Monday’s teen news – local(∆) and national

Profile of Jamie Tworkowski – He is the founder of To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), a non-profit which provides spiritual guidance to trouble teenagers and also earns $3 million annually in merchandise sales. “Self-injury and depression are on the rise statistically,” says Tworkowski. “Kids have always suffered — the difference now is that you hear about these things in the media, and it gives kids ideas. You’re depressed, and you read about Angelina Jolie cutting herself, and you think, ‘Maybe that could work for me.’ Kids are trying to figure all this stuff out on their own. They are confronting this pain alone.”(Rolling Stone) photo by Peter Yang

Is cheerleading a sport? – Title IX requires that universities provide sports representation by gender that is proportional to enrollment.  With the proportion at US colleges 57% females, colleges want to count cheerleading as a sport rather than an activity, but is it? On the other hand, as Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a former head of the Women’s Sports Foundation, told me: “We can’t allow schools to recast cheerleading as a sport in name only so as to allow schools to provide fewer athletic opportunities for girls.” (NPR.com)

(∆) Football players mentor 5th graders – Carrboro High School football players mentor 5th grade males at Frank Porter Graham to get them excited about school. “[The football players] are superheroes in the eyes of the fifth graders,” says a teacher. (Carrboro Citizen)

More graduates moving back home – Melissa Meyer was the top student in her high school, interned for a US Senator, and graduated from a $200,000 college, but when she applied to 30 jobs and heard nothing, she moved back in with her parents. “My triumphant return!” Melissa whispers sarcastically. (Herald Sun)

Monday’s teen news – local(∆) and national

Teen t-shirt entrepreneur wins $10,000 – LA teen was chosen among 27,000 entrants in National Youth Entrepreneurship Contest for his ‘inspirational’ t-shirts.In the next year, he says, “we plan to get our shirts into events like fairs, swap meets and farmers markets. … We want to get our shirts into different stores that they can be sold at as well. We want to get someone famous to endorse it.” (NPR)

Columbine killer’s mom talks with Oprah – Dylan Klebold’s mother wrote in O Magazine that she didn’t realize her son was so disturbed. “Dylan’s participation in the massacre was impossible for me to accept until I began to connect it to his own death,” she wrote in excerpts released by the magazine in advance of Tuesday’s publication. “Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there. And so in order to understand what he might have been thinking, I started to learn all I could about suicide.” (LA Times)

(∆)Police fight culture of ‘no snitching’ – Durham police unable to solve crimes because witnesses are unwilling to testify, a trend which begins in schools. “If you tell and others find out, you’ll see a resistance in people talking to you and hanging out with you,” said Trevon Spence, 17, a senior at Durham’s Jordan High School. “You start to lose your friends …. Sometimes losing them is worse than getting jumped.” (N&O)

(∆)Durham starts youth magazine – UNC and Central journalism students will mentor SEEDS students to produce The Durham Community Voice, a monthly 24-page glossy paid for by The Daily Tar Heel.  ”The bottom line is let’s get ‘em off the corners and into newsrooms,” Lauterer said. “And if we can’t get ‘em into newsrooms, then let’s make a newsroom.” (Herald Sun)

Thursday’s teen news – local(∆) and national

(∆) Liberian refugee ends up at E. Wake H.S. – One of the best soccer players in the nation, Mike Paye is living the dream of his deceased father and has found a new family in America with the Johnsons.  If he can find the money to become a US citizen, he will be invited to attend a camp for the US national team. (N&O) photo by Robert WIllet

Northface sues teen entrepreneur - Jimmy Winkelmann created South Butt because he was frustrated how all of his classmates work Northface apparel.  Even though Northface is suing him for trademark infringement, he says he will not stop production and the extra publicity is only helping sales. (ABC)

(∆) S.C. town defined by h.s. football – Brynes High School is the number two team in the nation and are playing the number one team in the nation Friday night on ESPN.  The school has a $328,000 scoreboard, a 500 member booster club, a training program that begins as early as first grad and hero worship for the players.“The kids do get off for Christmas, Easter and one week at the end of July,” Srock said. “That’s it. We work out on Christmas Eve. We work out on New Year’s Day. We work out on New Year’s Eve. They don’t need to be going to any New Year’s parties — they’re 16 years old! We lift weights on the Fourth of July at 8 a.m. … The kids don’t need a break! The coaches might, but these kids are 16 years old!” (News and Observer)

Show up to school, win plasma t.v. – Detroit schools are raffling a t.v. as a way to lure students to school on Count Day, when official attendance for the year is determined.  (CNET)

Recession doesn’t hurt stuntman school – Laid-off workers are willing to pay $3,000 for a 3-week course in learning how to be a stuntman, but even with the certified training, finding stunt work is hard.”You’ve got to be ready. Most people spend, say, 80 percent their time hustling and 20 percent of their time working – and actually, that’s a pretty successful career,” a pro said. (AP)

Wednesday’s Teen News – local(∆) and national

(∆) Durham h.s. students tutoring students to read – Trinity High School students are taking a class to learn the Orton-Gillingham system of reading then using the knowledge to tutor low-income students at a local elementary school. “It sounds really cool,” said James, a varsity basketball player. “I love working with little kids. I’ve done basketball camps and worked at a Spanish camp. … So I love working with little kids. I love seeing how they learn. It seems like a great thing to do. I really hope we help a lot of people doing this.” (Durham Herald-Sun)

Feds outlaw flavored cigs to deter youth - FDA banned flavored cigarettes (chocolate, vanilla, clove, etc.) because they claim it encourages youth and teens to start smoking. In 2004, 17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer. (NY Times)

Tyra Show hosts gay exorcist – Clips from Tyra Show with 16-year-old boy who claims his minister cured him of homosexuality, as seen in the exorcism that was posted on YouTube.  Tyra interview his minister, who says the boy will go to hell as long as he possesses any gay tendencies.  (Jezebel)

Tanning salon sting produces mixed results – College students posed as 15-year-old girls to see if tanning salons were following laws requiring teens under the age of 16 to obtain parental permission.  Most tanning salons followed regulations except allowing girls to tan every day when the law only allows six times per week.  (LA Times)

Teen sues Abercrombie & Fitch for discrimination – Muslim teen claims store refused to hire her because she wears a hijab.  Ambercromie says they hire models and therefore do not have to hire anyone who is not considered a model. (Daily Collegian)

Friday’s teen news – local(∆) and national

Teen birth rates highest in most religious states – Study by Journal of Reproductive Health shows that states (Mississippi #1) that tend to have more conservative religious beliefs have a higher rate of teens giving birth. “We conjecture that religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.” (MSNBC)

What happens to a town with no high school sports? - Ohio school district canceled all extracurricular activities after the community didn’t pass a levy for additional school funds. Now neighbor is pitted against neighbor with people against the tax saying that schools need to make better use of the money they have and school supporters say the community will die without extracurricular programs in the schools.  Many coaches and athletes have already left town for other schools.  (Sports Illustrated)

(∆) Laptops in the college classroom under scrutiny – Reporter in the back of the room watches students on email, skype, hotmail, etc.  Recent study showed that students with laptops in classroom did 11% worse than students without and professors are now starting to ban laptops in classroom. (Daily Tar Heel)

13-year-old prodigy in college - Paige Epler may be the youngest high school graduate in the nation even though she has never been in a traditional classroom; now enrolled at George Mason University. Article of course stresses how normal she is, that she plays the violin, likes sports, movies, etc. (Washington Post)

Teacher arrested, then arrested again – Illinois high school teacher was arrested for giving students alcohol, weed, and prescription drugs in exchange for doing chores.  She talked to a radio program to proclaim her innocence and mentioned one of the victims’ first name, so was arrested again for witness intimidation.  (Chicago Sun-Times)