<p>And some of us complain when our kids blow off their homework!</p>
<p>"Florida teen skips school, sneaks to Iraq</p>
<p>16-year-old survives his experiment in ‘immersion journalism’</p>
<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order. Or the moment a Kuwaiti cab driver almost punched him in the face when he balked at the $100 fare.</p>
<p>But at some point, Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old from Florida, realized that traveling to Iraq by himself was not the safest thing he could have done with his Christmas vacation.</p>
<p>And he didn’t even tell his parents.</p>
<p>Hassan’s dangerous adventure winds down with the 101st Airborne delivering the Fort Lauderdale teen to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which had been on the lookout for him and promises to see him back to the United States this weekend.</p>
<p>I actually planned in my junior year of high school to leave California and go to Europe where I was going to find a house and job off of my charm and good luck. I even had my British passport and money hidden away for the trip. Good thing I didn’t. </p>
<p>This kid will just use this stunt as a hook to get into a college. I don’t think he really accomplished anything other than putting himself in danger. I am surprised that his two Iraqi parents never taught him Arabic though, that would have been a nice gift.</p>
<p>Well, he also “accomplished” putting others in danger. The soldiers from the 101st Airborne who went to get him had to go in harm’s way to do so.</p>
<p>There’s something fishy about this whole story. The reporters are not asking the right questions, like what “friend of the family” in Beruit got him a visa for Iraq? Or why didn’t the mother call the police when her son was missing for days? Or why was a taxi driver willing to drive him from Kuwait to Baghdad? We’ll find out later that there’s more to this story than an English assignment taken to an extreme… if the questions are asked.</p>
<p>Digmedia, I agree, and the 101st Airborne has better things to do with their time - like staying alive. I think the U. S. government should deliver him to his parents with a nice little bill for the services of the U. S. Army and the U. S. Embassy in Iraq.</p>
<p>What he did was beyond dangerous, it was stupid, and I would like to hear the whole story. I’m sure it contains the hook into college scenario. Every morning show has the mom and sis on. They don’t look the worse for wear.</p>
<p>I agree with digmedia and alongfortheride. There’s much more to this story than we’re hearing now.
How did the kid get to Beirut in the first place?Can you just walk up and buy a ticket or are there travel constraints? Nobody questioned a 16 yr old travelling alone to such a place?
There’s to many fishy points along the whole length of the story.I think this is one story the news media will be embarrassed having bought into later on…</p>
<p>Here’s a link to an article in our local Ft. Lauderdale newspaper that goes into a little more detail about the boy and his parents. I found it interesting that the father has a criminal record, although the charges were dropped. </p>
<p>patsmom - Thanks for the link. This explains it a little more:
So the father was arranging for his son to fly into Baghdad? Not exactly the story the reports are giving out.</p>
<p>This show a side of journalism that always drives me crazy. It’s like the script is written by the reporter before an interview ever takes place. They have an angle that they think will sell the story and that’s all they’re interested in.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there’s more to the story, too, but as a former AP reporter, I also can defend the initial version. It was basically a first day story. While there certainly were holes as Digmedia and others pointed out, there was not the time to fill the holes on a short deadline. I am sure that reporters will continue to fill the holes as the story continues to unfold.</p>
<p>In addition, the Fort Lauderdale paper is in a better position to do a comprehensive story than is AP, which mostly rewrites stories that it gets from its member newspapers. Relatively rarely do AP reporters get to go out and cover the kind of story that this is. When they do get to go out and cover such a story, they are on very tight deadlines because their main work is back in the AP office rewriting and editing, not running around covering things on their own.</p>
<p>Newspapers, however, have more reporters than editors, and this kind of local story is what a large local newspaper like the Sun Sentinel can put a couple of reporters on, which is what it did as probably will large national papers like the NY Times, who’ll probably put reporters on it to cover both the international angle (probably by sending at least one reporter to Iraq to follow the teen’s purported route and try to see if the teen’s tale holds up) as well as the local angle by going to Fla., visiting the school, teen’s home, etc.</p>
<p>This kid may be a VERY intelligent young man - but - a very stupid kid to have done what he has done - and his family and ‘friends’ are no brighter.</p>
<p>But obvioiusly money talked in all of this also. And they say this kid is in no trouble… uummmmmmm</p>
<p>PATSMOM what is the problem about the father having a criminal record and charges were dropped? The family has been in the US for many years and as far as the law is concerned - he has not been legaly charged with a crime - just arrested - charges dropped.</p>
<p>I find it somewhat funny - the mother’s reaction to the question of what she will do when he gets home… take away his pass port!! uuummm can’t leave the country but doesn’t stop him from leaving his home/town/state … wonder what other mischief this boy will get into - seeing as he has a past of ‘‘immersion techniques’’ in his past as well.</p>
<p>I didn’t say it was a problem that the father had a record, just that I found it interesting. Although the charges were dropped, he pretty much admitted that he had a part in the deal, according to this statement in today’s Miami Herald -</p>
<p>OOO I am sorry - I think I read it wrong - but I do agree with you that there is more to this story - amazing the power of all of his money - and the son’s poor judgement - for such a bright young man.</p>