Justus For All

Farris Hassan’s Day Off: Student Visits Iraq : People.com

Give him an A for effort – and empathy for his parents.On Dec. 11, Farris Hassan, 16, of Ft. Lauderdale bought a $900 plane ticket, cut class, sneaked away from his parents and headed to Iraq on a flight from Lebanon, saying that he was pursuing his interest in news reporting as suggested by his high-school journalism teacher.

Now that Hassan’s been found, his anguished – yet somewhat proud – mother, Shatha Atiya, a psychologist, is telling NBC News: “I have no idea how he did it.”

Farris, a junior at the exclusive Pine Crest prep school, is the youngest child of a South Florida physician, the Iraqi-born Redha Hassan and his wife, both of whom have lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, say reports.

As for why he did it, Farris apparently was determined to witness Iraq’s struggle for democracy firsthand. Yet Redha Hassan told his local paper, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, that the only warning his son left behind was an e-mail. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about me, I will be safe.’”

This is pretty cool I think. Certainly he took a huge risk, but it seems to me he knew the risks and decided that expirience was worth it. This is a trip that will probably matter to him his entire life.

I am glad that he is safe though.

Update: Fox News has excerpts of Hassan’s essay up.