Steve Lopez: Another day in paradise

Well, Le Sabre, the student newspaper at Cleveland High School in Reseda, began its Valentine Day story with a V, but things got kind of jumbled after that. Student Rachel Enriquez explains:

“They decided that printing a Valentine's Day edition today was super lame, so they decided to make the front headline, "Have a Happy Vagina Day!" This happens to be a real day...it was started when Karen Obel and Eve Ensler came out with The Vagina Monologues in 1998.

     “ANYWAY, the whole front page was about how this day, as well as the play, was created to end violence against women. That is ALL the article was talking about. HOWEVER they put a huge front and center picture of a vagina on the cover. It wasn't someone's vagina, but a picture from some anatomy book.

     “The administrators as well as the majority of the teachers flipped ... and made an announcement over the intercom in 2nd period saying, "All teachers! Please do not hand out any school newspapers, we will be collecting them."

“I was reading one at lunch and got it taken away by a school security guard! I asked the security guard what she would do if I didn't give it up and she threatened me with "disciplinary actions". Teachers were allowed to take them away if they saw one!

Supposedly the picture and the headline were "suggesting sex" and were extremely inappropriate, except that half of the higher authority figures hadn't even READ the actual article!! It was nothing bad AT ALL! It was the picture that threw everyone off, which is too bad because since when is the word 'vagina' a curse word? or even a symbol of sex? HALF THE POPULATION HAS ONE.”

You gotta love Rachel’s spunk. But her father, my former boss, Sam Enriquez, suggested I clear it with the Cleveland High principal before posting Rachel’s pique. Here’s what Principal Bob Marks had to say:

     “The article was fine. It was the picture that was not tasteful. When I say not tasteful, for the front of a newspaper to have a drawing of a vagina was not in the best interest of this article.... The decision was based on the fact that the ... drawing would be disruptive to the school’s educational program.”

     Also: “The issue of the newspaper article itself we have no problem discussing, and will probably have an open forum. We want youngsters to express themselves and have an open opportunity to discuss.... The 1st Amendment ... is really not a question here.... Would a picture like this appear on the front page of the Los Angeles Times?”

Hard to say, actually. We’re still getting to know our new owner, Sam Zell. But based on what we’ve heard so far, vaginas on the front page are not out of the question.

Read Steve Lopez's recent columns.

Comments

[... - ...]

my vagina is not obscene i know that, but does cleveland high school know that? And why are so many people scared to show what a vagina looks like? we have to learn about it in 9th grade for crying out loud. the school focused too much on the fact that there was a DRAWING of a vagina on the front rather that reading the paper and finding out what the day is really about, which is to raise awareness about rape and abuse against women and their vaginas. rape is about power and control not porn and sex, which is what the school thought the paper was.
In my opinion it was brilliant. i don't like journalism, but i do support R.E. and free speech. so i say happy vagina day to all, and why don't you put yourself in her shoes?

peace&love just another E3.

[Rachel Reyes]

I am a student of Cleveland High School, Fundraising Manager and Staff writer of Le Sabre. I also wrote the article that was being censored.

This was a really great account of what did happen yesterday at school. It was completely ridiculous how the administration thought they were handling it. An anatomical picture of the vagina is NO MEANS for a complete shut down of free speech. I felt attacked and DISRESPECTED as a woman. I love my vagina, and I will have NO ONE telling me indirectly to be ashamed.

I understand the intent the administration had. But I think if they wanted this to be as low-key as possible, they went about it completely wrong. The paper became contraband once they made the announcement second period.

IN NO WAY was the paper a "safety hazard" as I was being told. I did NOT appreciate the condescending tones of voices I heard from administrators.

I also did not appreciate how our Principal compared the word and the use of the word vagina to a swastika; that is ridiculous. I also did not appreciate the beauty that is my womanhood being called obscene. And PLEASE, PLEASE be aware that our principal compared the use of the diagram to a picture OF LYNCHING.

I'll leave you with that.

[Kelly M. Bray]

Rachel Reyes, here is a serious question. Would you put a picture of a penis on the front page to illustrate a political point? Or were you just grandstanding this time?

[Sam M.]

Kelly M. Bray, it's a little more than ridiculous for one to consider using a penis to illustrate the point of an issue overlooked and covered up by the very people that, on a mass scale, instigate the problem to begin with. By that I mean sexual repression and rape.

There are millions of women out there who would have been stunned to see that picture and think that was actually what their vagina looked like -- which was the commitment of placing the picture there; rather than for the shock value, which was what the administrators had instigated and initially took away from the statement as a whole. Women in this culture aren't encouraged to embrace their sexuality, even in its most raw content, as much as males are. For a male to see a scientific picture of their penis on the paper, I hardly doubt many would be struck with awe, or recoil at the sight of it. The paper was used to spread awareness towards the belittling of women in every aspect imaginable and breaking the barriers that society has long since imposed -- especially toward their genitalia, which was a point illustrated in another article on the social commentary of a recent movie furthering on the myth of vagina dentata -- something that's been used in many variations, for decades, to prevent women from being altogether conscious and ashamed of the very thing that is, quite literally, a bringer of life.

Men are very much encouraged to explore their sexuality on a daily basis, and at a very young age. The day one needs to put a penis on the cover of a news paper to advocate sexual celebration would be the day one intiates a white history month. The two are incomparable.

[....-......-]

I am a student of Cleveland high freshman and in the 9th grade core program. I felt that there was nothing wrong with the picture it was out of an "anatomy book" not a playboy magazine. I had my newspaper taken away by my second period science teacher, he exactly said, "this is a bad thing" and took away my paper. I felt that my science teachers stupid argument deserved to be put down but i felt that my power was not as strong as his or Mr. Marks so I just gave my paper away. Later that day i went around asking my teachers what they though about the articles and only my core teachers had actually read the article others just looked at the picture and put it away. So if LAUSD wants to take away things cause there is a picture of vagina on it, they should also cancel classes like health and life skills, and also censor the biology books.

[Orlando Romo]

I'm a Student at Cleveland High School
and i want to give makor props to Rachel Reyes and the Staff in Journalism
you guys did a great job...and i want to give props to all of the brave girls sent home on Feb.15,2008 by wearing "My Vagina is Obscene" on their shirts and not following the "Man's igonrant voice!!!"

peace and Power!!

[Cleveland Student]

I would consider myself as liberal as any other person out there. However, I must take the opposing side on this in all fairness. As a female, I do not find the image of a vagina, from an anatomy book or not, offensive. However, one must put oneself in the shoes of other students, and especially parents, who would find such a picture inappropriate. I read the articles and I agree that they were raising awareness regarding an important issue that should be discussed and made known. However, the picture of the vagina was completely unnecessary and it detracted from any literary merit the article had. I felt as if the paper was published with the intent of creating controversy. The point is that I and most other people are not saying that the vagina itself is obscene as I have one myself. It was the display of the vagina on a public school newspaper that was inappropriate.

(However, I was offended by the list of things not to do on Valentine's Day. "Don't bring up the Holocaust...or Heath Ledger"? Yes. The death of one Hollywood actor is obviously comparable to the mass genocide of six million Jews.)

[Rachel Reyes]

"Rachel Reyes, here is a serious question. Would you put a picture of a penis on the front page to illustrate a political point? Or were you just grandstanding this time?"

Grandstanding. Really? I had no idea that writing what I consider to be a decent article on the violence against women that, OH YEAH, still goes on today to be "grandstanding". The way I see it, if I wanted to be "shocking" why wait until the 6th issue to put a vagina on the cover? If that was our staff's intention, believe me, we would have done so.

There was no political agenda involved in what our paper was doing. We were trying to inform the students of our school, exactly what a paper is supposed to do.

"The day one needs to put a penis on the cover of a news paper to advocate sexual celebration would be the day one intiates a white history month. The two are incomparable."

Enough said.

[ur mom]

well well,
it seems that almost nothing will cease the stupidity of anyone who is clearly uncomfortable with all aspects of the human body. But even getting into that argument is childish. In an age where "short shorts" are not short enough, and where pants need to hit the floor in order to be "cool", why should we be babbling about the use of the word vagina in a school newspaper. One could make the argument that its unethical and that the word and picture some how invoke sexual action, but only a fool would shell out that one. The writing staff of this paper was obviously only trying to educate its readers on the other holiday on the same date, Vagina Day. If there was some sort of hidden correlation between invoking sexual desire and the production of the articles, then someone would have surely come out already and confessed. The fact is that people need to grow up and realize that the more we know, the better prepared we will be. Besides, if there was a problem with the representation of the vagina or the penis in schools, then there would be no sex education, and who knows how many pregnancies, rape cases, diseases, and even deaths there would be. So, my salutations go out to the writers at Cleveland High School, "Go Disturb the Universe", as my favorite teacher once said, and invoke a spirit as you make yourselves known as accomplished writers in this crazy world called the Los Angeles Unified School District.

[Sue]

i am both appalled and amazed at what has been happening at cleveland high. a picture of a you-know-what on the newspaper? the front cover? how dare they! valentine's day is about chocolates and roses and rainbows and pure, virginal love, there is no room to advocate awareness and it's certainly not a time for students to be learning about violence against women. why must these students try to fight a system that works perfectly well? genitalia in all forms is something to be hidden, never to be spoken about. we should remove all sources from schools to save our children, our future from this perversion! remove those pornographic "sexual" education books, anything with the word "sex" in it must be negative. all remotely sexual literature must be banned! the internet must be removed! boys and girls should stay on opposite sides of the school! vulgar words like vagina, rape, sex, penis, and sexism should be eradicated from the schools, if we can stop these students from approaching these subjects and we work together to ignore the problem, it will all go away. we must continue to instill in these young students fear of their bodies, and fear of higher powers to control them, it's for their own good! we are older and thus wiser, our jobs are not to teach them such nonsense, the world would be a greater place if the only things that children knew were, well, things that pertained to education and not at all about the human body. like, well, there are many things. i am ashamed to admit that i am an alum of cleveland high, but to support the principal and the other administrators in using their power to their utmost ability, i fully advocate their use of censorship and discrimnation against this perversion and all those who support it. how dare some students have the nerve to wear shirts that expressed themselves. uniforms are in order, i say! so to the administration, please continue to stifle all creativity and expression of these students who know not what is good for them, and to these students, never do anything without strict approval from the higher ups, this is what you should have learned and a lesson you will soon learn when you grow old enough to understand that all of this, we did for your own good.

as i am opposing the newspaper article, i would also like to mention that i never read it. the picture was enough to tell me what the story would have been about. (vaginas, right?)

[Jim Townes]

I'm all for free speech and if you are criticizing war or policy or whatever that's fine. But I agree with the penis stand point. This is just silliness and to pretend it is serious by saying its natural is lame.

A shark ripping apart a baby seal is totally natural but you wouldn't but that on the cover of a publication celebrating the environment.

She's a youngster and trying to stir things up and probably meant to be positive so I don't harbor her any angst. And if it was compared to lynching that is very lame too.

I would say there should be some oversight by staff on a high school paper to approve the paper before it prints (college is much more independent and wouldn't require this) but I understand teachers and staff are often overwhelmed in todays public schools so my ideals may be asking a lot from ordinary people.

[don't be ignorants!!!]

I can't believe what i am hearing!!!!!

and this is to you Sue and Jim you guys are both two little ignorant kids you can not be serious!!!
there is nothing wrong with the word vagina, did your parents ever tell you that vagina and penis are two scientifical words or anatomical, oh wait, i think they haven't because they are probably ignorants too!!!! just like our administrators in Cleveland, if you guys can not be mature about it then YOU ARE JUST PLAIN STUPID AND IMMATURE!!! I am not trying to insult anyone i'm just saying WE ALL STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AND I THINK THE ARTICLE WAS RIGHT AND COURAGEOUS!!!

SO PEACE OUT!!! AND EDUCATE YOURSELF!!!
V10.VDAY.ORG

[Denayja Harvey]

I am business manager and staff writer for the Le Sabre. I also run a student club on campus called Women In Today's Society. I agree with the administration that the picture was not needed to accompany the article. However, I refuse to accept that the image of a vagina is obscene or something we should have permission to show. Futhermore, it is a travesty that students' were being sent home for wearing shirts with a medical term on them. Women go through their whole lives being ashamed of their vaginas and when we want to put it on a t shirt to celebrate them, we are deemed obscene and shut down. They compared the word to seeing a lynching on the front page or a t-shirt. THE WORD VAGINA IS NOT OBSCENE AND IT IS NOT A HATE CRIME! I am refusing to take this lying down. Women have been forced to do that for thousands of years. It ends now.

[student]

When i first read Sue's comment i thought it was sarcasm. i was waiting for the ending where she would say, 'JUST KIDDING!'. If Sue thinks that boys and girls should be put on separate sides of a school, then she went to the wrong school and should have gone to an all girls school her whole life. (Maybe she still believes in cooties!)
Anyways, i go to Cleveland High and i think that a mountain has been made out of a molehill. Seeing a drawing of a vagina is not a big deal and definitely does not promote sex or whatever it was being accuse of. I believe the intense making out in hallways promotes more sex than anything else! The administrators are hypocrites, if they were offended by the vulgarity of a harmless vagina picture, they should take a look at the students hiding in corners of walls basically ON TOP OF EACH OTHER HAVING SEX and break up that sort of action. The vagina picture was not the best idea for a front page cover, but it got peoples attention which was the point of V-day. To raise awareness right?? Not many people pick up a Le Sabre and read it but Thursday was a day where everyone was itching to get a copy to find out what it said.
And health/biology books have pictures of vaginas in more detail anyways so people need to grow up.

[Elizabeth]

I was a Cleveland student and graduated in 2004....i heard about all this from the CSUN school paper this afternoon. And i just wanted to put out there i support the students at Cleveland. Coming from a school like Cleveland where the students are encouraged to think outside the box, question authority and think for themselves, it actually kind of makes me glad to see this going on. I know that had this all gone down when i was still a student the same actions would have been taken and the students would have "prevailed" and i think thats exactly what we will see happen this time.

[Ev Lokadottr]

I do think it's stupid that they removed the papers.
I think it's stupid that they compared an article raising awareness about violence against women with the holocaust. WTF?
I think it's stupid to approach a part of someone's anatomy as obscene.
I also, however, do not see what showing an anatomical drawing of a penis would be a bad thing, or why a European history month would be a bad thing.
If you constantly tell one group of people that they are inherently victims, helpless, and unable to fend for themselves without help, and then tell another group of people that they are inherently evil, privileged, and that they should never get help or consideration, all because of what parts of colors they were born with, we will never have anything approaching equality.
That's not to say the issues and the things that are unequal in the world should be ignored- they should be addressed, people should be aware of them and people should work on fixing them, but remember-
Men are raped too.
Boys are told that their genitals are dirty and obscene too.
White people have a rich cultural history too.
When everyone is able to feel proud of who and what they are, and are able to look at themselves in the mirror without feeling shame for whatever features they were born with, THAT is when we will see serious progress for the human race.

[Student]

So, I don't get it. All the people who are so adamant about how the school is stifling freedom of speech find no issue with criticizing and thrashing those who disagree with what these immature kids did?

I asked ten different people what they came up with when they heard the headline. No one mentioned antiviolence towards women. Was the intent noble? Perhaps. Was the outcome what these shortsigted kids might have thought? Not really. In fact, I asked friends from other schools--they laughed and said things like, ways to make the vagina happy? Bring it on. That's the disgusting message kids got. So much for getting the word out.

It is about sex, sexual innuendo, and the teenage mind's susceptibility to all of it. If I had kids and wanted my kids to learn about things, let it be from educators in a classroom setting. Give it a place, and time.

Let it not be about some kids using a paper to get their agenda across. So much for unbias approaches to newspaper writing. If you have to resort to large pink headlines and stupid graphics that don't relate to the story to get your message across, you're saying to the rest of us Cleveland kids that we're too dumb to care.

We obviosuly care enough to know where Rachel and gang are out of line.

[Cleveland Student]

Helloooo, did anyone read what Rachel said? She agrees that everyone knows the content was fine. It was the delivery. How many of you read the tabloids? Would you say this is the kind of thing that would appear on the cover, next to the aliens abducting Elvis and Tupac sitings? How many of you have seen this on the cover of the LA Times or the New York Times (or event USA Today) or any real paper? Le Sabre, figure out what you're trying to be. The National Enquirer or a real paper. Obviously the first.

[elias and selenia]

WE are both students at cleveland High School and personally we think that the article was not affensive in any way including the picture. Many students at our school were also not offended by the article, mostly teachers and adminastrators thought it was inapropraite because of the picture of a vagina in the front cover. As students at Cleveland High School call it Vagina Day it is a day where women feel they need to be protect and to be proud of themselves bacause valentines day is the #1 day were mostly every woman gets DATE RAPED!!!!!

p.s we think rachel reyes die A MAGNIFICANT JOB on the article

[Shayna]

Why is everyone confusing the issue? According to Steve's column, no one questioned the content of the article. No one said censor the content Rachel Reyes or any of the others said in the articles. It was the headline and picture. Rachel Enriquez mentioned that many of the administrators hadn't even read the article. I can tell you I probably wouldn't have gotten passed the headline and picture of a vagina on the front page. Not because I'm ashamed of my vagina--I didn't know teenagers had the training to psychoanalyze anyone who can separate the vagina from the pointless headline and picture--but because it sounded like it was an excuse to turn a "lame" occasion into something titilating.

Honestly, I still don't know what point Rachel Reyes was trying to make. If it was about V-Day, isn't it about anti-violence? Here's a shocking thought--maybe have a headline that mentions that? Maybe have a chart or diagram that gives statistics about the number of rape and abuse endured by women across the country and globally--what a shocking concept to tie the headline and diagram with something so totally logical.

[yiannis psaroudis]

In 1989, my high school banned the yearbook t-shirt I designed because it contained the word "hell"--used tongue-in-cheek as a recurring joke among our staff, throughout the year. In spite of the fact that the majority of the angry calls the administration received were about their banning the shirts and not their content, we were not allowed to wear them, as we handed out yearbooks that year.

My college roommate's cousin attends this h.s. and I am proud of her for having shown up to shirt in a t-shirt that read "My vagina is not obscene" because a| it's not, b| I don't want her to ever think it is and c| freedom of press should be supported in order for our democracy to flourish.

[Eve]

Shayna,

Couldn't agree with you more. If you check out the V-Day.org website, you will find some startling statistics that will shock you about antiviolence towards women. That's something that didn't appear in the headline which was supposed to be about anti-violence towards women and girls. Shame on you, Rachel Reyes, for taking a serious issue and making light of it. Some of us find it hard to believe that if you really wanted to raise awareness about antiviolence, you would have found a better way to do it--without the childish headline and picture.

[Maya]

Freedom of speech. Oh yes, that's what this is about, right? Thought it was about getting the message about anti-violence out to everyone. Let me tell you what I've heard much of today. Comments such as, "I'll show you why your vagina is not obscene" with snickers. "If you vagina is not obscene, is my penis allowed near it?" I get it now. We delivered the wrong message.

The t-shirt, and many of us will agree, was not solely about protesting censorship--though we really didn't know that's why we were wearing it. Call it the bandwagon, peer pressure mentality. We heard a bit about something bad that the school did and we jumped on it, few questions asked. We did it because our friends did it (at least many of us, quietly will admit without getting us in fights with our journalism friends).

If I had to do it again, I would not have worn the shirt. It did nothing but hurt the cause I thought I was fighting for. Instead, I will do what some adults have suggested: teach people about V-Day through workshops and brochures. Make the message clear, no garbled through some other silly means.

[Maria]

V-Day: Victory, Valentine, and Vagina--too bad the only thing Cleveland students will now associate it with is vagina and supposed censorship. What a disservice Le Sabre did to the cause of those who have been abused, raped, defiled. What a sad day for victims of incest, genital mutilation, and other atrocities against women. Once again women have been suppressed by their own and betrayed by their own (at the whim of a male student who is the "leader", from what I read in the V-Bomb story). Victory against antiviolence, reclaiming valentine's day and being about to embrace relationships free of guilt. Not what comes across in a headline that belittles the V-day ideals.

[Rachel Reyes]

Just to respond to comments about the headline and the picture:
I just write the article. I am a staff writer. Please make sure to direct any editorial comments to the editor of the pages. I do not write the headline or choose any graphics. But pertaining to that issue, I did not see anything wrong with them. I was not in any way trying to make light of an issue that I do see as serious.

[Erica]

"I just write the article" states Rachel Reyes. In an earlier comment, you wrote that "The way I see it, if I wanted to be "shocking" why wait until the 6th issue to put a vagina on the cover? If that was our staff's intention, believe me, we would have done so." No, keep trying to tell people you had no knowledge of the headline or the graphic. You wrote the article and allowed others to give it a misleading headline and graphic. Are you trying to say you had no say? Hard to believe. If you weren't trying to make light of the issue, then someone else on your paper seemed to be using you for some other purpose. And as the writer, you allowed it.

[Cleveland Student]

Just to clear things up, there was a forum today and many people spoke about their feelings on the issue (many students and staff were in attendance). This has brought much attention to the importance of V-Day and all that it stands for. This negates the arguments that this has made light of the issue. Many people expressed the profound effect this issue of Le Sabre has had on them. There are talks of bringing the Vagina Monologues to our school which would only do more to spread awareness.
If the importance of V-Day and the message the article was trying to convey was at all lost, its because of the way the staff handled the situation. Ripping the papers away before many got to the paper meant that rumors began to fly about a crazy vagina newspaper on campus. I guarantee you, had the administration remained calm the situation would have been as follows: the picture might have piqued the interest of students slightly, MOST students would have actually started reading the article, got bored and read the valentines section, and some students would have been moved. Yes there would have been people offended and they could have written letters to the editor.

[Another Cleveland Student]

I totally disagree. What the student forum showed me was how completely absurd a group of students can become. What I witnessed in that meeting was the persecution of a few students who dared to express their agreement that the headline and picture were inappropriate. Not even that so much as dared to express some form of disagreement with the majority in that room.

For students who claim to be tolerant and who want to make V-Day a serious issue, I found a bunch who didn't even bother to talk about it, but instead about how their "rights" were violated and clapped only when someone agreed with them.

Let's be clear. The only reason the issue is being raised is because the paper did make light of it and now people--adults and kids--have to correct those misconceptions. If the paper had clearly made its case in the first place without resorting to tabloid tactics, we would not have needed adults to interfere on our behalf and help the rest of the students understand the difference between what the paper actually did--went too far and did not address the issue--and what it was supposed to do--raise awareness about antiviolence.

[Kirby]

From what I know from WITS, a student club at school, there were already plans to bring the Vagina Monologues on campus before the paper came out, so the issue already was considered important. The paper did not help raise awareness. What it did do was help students who do know something about V-day explain to those who ignorantly associate it with only the vagina because of the paper. What it did was slap people in the face with something that had no context.

I guarantee you that had the school paper used good judgement, the situation would have been as follows: there would have been a good, relevant headline and statistics that made people aware of the issue so that they would WANT to read the article, MOST students would have gotten a chance to read the paper, and most students would actually take the issue seriously instead of the population that showed up at the forum--definitely a homogeneous group of kids with one opinion between the lot of them.

[Dj]

Sorry, I think the students made a bad decision. There's nothing wrong with a vagina, or a picture of one or anything like that at all. But to use such a picture does in fact make light of the situation and instead of having a positive effect, it had the opposite. This is proven here in this discussion. No one is discussing the seriousness of the issue of violence against women but instead people are arguing about free speech and obscenity laws and junk. Ms. Reyes, you may have had the noblest of intentions, but those were sadly pushed to the sideline when someone else made a bad decision. There are better ways to handle such an issue.

[gerry]

The issue has become larger than violence against women and girls because it was taken to another level by the principal and some teachers. Even though the law may be on the administrations side, censorship took place and censorship does not sit well with lots of people.

Principal Marks states: "The decision was based on the fact that the ... drawing would be disruptive to the school’s educational program.” It also may have enhanced the program. Sometimes students learn when there is controversy. It may not be in written down in some study plan approved by a school board, but just maybe a controversy will make people talk or think about things they may not otherwise. Controvery may shed a different light on a subject or it may add emotions to a topic. Is this a bad thing? What was Principal Marks really afraind of? A picture someone may not like because in some minds vaginas are taboo? Is that what we teach in schools...the powers that be really do control taste? It may have been in bad taste but the First Amendment allows people to have bad taste. A drawing of a vagina may not appear on the front page of the LA Times but is that the lesson Marks wants the kids to learn...to put out a paper exactly like the LA Times? Or does he want them to think and question and explore?

These young journalists havel to learn and experiment and question and make mistakes and all the stuff that will make them better people, students and journalists. If offending someone comes with that territory, then they will learn what it means to offend someone. I for one do not want someone to protect me from being offended. And if I am offended and it is important enough, I will attempt to engage those who offended me. Please do not protect me!!!

[Rachel Puleo-Chankin]

As a former Cleveland student and member of the Le Sabre staff, i can say that I have never been prouder to be associated with both. I've just read a lot of the comments that were posted already and in response to some of them: I know first hand that a regular headline would not have been as effective as what was printed, and that had the administration not taken the papers away, more students would have actually read the article and more would have absorbed the anti-violence point attached. I'm disgusted at the way the administration has reacted to this and appalled at the comparisons made to the holocaust and lynching.
And all those who have been saying that it was not appropriate to have a picture of a vagina on the front page are just part of the problem. There is no reason why there shouldn't be a vagina on the front page. I think it illustrated very well the pride we, as women, should have about our vagina's, our sexuality, and our overall womanhood. Silence is part of the problem and one of the main causes of such violence towards women. And in that sense, i think the headline and picture were just as perfect as the article was. They were loud, they got attention, and without that nothing is ever going to get any better.
To Richard and Rachel and everyone else at the Le Sabre staff, you guys did a wonderful job. keep it up.

[Mark and Lindsey]

So we asked around and this is what we got. The principal did not compare the picture of the vagina to lynchings--another seeming sensational aspect of this journalism group's tactics. He said that for some whose cultural beliefs are such, the image is construed as offensive. Just as for some other groups, the picture of a lynching is offensive in other ways. Is this the way it should be? Perhaps not. Is this the beliefs of many groups? Yes. Sorry to say to all you who believe in one value system and monolitic set of beliefs, there are many cultures who feel that way and we have to be sensitive to that. We don'tt live in a society where everyone believes the same things. Thank goodness!

And perhaps some people still don't get it, but the picture of the vagina was not what the article was about. Let's start talking about antiviolence towards women. If some want to embrace their womanhood through the symbol of a vagina, do so. If others don't want to, then stop imposing it on them. Didn't we learn this in history with colonialization. Why does one group's view have to overtake another group. We need to learn how to be culturally aware. We need to not just tolerate but be accepting. Educate, not preach.

If I have to force my way of thinking on another to get my point across and disregard the beliefs of others, I have practiced a level of intolerance that is abominable. Oppressing others to show how we are oppressed is hypocrisy.

[Notorious-Osaka]

Hello, I'm a student from Cleveland High. *waves*

When I first got the newspaper that Valentine's Day I wasn't shocked whatsoever at the diagram of a vagina. Actually, I found it quite informative so it didn't bother me at all but what pissed me off was this silly controversy.

"Oh dear a vagina in teh papers oh noooooes!!!!" :\ Please, the ones who are offended are probably overreacting to this. IT'S A DIAGRAM NOT PORN. IT IS NOT BRITNEY SPEARS' VAJAYJAY. IT IS NOT A PICTURE OF TWO PEOPLE HAVING SEX. GET. OVER. IT!!!!

EVERY WOMAN HAS ONE!!

YOUR GRANDMOTHER
YOUR MOTHER
YOUR SISTERS
AND THE REST YOUR FEMALE RELATIVES

You came out of one, ok maybe not the people who were born under c-section but your mom has one! I came out of one!! And I'm proud that I have a vagina! I'm proud at the fact that I can give life to a beautiful child that would grow up and someday change the world.

Ok now to my next topic: Sue. (That's right lady, you.)

Sue..........not to sound like a rude adolecent but......
..........................................
.........................................
........................................
....................................
..............................Stop smoking weed. Really. Stop. Or at least tell me you were joking. "Chocolate, rainbows, 'pure,virginal love'" *dies of laughter* I'm printing your comment so I can have something to smile at.

[Alina Lopez]

I also like rachel and selenia n elias am a student at cleveland high school and i think that it was really stupid how the schools faculty sayits not a big deal that a picture of a vagina was put on the front page of the article and yet they turned it into and enitrely huge mess .That day was so chaotic and obsurred that no one will stop talking about it and im sure that i speak for many of the cleveland high school students when i say that it was really RETARTED that the school took away the papers.In fact my friend had a copy of the article during our fifth period and she was trying to read it to see the big deal was about and then another classmate came and snatched it from her n he kept teasing her about not giving her the paper n the teachers T.A. came up to our desk and demanded thepaper be given to her and they all responded with a "No" so she got upset and called the school security and when the security showed up so did the dean and his assistants and they threatened on having everyone of us searched and threatened on taking our personal belongings wheather they were hidin away on our backpacks or in our pockets...Later on that night i spoke with my parents about the things that happen and my parents were really upset that the school continues to refuse to teach us about the REALITY that happens out in the real world..and personally i agree..i think that there are so many rape victims out there because of exactly this reason because our school system refuses to teach us about these things from a point where we can prevent these things from happening and so they dont becase theyre afraid of parents complaining? and so then we become ignorant of what really is out there , of the dangers and pain and suffering that thousands of women go through everyday and we face them first hand because our school did want parents complaining...thats just not right....

[Susie T.]

I'm a student at Cleveland, I'm female, I have a vagina, I say the word proudly, and I was still OFFENDED and INSULTED by the stupidity of the headline and pointlessness of the diagram. Maybe it's because I am not desensitized completely to the power of language.

While it's not taboo to talk about a vagina, may I please have a choice in the matter? May I be treated like a human being who is willing to read an article on my own rather than be MISLED and LURED into it by a headline and picture deliberately placed there to trick me into reading an article because my poor little feeble mind apparently can't decide on my own. Because if I, like the rest of the teenage population, see the word, I would associate it with sex, and bingo! Le Sabre will have hooked me and gotcha! taught me about an issue that was important because I didn't already know it was important?

Journalism, thanks for showing me and others that you really DO NOT value the female mind enough to treat me as a free thinking INDIVIDUAL who can decide to read an article on her own. Thanks for setting off the mind of immature kids who now associate V-DAY with sex rather than the promotion of anti-violence. Thanks for bashing folks who get it and understand that halting the distribution was a protest against Le Sabre's stupidity and irresponsibility and insensititivity rather than a protest against the vagina itself.

On a side note--Has anyone commented on the fact that none of the articles on the page had anything to do with news stories? They were features pieces. It wasn't like the paper was talking about how students at the school were raising awareness about V-Day (important), it wasn't like it was an article about a student production of the Vagina Monologues (relevant).

[Michelle]

Right on, Susie T. You don't know how many misguided and sanctimonious people have been trying to save me and tell me I'm not embracing my femalehood because I agree that the headline and diagram were out of line. I too know the vagina is not obscene but do you know how many students have tried to tell me how wrong I am for siding with the administrators' decision?

It's like they need to find something "wrong" with me and my views to show that they are "right." Someone associated it earlier in this blog with colonization. Totally! It's like I am a savage who needs to be conquered by this group to show me that my views are wrong. That I can't truly be a female if I don't side with the paper. That I can't truly be for antiviolence if I don't side with the paper. That I can't truly value the vagina if I don't side with the paper. Well, sorry folks, I am female, I am for antiviolence, I do value the vagina, and NO, I do not side with the paper on this.

[Tiffany]

GET OVER IT! i dont get how you people are offended by this article. There is nothing wrong with it. Just because it has a diagram of a vagina doesn't mean it's "obscene." Well, okay if they think is obscene, why don't they ban health/ biology textbooks with a diagram of a vagina?!

Shut up Michelle! yeah sure you are all for antiviolence and you value the vagina. uh huh sure. then what's your problem? Why are you offended by a DIAGRAM of a VAGINA?! WTF!?!

And to Sue, you need to grow up, you are really immature. you came from a vagina too!

why does everyone think that a vagina is "obscene" and taboo? didn't everybody come from one?

[Radical Raul]

Reading this column further re-enforces my belief that people of Ms. Reyes generation seriously lack taste, and her choice of using a picture of a vagina on the front page as a lead in, is so blatantly cliche, not to mention tasteless, it's not even worthy of a journalistic footnote.

[cleveland student]

poeple that don't htink the diargram was appropriate are being targeted like they are some kind of savages because they don't support the majority. Even at the forum on tuesday, no one cared to listen why some students didn't support it. It wasn't because we are ashamed to have a vagina like someone pointed out but becasue it is not acceptable for some cultures. And the point about it being in health books parents have to sign waiver before they can get sex ed. Also it was sad what the La Sabre staff wrote on the back side of the paper on things not to disscuss valentine "the Holocaust…and yeah heath ledger" because you know the mass murder six million jews is same thing as heath ledger.

[Sara]

Why do some people continue to insist that those who find the headline distasteful automatically find the article obscene. This is not a society of absolutes. Remember when president bush said something like "you're either for American or you're for terrorism." In this cause, the pro-article seem to believe in absolutes. You either are pro the headline and diagram, or you find the vagina obscene. That's as illogical as some of the other extreme arguments.

Ban health books and biology books? Obviously, another extreme absolute solution. How about the fact that the diagram in those books have an educational value tied with the information presented. How about the fact that when it's presented in a textbook it is meant to inform, not to catch our attention because we apparently won't read an article on antiviolence otherwise.

If people have to resort to bashing others and calling them names or stating that they have a problem if they don't believe the same views, then those attackers have gotten to a point of absurdity.

Michelle, thanks for sharing your views. I don't think there is anything wrong with your beliefs. In fact, it takes maturity to be able to embrace who you are as a female and at the same time find something out of place with the paper's approach.

[Cleveland Student]

It's gone on long enough. I want to clarify some things. The day after the paper came out, Mr. Marks and some other administrators came by our journalism class and talked with us about the paper. We were ready to get him.

But the more he talked and the more I listened to my fellow Le Sabre journalists, the more I realized that we took the wrong approach and did mislead our peers. At no time did he or any of the other adults call the vagina obscene. In fact, they all said the articles that Rachel, Robyn and Kate wrote were good and the word vagina is all over the place. I still don't know where everyone has gotten to the point of thinking this is about someone saying the vagina is obscene. I never heard it once in that room.

About the whole lynching thing. Mr. Marks never said the vagina was like a lynching. As someone earlier said, he said that there are people (and I've heard from many of them) who do not think the picture of the vagina is okay on the cover of a high school paper for a school that has a bunch of 13 and 14 years olds. Honestly, I wouldn't have shown it to my younger cousins.

He said many groups find it, and the headline, offensive. He's right, I've talked with many girls and teachers in core and the rest of the school who thought it was out of line. He then went on to say that if a picture of a swastika or lynching were to appear on the paper, wouldn't that offend some folks? At no time did he say that he felt the vagina was like the swastika or the lynching. He said in terms of not being in the school paper without any context for the reason, it could lead to a disruption. Boy, did it.

First period classes and second period classes were all about the paper. We got what we wanted. People talked about the paper (maybe not the actual article, but we got attention.) The next day some people wore t-shirts. Did it cause disruptions with people clamoring around or talking about it in class and outside? I had a class where I was taking a test and I couldn't focus because of the whole thing. I heard some teachers (including one of mine) had to cancel lessons to explain what V-Day was cuz the kids thought the headline was promoting sex and stuff. I couldn't walk through C-Hall and E Hall with the girls blazing their misdirected message--what were they protesting? No one ever said the vagina was obscene. Again some classes had to talk about the t-shirt because there were people who thought that was wrong and meant to belittle the whole V-day concept.

Yes, it's a positive term we should embrace, but our headline blurred that line and there was no words below to shed light on the fact that this was about non-violence or even about Ensler's play. Someone in my journalism class mentioned redoing the paper with the articles, but without the diagram and with a more fitting headline. Some of the Le Sabre staff shot that down because of cost.

People aren't talking about the beautiful articles. There is so much miscommunication out there. Honestly, I've got to say that given all the lies and rumors spread about the he said, she said thing, it was a disruption.

Enough is enough. Let's get back to important stuff and get beyond this. We've got another issue to get out and school to finish. I'm tired of protesting for the sake of protesting. Let's do something positive and get out of the mudslinging.

[MaryJ]

In California, we have one of the lowest-performing educational systems in the country (Number 47 out of 50) and every day I see a dozen reasons why that is so. Too much political grandstanding and brainwashing and not enough real education. We give time and attention to idiots expresing their "feelings" about their vaginas while China graduates 600,000 engineers a year. We are well on our way to Third World status. Sad.

[Student]

I think the vagina shouldn't have been put on the headline because it obviously was going to cause controvery. But really, i was not personally offended by it because i had biology in the 8th grade and there were plenty of vaginas and penis's in those books. Stop using the health and parent signature excuse. Health is for sex-ed and the picture doesn't really teach people how to have sex.

[Ami]

Yeah, the diagram was in your textbook that you opened up within the scope of a class. It wasn't forced upon you. The front cover of the school paper is not a health book or bio book and the article was not about health or science or even sex ed.

Sorry, I've heard enough vagina jokes over the last week to know the headline brought up images of sex. And while the picture doesn't teach people to have sex (did anyone ever say that it did--that's a new one?), it did not fit the point of the story. Just as an image of a penis would not have fit the point of the story. On the other hand, anything relating to the point of the actual V-day or antiviolence or victory for women in accepting themselves and being able to form relationships again would have been more accurate and to the point.

[dan]

its been over a week and a half already so this issue is dying out somewhat, but honestly, I wonder what the effect will be on mrs. reyes and the rest of the le sabre staff. after the dust settles, they are going to be hit with the realization that what they did constituted nothing more than a publicity stunt. as the ego is perhaps most fragile at this age, it might be a bitter pill to swallow for these young journalists, but call it a learning experience - they obviously need a lesson in humility. the best course of action would be to admit their lapse in judgement, move on, and make the most out of the rest of their high school days.

[Madelyn De Maria]

Sorry Mr. Lopez, the ending was such a disappointment, in other words, it sucked!