to baby-sit him, and that's how we became friends. 
- I had him first of all in junior high, and definitely saw that he had potential. 
- And then last year, he was the student body president. Kyle was a go-getter when he knew he wanted to be in politics. 
- I knew that he would do a good job. And I really hoped he would get it. 
- We know what kind of kid he is. And when he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen. 
- I ran as a write-in for mayor. At the time to file for candidacy, I wasn't 18. Therefore, I was ineligible to put on the ballot. If somebody wanted to vote for me, all they had to do is write my name in. We hand-painted my campaign signs. I made my brochures on the computer. We went door-to-door and talked to as many people as we could talk to. I automatically voted for Kyle. Not just because he's my friend, but because I thought he was a positive influence. 
- I looked it up on the Internet right afterwards. And I said "Kyle, it really looks like you won the election." He goes, "Yeah, I did." I walked out of my house that day and looked around and went, "Wow, there's 2,000 people that are now counting on me to do what's best for the community. That I will faithfully perform... 
- The duties of mayor... 
- The duties of mayor... 
- To the best of my ability... 
- To the best of my ability... 
- So help me, God. 
- So help me, God. 
(cheers and applause)
 Thank you. 
- Nobody thought Kyle would be even student body president. So now that he's come all the way to mayor of Union when he was 18 years old, it just shows how much kids can do. 
- Congratulations. 
- Thank you. My function as the mayor is going to be oversee the day-to-day business of the city, to preside over the council meetings. All the city counselors are three times my age, probably. The key to having respect is to give respect, I think. 
- I think very highly of him. 
- I'm going to be busy. I have a part-time job at the local gas station. I work every other day. I think this is definitely a new beginning for the community. 
- Kyle's the one, if anybody will ever be able to do it, it'll be Kyle. 
- Besides being the mayor of Union, I'm going to go to school at Eastern Oregon University. It's about 15 miles away to the college. 
- Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves. 
- I'm studying, basically, it's a political science major. I want to concentrate on public administration. 
- So, quite a political atmosphere out there. 
- Yeah. 
(laughter)
 
- You know the mayor, don't you? 
- Yeah, I do. 
(laughter)
 
- For those of you who don't know, our classmate is the youngest mayor, I believe in the history of the state of Oregon. 
§ §
 
- Right now, I'm in the Chamber Choir at the college. This is a new day. Anybody can make a difference. It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are. I'm a testament to that, I think. But if you really care and you're really concerned, do something about it. 
- What makes us proud is that other young kids can see what he has done. 
- Hopefully, he'll inspire the younger generation to care and vote. 
- I think our country's a testament to the fact that democracy works.

- Recently, Kyle went on a big concert tour with his school choir. 
- For two weeks, they performed in cities throughout China. 
- Imagine what they thought of an 18-year-old mayor from America. 
- But you don't have to be a mayor to have influence in your community. 
- Teens can also be a part of the justice system and serve in court. Check this out. 
- These kids actually serve on a jury.

- We see many different sorts of cases. 
- There's stuff like fighting, disorderly conduct. 
- Truancy and shoplifting. 
- Tobacco-related usage in minors. 
- Vandalism. 
- Underage drinking. 
- Possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. 
- There's a lot of different cases. 
- Peer courts, in general were started because somebody had the vision that teens needed a second chance. Everybody makes mistakes. 
- And some people may think that Teen Court is just a free pass. They get completely off scott-free. But you have to follow the sanctions. 
- That's what we're here to show them. 
- It's easier for a kid to talk to another kid, I think, than to try and go up in front of a big judge, and his power and everything. 
- I do not have the ability to override or change anything they do. The jurors function together as a group. They reach a decision and carry it out. 
- Here, and you can sit here.

- My mom encouraged me to come to Teen Court. 
- My son manufactured a pipe. 
- I would've gotten a $249 fine. 
- And he's expelled from school. 
- The cops came in. 
- And it's to go before the court. That's why he's here. 
- You, Jesse Johnson, elected to plead guilty to your violation of the manufacturing or delivery of drug paraphernalia. 
- Since Jesse was only 16 when the event happened, he was able to participate in Teen Court. 
- If he hadn't been here, it would go on his record. 
- If he did it 20 years down the road, he could've gone to jail. 
- So, in your own words, please tell us what happened that day. 
- I made a pot pipe in shop class, on the lathe out of aluminum. I made it for a friend of mine. My teacher seen it and he confiscated it. 
- So why do you think you made it? Did he pressure you into it, or did he pay you? 
- He was going to give me ten bucks for it. 
- Do you think it was worth it? 
- No. I assumed I was wrong in making it, but I didn't think of the consequences at the time. 
- Who do you think this episode, you making the pot pipe-- Who do you think that has all affected? 
- Me, my mom, my family, and my shop teacher too. 
- Do you respect him? 
- Yeah. 
- Do you want him to respect you? 
- Yeah. 
- At this time, the escort will show you back out into the hall while we deliberate. 
- In the deliberation process, they're in charge of leading the deliberation, coming up with the items that they're going to sanction the person to. 
- Two weeks on the apology letters. 
- Yeah, two weeks. 
- They can impose requirements about community service, apologies, assistance to others. 
- Like during the winter, they can shovel snow. They can pick up litter, plant flowers. There's tons of stuff that they could do. 
- And then, how about visiting the jail so he can see what will happen when he gets older if he does this kind of stuff. 
- I would say it's definitely a democratic process to deliberate. 
- Everything needs to be written down so the respondent has a copy. So, they write the sanction, the reason and the due date.

- Clark County Teen Court has decided on the following sanctions for you to complete. We want you to write a goal list. We want you to do two goals for the next month. 
- They were understanding. 
- Yeah, they were pretty understanding about it. It was fair. I'm going to say I'm sorry to my teacher, my teachers and my principal about what happened and everything. 
- The successes come about as a result of lower recidivism rates than regular processes. 
- Recidivism means the amount of kids who actually re-offend. Our rate is a lot lower than actual juvenile court. 
- I want to help these kids make better decisions so that their future looks brighter. 
- We're here to help you do that, not give you another lecture from yet another adult. 
- It shows them, "Hey, I screwed up, but I've still got time to fix it." Whereas if they had to go through the regular court, you're maybe thinking, "Well, I'm already down this path and there's no way out." 
- You can be on a teen court, too. See if there's one in your area. 
- Ask a teacher or call your local courthouse. 
- Our democracy depends on the justice system. 
- And the free press, too, like "Shape of Voice." 
- When we're fully informed, we make better decisions for ourselves and our communities. 
- Freedom of the press means speaking out on important issues like the authors of "Shape of Voice."

- Santa Barbara, it's a beautiful place. I go to the beach every day. I work right next to the beach. 
- Santa Barbara, it's right on the ocean. 
- Anywhere I go, I usually grab my skateboard. 
- Tourism is a huge part of this economy. You're going to see all the fancy shops. 
- Like Juicy clothing, and like Lucky, and all those rich brands. 
- It's such a pretty town so people tend to try to ignore what's going on. 
- What you don't see, oftentimes, is the working class kind of behind the scenes of Santa Barbara. 
- We have a grey majority of low-income families. 
- They're living month by month just struggling to pay bills. 
- There aren't as many homeless people as major cities, but there are some that are just completely ignored. 
- If you're walking on State Street, you'll at least see maybe ten or 15 homeless people. 
- How do you think things have changed for you? 
- Oh, well, I quit drinking. That's the main thing. I'll see ya later. 
- All right.

- This is our weekly meeting for "Shape of Voice." It's a youth newspaper that I write for. "Shape of Voice" is a quarterly bilingual youth newspaper in Santa Barbara. Its purpose is to offer a venue and a forum for the under-served youth in our community. 
- Minority students, mostly, are kind of just forgotten about. 
- And we have tons of creative students that come here and write. They just get to speak their mind. 
- It's really possible with "Shape of Voice." I was first published when I was 17. 
- The poetic opportunities, the writing opportunities. 
- Mostly go to concerts and shows for local bands and take photos. 
- You can read about it in other newspapers, but there's a restriction because you don't necessarily always hear it from people of your own age. 
- Our school newspapers aren't enough. Those are censored. We can't write about what really matters in our lives. 
- The truths of their life, of their experiences as they see it. 
- What it means to have freedom of the press. "Shape of Voice" has a distribution of about 15,000 copies. You can find us in the coffee shops, in the local high schools, junior highs, libraries. Anywhere where youth will be, that's where we're going to be. Students can submit topics on drugs, on gang life. 
- From political issues to environmental issues. We've done a lot about the graffiti that goes on in the city. 
- I was looking for something, and someone told me that that march was coming up. And I went and photographed it. There were a lot people marching for immigration rights. It was just, you know, "We're here. We don't want to be kicked out." I just wanted actual emotions to show through, and specific people, faces. 
- A month or two ago, we had a stabbing out on State Street, where a young boy, 14, stabbed a 15-year-old. 
- That 14-year-old is going to be tried as an adult. 
- But nobody really wants to talk about it. So we express it through our paper. 
- We went out and were asking what they think about it. Did you hear about that, too? 
- Yeah. 
- What do you think? 
- I hope it wakes people up a little bit. There's a definite lack of caring or understanding. Because someone had to die for it to mean something? Okay, just read our paper when it comes out. It's going to mean something to you. It's going to move you.

- I write poetry. It's a good opportunity for me to show my artistic side, and being able to be heard by the people. Money brings everything Fame and recognition Keys to the ignition Family brings some things Compassion and connection So, money isn't everything. 
(applause)

- One of the principles of democracy is speaking out about what you think is important. 
- Just like running for office. 
- Or helping decide what's right and wrong. And even helping reduce crime. 
- You are a full-fledged owner-operator of this democracy. 
- We all have the right and the power to make a difference. 
- Democracy it is!

For more information about our program visit our Web site at: democracyitis.ecb.org