Teen dies in sawmill accident as US states aim to roll back child labor laws

[Warpy]

21. I went to a high school where only 40% graduated

The balance quit school at 16 to go to work at the local textile mills. Some of the girls got married at that age and had 5 kids by the time they could vote. I knew those kids, they just wanted to get on with it, school wasn't teaching them anything particularly useful any more and they wanted to start getting a paycheck instead of a report card. Even the few vocational programs we still had didn't tempt them, one size didn't fit all.

Some of them were friends. They weren't stupid, they could do the work, they just had no interest in it. I saw their point.

It would be better if public school would issue a general diploma at 16 and an academic diploma at 18 so they wouldn't be stigmatized as dropouts and disqualified for other work they could clearly do.

16 year olds quitting school to go to work aren't the problem, that's gone on forever. The greedheads who want to drive labor costs down are trying to go after kids as young as 12. That's a hell of an age difference, too much happens between 12 and 16 to allow those predators to get their way.

It's really sad about this young guy. I do find it odd that no one saw it happen, although it seems they were aware of enough to go looking for him. His poor family, this is devastating.