The Tattoo eyes German elections

Youth Journalism Internatkional senior reporter Katie Grosser lets the world know what young voters in Germany are thinking as the country heads to the polls to elect a new parliament and perhaps a new government, too. Read all about it here.
For those who don't know, The Tattoo is an online newspaper featuring the work of young writers in more than 20 countries and most U.S. states, including many in our home state of Connecticut. It's in its 16th year and won many, many awards for some stellar work.
You can follow it online at http://www.readthetattoo.com/ and http://www.youthjournalism.org/, along with social media sites. It's at www.facebook.com/youthjournalism and on Twitter @yjinternational.

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Copyright 2009 by ReadTheTattoo.com. All rights reserved.

New Tattoo issue ranges from Myanmar to West Hartford

In our new issue at ReadTheTattoo.com, Youth Journalism International’s young writers have delivered a wide-ranging assortment of stories, pictures and cartoons.
Singapore teen Geraldine Soon wrote months ago about her journey to Myanmar long before this month’s cyclone ripped through a wide swath of that poverty-stricken but beautiful place. Check out her account – and luscious pictures – as well as her opinion piece on what’s happened there in recent days.
West Hartford writer Kiernan Majerus-Collins has a hard-hitting opinion piece calling for schools – and students – to stop using “gay,” “fag,” and “homo” as casual slurs. Don’t miss it.
There are also two new cartoons from the talented Bristol artist Justin Skaradosky, one on proms and one on school funding, and a solid news piece from Beth Pond about the effort to help Darfur one empty bowl at a time.
There’s also a review by Bristol’s Rachel Glogowski of the stage production of “The Bluest Eye” that you won’t want to miss.
Thanks for reading The Tattoo. Please don’t hesitate to let the young people in your life know about us. We’re always looking for talented teens anywhere in the world.
We’re also always eager for constructive advice, tips or even donations that will help The Tattoo continue to offer the best teen journalism in the world.

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2008 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

Freedom on the line in Indiana

It is time for everyone who cares about the First Amendment and a free press to stand up for Amy Sorrell, the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School journalism teacher in Indiana.
Sorrell received notice on March 29 of her possible terminations as a teacher for allegedly violating school rules because she stood against the outrageous censorship of a student’s column that called for tolerance toward gays.
According to a story published by the Student Press Law Center, students refused to print the paper, The Tomahawk, at all after Principal Edwin Yoder insisted on future prior review of all articles.
Sorrell, showing ingenuity and smarts, began teaching the students First Amendment cases with an eye toward making suggestions for a revised district policy on student publications.
“Changing ‘the prescribed curriculum’ was one violation noted in the letter along with her alleged use of the district's e-mail system to transmit ‘false or misleading statements to the media,’ casting Yoder ‘in a false light’ and her refusal to retract and replace the Tomahawk's current editorial policy,” the SPLC said.
"The journalism program...would be better served by replacing you with a teacher willing to work collaboratively with, not in conflict with, the building administrator in carrying out the prior review curriculum requirement for school sponsored publications," the letter said, according to the SPLC story.Sorrell said that the district, East Allen, “is trying to turn this into a personnel issue," but it’s not. "This is about East Allen's stance on tolerance and disregard for the First Amendment," she told the SPLC.A hearing, which Sorrell asked to take place in public, is expected soon, with a final decision likely at the May 1 school board meeting.
This is as sickening an abuse of power by a wayward principal as we’ve seen.
Not content with just censoring a perfectly reasonable column, Yoder is now taking aim at a teacher who is not just good, but great. She’s teaching her students – and the rest of us – that standing up for freedom demands that we take on tyrants, whether they’re commanding armies of evil or running schools like private fiefdoms.
This isn’t a personnel issue. It’s about whether or not the schools, students and teachers in East Allen, Indiana will taste the liberty that nourishes our country or if they’ll be forced to bend to the dictates of a principal with no principles.
The world is watching.
Amy Sorell is worth a million Edwin Yoders.


Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2007 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

Halls of Shame, Part 10

The St. Francis High School newspaper, The Crier, this week has a big blue box on its front page with these words listed inside: “Originally a photo was to be placed here, but was censored by the administration.”
The Anoka County, Minnesota paper had planned to run a picture from a school play that appeared to show the destruction of an American flag, though it was really only bunting.
In the picture, which the St. Paul Pioneer Press published on its website, actress Becca Bennett can be seen holding the red, white and blue bunting in shreds, from a scene meant to depict “how a country could be torn apart by affecting the youth.”
It’s actually a pretty good photograph.
As the Pioneer Press reports: “According to a front-page article written by Editor in Chief Eric Sheforgen, who also took the picture, as well as an editorial in the paper and a statement made today by the editorial board, Principal Paul Neubauer threatened the paper with legal action and froze its funds after the paper gave him a heads-up that they were planning to run it.”
Neubauer, like sissy principals everywhere, dodged the Pioneer Press reporter who tried to get him to explain his actions.
But the school superintendent, Ed Saxton, told the paper the photo was “like a quote being taken out of context.”
“That particular picture, although it’s a snapshot of what was in the fall play, standing in isolation, it could be taken in many different ways. It could be pretty offensive to veterans or people who served in the military. It’s kind of a community standards thing,” Saxton said.
What’s especially amazing about this censorship is that the district actually has a pretty good policy on this sort of thing. It reads, “Official school publications are free from prior restraint by officials except as provided by law.”
That makes it, by law, an open forum that school administrators can’t touch.
So St. Francis High School has the right policy. It just has the wrong principal – and the district has the wrong superintendent.
What’s important to “veterans and people who served in the military” is that America remains free. That’s why they fought and that’s why so many have died on so many battlefields across the globe.
They didn’t sacrifice so that Neubauer and other censorious jerks could treat our freedom as if it were a dirty napkin to be tossed in the trash can.
But let’s give Neubauer and Saxton some credit. It’s not every day that school administrators earn a spot in our Halls of Shame, but today, this pair of doozies made the cut. Congratulations, guys!

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2007 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

Why we write news

One of the many woes that comes from young people's abandonment of newspapers is that far too many of them haven't got a clue what news is anymore.
So let's take a quick look at news.
News is, at its root, a story about what's new. It can be a thrilling story or a dull one, depending on who's writing it and, to an extent, what it's about. It's hard, for example, to write a gripping tale about the changing price of cattle futures from day to day -- unless a reporter happens to find someone who made, or lost, a bundle on them. But for the mainstream press -- which includes The Tattoo -- news generally aims to tell something interesting, not just potentially useful.
News can be written with verve, even with spunk, but it has to be fair to all sides. It has to try to tell the truth about the story, to give an honest account of what happened and why. It relies on what witnesses, officials and experts tell reporters, who have to talk to everyone they can in the time they have and then pare it all down into a story that informs readers about something that matters. It gives the who, what, where, when and why, but it also should find the hook to make it all matter to a harried reader.
At The Tattoo, we mostly focus on news that young people would find most interesting, but our readers obviously include all ages.
So what's the difference between news and opinion? Sometimes, not all that much, if the writer isn't particularly opinionated. But the idea of an opinion piece is to try to convince readers of a particular point of view. A news story tries instead to lay out the facts in an unbiased way so that readers can draw their own conclusions.
It's harder to write news than it is to tap out a column or a personal essay because news is not about the person who writes the story. It's about the story itself. Reporters are only visible to the degree they're good, or bad, at what they do.
But what writing news does is unimaginably important for anyone who believes in democracy. News stories are the only source of information that even attempt to say what's happening without bias, partisanship or an agenda to push. It's the vital, beating heart of a free society.
And it should alarm everyone, old and young, that it's getting harder and harder to find legitimate news in the morasse of sloppy information that permeates the web.
At The Tattoo, we're trying to uphold the standards and values of the golden age of newsapers, to teach young writers that writing a good news story is ultimately more valuable than churning out more entertainment goo.
The Tattoo is about more than news, naturally. But writing news is why we're here. It's what our writers need to master. It's what makes The Tattoo special. News is our thing. We just need more of it.

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2007 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

High schools need to rock and roll

The Tattoo's got a scoop today from America's coolest deejay, Little Steven Van Zandt.

In a Tattoo exclusive, reporter Zach Brokenrope breaks the news that Van Zandt, a rock and roll legend, is planning to put the music that made him a star into the curriculum of high schools from sea to shining sea. Van Zandt is a prophet of rock 'n roll, a true believer in the power of music to remake the world.

And as the guy who led the anti-apartheid music movement in the 1980s, which helped to free Nelson Mandela and South Africa itself, Van Zandt may be on to something.

In any case, check out the fabulous stories that Brokenrope brought back from Van Zandt's New York City studio, where "Little Steven's Underground Garage" takes to the airwaves each week. It's great stuff, including audio clips and our first-ever Tattoo video.

This is great journalism on a great subject. Don't miss it.

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2007 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

Another Tattoo issue hits the streets

Featuring two journals, a profile, a cartoon and a review of "Stranger Than Fiction," there's a variety of material in this week's great new issue.


Tattoo writer Rachel Glogowski, one of our Bristol contingent, turned out both the review and a journal about the end of marching band season on Thanksgiving Day, when the two rival Bristol schools face off in the decades-old rivalry at historic Muzzy Field.


Another Bristol writer, Beth Pond of St. Paul Catholic High School, wrote a profile of a teen who's turning heads as a twirler.


There's also a journal from Miami writer Jenny Coloma, who writes movingly about her mother. Don't miss it.


Oh, yes, and there's also Justin Skaradosky's cartoon.

ABOVE: Jenny Coloma.

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
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Copyright 2006 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.