Tennessee principal muzzles student newspaper

Student journalists in Oak Ridge, Tenn. offended their high school principal's Puritan sensibilities with a planned column on birth control options and feature article on students with tattoos, according to the Student Press Law Center.

The principal -- exercising strong-arm censorship not seen since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved -- confiscated all 1,800 copies of the Oak Leaf, student newspaper of Oak Ridge High School.

I'm not in the right mindframe to mount my weary student media soapbox, but I will use this space to renew the Independent Register's pledge to fiercely and ardently fight administrative censorship in high school and college student media.

If a student newspaper in Craven County is confiscated or has its content otherwise suppressed, the Independent Register will publish the censored content and use its resources to publicize the offending administration's trampling of student expressive rights.

We hope this will never happen, but if it does, student journalists will have a ready ally in the Indie Register.

More information: Student Press Law Center http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1136