Student forced to turn to a life of crime and carjacking because his highschool asked for his photo ID when he tried to return to school from covid
https://www.kuow.org/stories/viral-teen-car-theft-trend-has-some-seattle-kia-boys-facing-adult-consequencesOne teenager's charges for allegedly stealing cars using a simple trick popularized on TikTok raises questions about how to handle the flood of recent youth car theft cases, especially when they land in adult court.
When Seattle schools reopened for in-person learning in 2021, Saylen Kelly was excited, recalled his twin sister, Saleen. But when he tried to return with her for their junior year at Chief Sealth International High School in West Seattle, Saleen said, her brother was asked to provide his birth certificate or another official form of identification. He had neither.
At home, Saylen Kelly broke down in tears, his sister said.
“I want to go to school, I want to get an education, I want to do better for myself,” Saleen remembers her brother saying. “He was very adamant about it.”
No one in Kelly’s family knew how to help him get his birth certificate, including their grandmother, who raised them. Seattle Schools told KUOW that ID is not required for high school, so it’s unclear why he was told it was.
Without access to his birth certificate, he gave up and dropped out completely.
Saylen Kelly is an alleged self-proclaimed “Kia Boy,” one of many teenagers charged with stealing Kia and Hyundai vehicles using a simple trick popularized on TikTok as the “Kia Challenge.”
