Exchange Student Information

While it is happy news for Malthe Thomsen ruling in court also calls for reflection for the many parents of teenagers who consider sending exchange students to the United States.

As it was the case with the Amanda Knox case parents have to teach their children to ask to be lawyered up if they are approached by the local authorities, even if the person representing the authorities wants as little as asking for directions.

Legal procedures are different in every country. It can be hard to understand that they can detain people in Italy for a full year before deciding whether to raise charges. It can be hard to understand that a police department can build an entire case on statements made by a person known to be a drama queen and accept that this person is gone for months to another country stalling the investigation.

Legal procedures should be left with local lawyers and that is why exchange students need to call the Embassy the very minute a police officer approach them.

Malthe Thomsen could have made choices which would have stopped his ordeal within half an hour. A lawyer present during the interrogation would have both shorten the process and it would have kept him out of jail.

The lesson learned had a huge toll on this young man. Let his ordeal not be in vain for future exchange students. Learn to lawyer up right away!

Source:
Pre-K intern accused of molesting 13 children has all charges dropped (New York Daily News)
  

Lene Espersen has announced that she is leaving Danish politics.
That is goodbye to a woman who has meant so much for young Danes wishing to become an exchange student.

It was Lene Espersen who as minister for justice made it possible for the United States to get Camilla Broe extradited; an extradition process dragging out for years, which ended with a result clearing the name of Camilla Broe.

It sent a very clear message to parents of exchange students. Actions which are legal in Denmark might not be legal abroad. The actions might come back a decade later ending in years of legal processing and life quality lost.

So the number of exchange students has dropped during the last years. Second realizing that the quality of education systems abroad might not have the standard we expect in Denmark, the state no longer provides economically aid for exchange students.

A lot of issues regarding exchange student cases came to the light as result of the Camilla Broe case. It has meant that the Danish parents are less motivated to send their children abroad. For this the Danish population own Lene Espersen thank. Our culture is less likely to experience disturbances from exchange students returning home trying to adjust.

It is goodbye to a woman who has lived almost her entire life in politics. Now she will have to experience the torment of normal life among ordinary Danish citizen for the first time. 

We wish her luck.

Source:
Lene Espersen to retire from politics (Denmarks Radio)