Court okays 14-year-old’s solo trip around the globe

Dutch judges have lifted child-care supervisions on 14-year-old Laura Dekker, allowing the teen to embark on a solo sailing trip around the globe, a decision her parents have endorsed. Child care authorities, saying they feared for Dekker’s health and well being, had already halted the trip once by placing her under their supervision last September, and they were trying to again prevent the voyage by extending the supervision by a year. Dekker will have to finish the two-year trip before she turns 17 in 2012 to set the record, and plans to leave within the next two weeks. Judge Suzanna Kuypers said the decision "puts the responsibility for the child back where it belongs: with the parents.”

Calgary Herald