So, Ma, I decided to take this little vacation...

Fla. Boy Who Went to Iraq on His Way Home
Updated 10:12 AM ET December 30, 2005

By JASON STRAZIUSO

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to Iraq on his own without telling his parents was put on a flight home Friday, the U.S. Embassy said, while warning Americans of the dangers of undertaking similar journeys.

Farris Hassan, of Fort Lauderdale, had been under the care of the U.S. Embassy after being on his own in Iraq for several days.

Hassan, a junior at Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, recently studied immersion journalism _ a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it.

The teenager, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, says he wanted to travel to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through.

After his second night in Baghdad, he contacted the AP and said he had come to do research and humanitarian work. The AP called the U.S. Embassy, which sent U.S. soldiers to pick him up.

Hassan does not speak Arabic and has no experience in war zones, but he wanted to find out what life was like there.

COMPLETE ARTICLE (this particular link will eventually expire but this story should have "legs" for a long time and should be easily researched beyond the life of this link)

QUESTION:What would you do if this was your kid?