Two new issues of The Tattoo online now

We have published two more issues that are chock full of advice on how to survive high school. In our September 15th issue, you'll find two Justin Skaradosky cartoons making fun of motivational posters, a piece by Wisconsin teen Emily Mongan about Freshman Kill Day, an essay by South Africa's Mariechen Puchert urging teens to make friends to cope with high school, Tennessee teen Sarah Heath's warning not to make your life an after school television special and West Hartford, Connecticut teen Wesley Saxena's sage advice on the bridge into high school. "It Ain't Like In the Movies," warns Mariah Pulver of Arizona.
In our September 22nd issue, you can read about how teens in Kuwait scrape by during the hunger of Ramadan, thanks to Sana Ali's report. Also featured in the issue are New Jersey teen Shekinah-Glory Dhanie-Beepat's take on homeschooling, another Justin Skaradosky cartoon, Katie Grosser's piece from Germany about being the new foreign kid in school, Harsha Mishra's account from India about the horrors of acne, Georgia's Donicea Johnson's advice to freshmen to get involved and Zhu Qin Zhe's personal tale of making a choice in China.
Talk about spanning the globe!
We have dozens of new writers who are dripping with talent so, please, keep an eye on what they do in the weeks and months ahead.

September 22nd issue and September 15th issue.

***********************************
Copyright 2008 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

Halls of Shame adds two from New Jersey

It’s been awhile since we’ve inducted anyone into our Halls of Shame for tossing the First Amendment out the schoolhouse window.
But it’s time to turn up the heat again.
Publication of The Pioneer student newspaper at New Jersey’s Clearview Regional High School has been held up this week because school administrators don’t like an editorial cartoon that takes aim at anti-sex education activists, according to a story in the Gloucester County Times.
The cartoon shows a Teen Prevention Education Program volunteer “being burned at the stake by two Pure Pioneers, designated as such by their pioneer-style caps. The Pure Pioneers is a group of parents that has been vocally opposed” to the teen program that has older students educating younger ones, with teacher supervision, the paper reported this week.
“Once the administration caught wind of what we were doing, they brought in an attorney and now the issue is in prior review," senior Jordan Rubin told the paper. “This is the first time in The Pioneer's history that we've been in prior review and considered for censorship."
It’s unclear why school leaders got so freaked out about the cartoon since the district’s attorney wouldn’t talk, citing “attorney-client privilege,” the paper said. That the attorney obviously doesn’t comprehend that he works for the taxpayers, not some backward school superintendent doesn’t seem to matter. And the censors themselves? They had nothing to say.
There's nothing quite like censors who are so contemptuous of freedom that they don't even see a need to explain their thinking, such as it is.
So let’s honor Principal Kevin Kitchenman and Superintendent John Horchak with a spot in our Halls of Shame. They apparently would rather dishonor the Bill of Rights than tell some mouthy parents to back down and get out.
Instead of showing students what it means to live in a free country, they’re busy teaching their community that censorship is fine, that students have no right to an opinion and that the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply in Harrison Township, New Jersey.
We hope that the student paper will go to print quickly when officials realize how badly they’ve screwed up.
And we trust that the student journalists who are trying to do what newspapers should will realize that they’re entirely in the right in this dispute. Don’t back down, kids.


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

Back to school again!

By Justin Skaradosky/ The Tattoo

The all-new 2007 edition of The Tattoo's Insider's Guide to High School is online now. As always, it's full of great advice for anybody who's heading to high school (especially freshmen, of course).

In this year's edition, there are three -- yes, three -- cartoons. Justin Skaradosky chipped in two while Julia Reichard produced another.

There's a great overview piece by Caroline Liu -- who also gave us some wonderful photos -- as well as Kathryn Middleton's advice to "crack your shell" if you want to get the most out of the high school experience. And Donicea Johnson recommends seeking your passion.

Rachel Glogowski weighs in with a piece on what it's like to have a sibling suddenly tagging along.

From Peshawar, Pakistan, Edrees Kakar points out that playing sports is a great way to make friends. (I can't help adding that joining The Tattoo is a great way to make friends, too, and some of them will be half a world away!)

Don't miss all the earlier advice The Tattoo's provided in seven previous years' worth of back-to-school issues. It's a real wealth of information.

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

The Tattoo hangs with "Simpsons" writer Mike Reiss

L to R: Justin Skaradosky, Tattoo cartoonist; writer Mike Reiss; and Tattoo writer Beth Pond.

We here at Tattoo Central had a great chance last week spending some time with Mike Reiss, a Bristol, Conn. native who's been writing for "The Simpsons" since it went on the air nearly two decades ago. Reiss provided plenty of grist for fans of the show as well as giving solid tips for young people who might want to follow the path he took to success.
Be sure to check out www.ReadTheTattoo.com for stories by Beth Pond and Rachel Glogowski.
Also in this week's edition is an eye-opening essay by Australian teen Rebecca Baylis on the pressures of senior year and a review of Fall Out Boy's latest album by Alabama teen Mallory Mitchell.








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

Two issues from April online now

Catch up with The Tattoo!
This month, we've had two great issues.
On April 2, we published a piece from Trinidad teen Kate Agard about how she spent the wild days of Carnival on her island paradise, a review of "Freedom Writers" by Connecticut teen Beth Pond, a piece by Singapore teen Geraldine Soon about meeting up with one of The Tattoo's writers from India, a review of "I Spy" photographer Walter Wick's recent museum exhibit, and a new cartoon by Justin Skaradosky that our Bristol-based readers will especially appreciate.
This week, in addition to the pieces by teens in Blacksburg, Va., we have Kate Agard's cautionary tale about getting drunk, a news story by Beth Pond about Kurt Vonnegut's death, a news story by Sean Soltys about the new Everest Expedition rollercoaster at Disney's Orlando, Fla. amusement park and another wonderful cartoon by Justin Skaradosky.
We'll have more soon, so keep checking back!

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

Blacksburg teens react to Va. Tech shooting spree

Four students at Blacksburg High School, just down the road from the Virginia Tech campus, wrote pieces this week for The Tattoo detailing their horror at events the massacre in their hometown. Another student's piece will be added soon.
The teens, two sophomores and two seniors, help shed some light on how the tragedy hit home to young people for whom Virginia Tech is part of the landscape.
Another teen from their school, a senior, found he couldn't write anything. Two of his friends died at the hands of a crazed gunman.
Be sure to check out what these teens had to say at www.ReadTheTattoo.com.

Our official policy: We hate blogs.
***********************************
Copyright 2006 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.
***********************************
Copyright 2007 by The Tattoo. All rights reserved.

ReadTheTattoo.com censored in China

We never knew that The Tattoo threatened the communist leadership of China, but it turns out that touting a free press is apparently too subversive a concept.
According to the Great Firewall of China web site, which tests whether websites can be seen in China, readthetattoo.com is off limits to a quarter of the world's population.
Fortunately, our clunky alternative URL -- http://home.comcast.net/~majerus-collins/homepage.htm -- remains accessible, though all of the pictures are stripped away, including our cool new masthead.
So we're glad to have some readers in China. We admire your intrepid use of the internet and, yeah, we do think there ought to be a free press in China, and everywhere else.


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

The Tattoo and Samantha Perez win national awards

The Suburban Newspapers of America recently honored The Tattoo's terrific Hurrican Katrina writer Samantha Perez for turning out the best feature journalism in the country for larger daily newspapers last year. The judges could not have chosen more wisely.
The Tattoo itself got a third place for Young People's Coverage. It won in 2002 and 2005.
The advertisement above appeared in The Bristol Press today, which is nice, too.

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

Halls of Shame comes to Fort Wayne

Just when I thought America's school administrators were turning a new leaf, along came Edwin Yoder, principal of Woodlan Junior-Senior High School.
After 10th grader Megan Chase wrote a column calling on people not to look down on gays, Yoder came down on her.
According to Kelly Soderlund's account in The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind., Yoder read the piece and immediately issued an order to journalism teacher Amy Sorrell that he sign off on every future edition. Obviously, columns advocating tolerance have no place in HIS school's paper.
The staff of the Tomahawk, showing just the kind of gumption we love to see among high school journalists, sought out legal help to fight this jerk.
So Yoder issued a written warning against the teacher for “insubordination and not carrying out her responsibilities.”
He accused her of exposing his students “to inappropriate material” and warned her to comply or she could be fired, according to the newspaper’s account.
It must have been something heinous for Yoder to take such an extreme stand, right?
Well…. Here is the opinion column that put a teacher's job in jeopardy:

We live in a world where we grow up being taught that it is only acceptable for a boy and a girl to be together. So how do you think you would feel if as you grew older and more mature you started noticing people of the same sex as you, rather than the opposite? I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today's society. I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they're just different than you. I've heard some people say that they think there is a cure to being homosexual. I can't believe anyone would think that. It's not a disease, or something that you catch from someone else; it's something that they don't have control over. In saying that, I also believe that homosexuality is not a choice. Almost everyone that I talk to says that a person chooses to be gay or straight. That, again, is something that I believe to be very wrong. If people made the choice to be homosexual, there wouldn't be anyone who committed suicide because they were too afraid of what people would think of them, and kids wouldn't be afraid of being disowned if they came out to their parents.There is also the religious aspect to the argument, where people say that if someone is homosexual, they are automatically sent to hell. To me, that seems extremely unfair. So what are homosexual Christians supposed to do? The answer that I constantly get to that question is, ''Just don't acknowledge that they're homosexual and live a 'normal' life.'' Excuse me? So they're just supposed to never find a partner, or marry someone of the opposite sex, have kids, and pretend they're ''normal?'' I don't think that's right, or fair. I wouldn't want to believe in something that would condemn me over something that I didn't even choose.It is fact that as many as 7.2 million Americans under the age of 20 are homosexual, and of those that have already come out, 28% of them felt compelled to drop out of school due to the constant verbal assault that they experienced after people found out. Now, if you think that is terrible, this is even worse: According to pflagupstatesc.org, every day 13 Americans from the ages of 15-24 commit suicide, and homosexual youths make up 30% of the completed suicides. I don't understand why we would put so much pressure on those people, that they would feel that they have to end their lives because of their sexuality. Would it be so hard to just accept them as human beings who have feelings just like everyone else? Being homosexual doesn't make a person inhuman, it makes them just a little bit different than the rest of the world. And for living in a society that tells you to always be yourself, it's a hard price to pay.

Sorell told the Fort Wayne paper she ''didn't think anybody would be upset about it'' at all, because, of course, there was no reason anyone should be upset.
This has all become an amazing example of how out-of-control principals can clamp down on freedom.
Sorell and the paper deserve the support of every freedom-loving American.
And Yoder, well, he just earned a place in our hallowed Halls of Shame. Congratulations!



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

Halls of Shame, Part 9

Princeton High School Principal Ray Spicher is off to a good start in the new year, earning his way into The Tattoo’s Halls of Shame by censoring a student’s opinion piece that criticized the school’s none-too-good football team.
According to Denise Smith Amos’ story in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Spicher made the staff of Odin’s World “rip out two pages” from its December issue to remove a piece by 17-year-old Evan Payne that criticized the football team for its third straight losing season.
It’s probably no coincidence that the team’s coach is married to the school board president.
Payne told the Enquirer that he tried to write a solid, professional opinion piece.
“I knew it would probably make somebody mad, but for them to cut it out it completely threw me off guard,” Payne told the daily.
Evan’s mother, Paula Payne, wrote in a letter to the school board that her son’s article “merely questions the team’s choice of offense by pointing out the sub par results of the scheme. We contend that this is far from bashing. These are fair questions that could be raised by any sports journalist, high school or professional.”
Spicher, proving once again that he’s not a big fan of words, declined to comment to the Enquirer.
The district’s superintendent, Aaron Mackey, is naturally taking a stand in favor of censorship.
He said he is “taking additional actions to make sure the publication better reflects the district’s attitude and values,” according to the Enquirer. “He is making a district spokeswoman an adviser to the magazine and changing policies to make it clear that advisers can censor articles.”
Mackey said that Payne’s article would have damaged morale, because it is one student or group of students criticizing another group.
“We felt the kid was putting himself out there for some serious ridicule potentially,” Mackey told the paper. “You’re dealing with a very large football squad, not in stature but in numbers. You’ve got one kid putting his neck out there. It may not be in his best interest to have that article. This is not a threat, but it creates an attitude and a situation between kids. You’d have a lot of staff noses out of joint as well.”So there’s a great lesson to learn, too. If a kid has the courage to write the truth – that a football team sucks – it’s best to censor the piece than to protect the writer from what might be a mythical threat.
At a time when American troops are fighting and dying every day to protect America’s cherished freedoms, it’s especially sickening to see men like Mackey and Spicher casually toss the First Amendment in the nearest trash can.
Let’s hope that Payne and Odin’s World keep trying to do journalism with courage and insight, whatever their misguided elders say.
And let’s hope that Americans as a whole have more respect for the Bill of Rights than these school officials at Princeton High who need a good civics lesson.


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

Windows on the world

Port Saint Lucie, Florida

Above is the view from Tattoo alum Eric Simmons' window in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. It's the first of what we trust will be many photographs taken by Tattoo staff, alumni, friends and readers across the globe. If you'd like to join our effort to show the world one little piece at a time, send us a digital picture of the view out YOUR window. Just tell us where you are and, if you like, your name. You can email the photographs to thetattoo@gmail.com.

We'll soon have a special page devoted to what we get at www.ReadTheTattoo.com. Thanks.

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

Sign up for The Tattoo's mailing list

Find out what's going on with The Tattoo!
We're setting up a new mailing list to let loyal readers know when new issues or special stories are available online. We'll only send something about about once a week except in the rarest of circumstances.
We'll keep your email address private. Nobody else will see it. Just us.
Help us serve you by signing up now to receive Tattoo updates in your inbox. Just follow this link -- http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Readers-of-TheTattoo -- and click on the "Join This Group" link on the right side of the GoogleGroups page you reach.
Thanks for your support!

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