... Censorship Got Me Pregnant
UPDATE: Margaret Sanger continues to roll over in her grave, and the censored birth control article can be found here.
Please scroll down to the contact info for the pro teen pregnancy folks in charge of this school. When you call, fax or email them, you might tell them that Margaret Sanger sent you.
Saturday, November 26, 2005 / 12:15 PM:
Students at Oak Ridge High School were apparently unaware that birth control is a forbidden subject. The latest issue of the student newspaper - which featured an informative article on the subject - has been censored by school officials. All 1,800 copies of the newspaper have been seized.
"The Oak Leaf, the monthly school newspaper written and produced by students at Oak Ridge High School, wasn't distributed Wednesday because of one particular article and some of its content dealing with sex and birth control methods, according to the paper's editor-in-chief.
"The school administration should realize they don't have the power to censor our paper," Thomas said, while fellow students gathered around her living room late Wednesday afternoon to hand-paint T-shirts they plan to wear to school on Monday in protest.
"When they (the general population) see a pregnant girl, they say the girl should know better," senior Samantha Senn said. "But in a lot of cases, they (the girls) don't know anything."
Other students said they think not allowing the paper to be distributed at school is "ridiculous."
The article which explains birth control methods references a national survey, conducted in 2001, of high school students who were asked whether they were sexually active. Those national percentages were applied to ORHS students.
The article primarily covers birth control methods, quotes Dr. Charles Darling, an obstetrician/gynecologist in Oak Ridge, and tells students where they may obtain contraceptives - including a quote from Darling that says parental consent is not needed to obtain birth control.
According to the paper's Editor-in-Chief, Brittany Thomas (center, photo at right), an article placed underneath the offending story, "advises students to practice abstinence until marriage."
Oak Ridge High School Principal Becky Ervin ordered the search and seizure.
Administrators late Tuesday searched through teachers' rooms and desks and seized copies, they said. The inter-school mail system delivering copies was halted, and the newspaper returned. Bundles of papers were removed from teachers' mailboxes, Grooms [the newspaper advisor] said.
Grooms said she was told to retrieve "all copies that went home. I picked up one copy from one student.''
In support of the censorship, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Tom Bailey said: "We have a responsibility to the public to do the right thing. We've got 14-year-olds that read the [student] newspaper."
School officials also object to an article about tattoos and body piercings.
According to Superintendent Bailey, the newspaper will be reprinted with all of the offending material deleted.
Editor-in-Chief Brittany Thomas, said that "she and several other students plan to wear T-shirts to school Monday bearing hand-painted comments about the controversy."
The students have contacted the Student Press Law Center. Mike Hiestand, an attorney with the Center, said, "Hopefully, we will be able to persuade the school board to rethink this. If we don't, we help students find lawyers and go to court."
In 1917, Margaret Sanger went to jail for publishing a pamphlet on birth control, titled: What Every Girl Should Know.
In those days, it was illegal to distribute birth control information because it was judged to be "obscene," "lewd," "indecent," or "filthy."
Apparently, 1917 standards are with us still in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Contact Info:
Principal, Becky Ervin: bervin@ortn.edu
Phone: 865-425-9601
Superintendent
Thomas E. Bailey, Ed.D.
E-mail: tbailey@ortn.edu
Phone: 865-425-9001; Fax: 865-425-9070
Hat tip to Michael at No Silence Here
Local blogger Atomictumor has more..
Contraception Birth Control Censorship Student Newspaper Free Press Reproductive Rights Feminism Media First Amendment Sex Education Tennessee
