CNN (AP): Tennessee high school newspaper seized

"OAK RIDGE, Tennessee (AP) -- Copies of a high school's student newspaper were seized by administrators because the edition contained stories about birth control and tattoos, stirring a First Amendment debate.

"Administrators at Oak Ridge High School went into teachers' classrooms, desks and mailboxes to retrieve all 1,800 copies of the newspaper Tuesday, said teacher Wanda Grooms, who advises the staff, and Brittany Thomas, the student editor.

"The Oak Leaf's birth control article listed success rates for different methods and said contraceptives were available from doctors and the local health department. Superintendent Tom Bailey said the article needed to be edited so it would be acceptable for the entire school ... The edition also contained a photo of an unidentified student's tattoo, and the student had not told her parents about the tattoo, said Superintendent Tom Bailey.

" "This is a terrible lesson in civics," University of Tennessee journalism professor Dwight Teeter said. "This is an issue about the administration wanting to have control. Either the students are going to have a voice, or you're going to have a PR rag for the administration." "

http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/11/28/studentnewspaper.seize.ap/index.html


With all the talk of how the Public School system is good for helping kids learn to "socialize", I guess a little draconian suppression of a free press is a "good" Orwellian lesson for their future lives as members of the voting public.

'The Administration is your friend. The Administration knows best. Say nothing without the Administration's approval. The Administration is your friend. The Administration knows best...(repeat ad infinitum)"
(with apologies to George Orwell)

that it had the highest concentration of geniuses in the country. Sounds like they have all moved along.

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

courtesy the Ministry of Truth

I had worked my way up through the first two years of high-school so that I could join the journalism/newspaper staff. All was going quite well until we prepared for our first issue. I was given the opportunity to exercise my skills and write up an editorial. One week later I turned in my scathing criticism of mandatory pep rallies and the gestapo-like tactics employed by the Administration wherein they would suspend any study for not attending if they were in the building and able.

The end result?

The day after I turned in my editorial, I was mysteriously transferred (and I mean mysteriously) to a regular senior-level English class -- at least they had the common sense to put me in the advanced placement class.

I remember being told that "these type of things are not what journalism about"...

I tried to raise holy hell with the administration, but they were having none of it.

So that's my story. I spent the remainder of the year railing against the system as best I can. I became one of the sole suppliers of fake hall and absence passes (really, really good ones that worked perfectly every time -- I had the right weight of paper, precise font sizes, etc). I also helped, a year after graduating, my friend's little brother launch an unsuccessful campaign (it was designed to be unsuccessful, it was basically a statement) by designing large posters on red paper which we silkscreened with white highlights to create a striking, Fascist-inspired likeness of him so when viewed, his gaze would look condescending, but his stature extremely reverent. Splashed across the top of the page in large, narrow block-form black type was simply his name. Beneath his image in smaller type was the slogan, something like "SAFER SCHOOLS, SAFER TOMORROW".

Keep in mind, this was 1994.