3/31/10 National teens news

H.S. junior owns dj company, develops tv shows - 17-year-old entrepreneur Oliver Bogner balances school with promoting parties for his dj company, producing and hosting a teen dating show for television and pitching other reality shows to national tv networks.  “When he walked through the door, I was like, ‘What is this?’ He’s a kid,” said Jenny Daly, a producer with Target Entertainment Group. “He was 16. He’s doing what people in the industry coming to me have been doing for 10 years. (LA Times)

A teen jury of peers – 17 teen courts throughout the nation hear cases and decide punishments for first-time juvenile offenders, with the idea that teen jurors would better know what questions to ask and the punishment that may be most effective.  Timothy Williams, a senior who last year sat in the defendant’s chair for fighting and petty theft, said his trial before other students was intimidating and more than a little embarrassing — but effective.”They pretty much understood where I was coming from,” recalled the 17-year-old, who was back in court — this time as a juror. After he was sentenced to curfew, tutoring, community service and meeting minimum grade requirements, he has been doing better in school and hasn’t been in trouble since, he said. (LATimes)

Students still prefer school food to chef’s - After working with a West Virginia school as part of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” most students still preferred the school’s nuggets and pizzas to the chef’s healthier menu.  And when denied the food they were used to, many stopped buying the school lunch. (Salon)

Why girls outperform boys in school? - NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof examines why girls are outperforming boys in almost every single academic category. Mr. Whitmire argues that the basic problem is an increased emphasis on verbal skills, often taught in sedate ways that bore boys. “The world has gotten more verbal,” he writes. “Boys haven’t.” (NYTimes)

2/22/10 Teen News: Local(∆) and National

Lawsuit: School spied on students with webcams – Parents of a wealthy suburb of Philadelphia are suing the school district for possible using the webcams of school issued computers to spy on students outside of school.  The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son that school officials thought he had engaged in improper behavior at home. “(Matsko) cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor plaintiff’s personal laptop issued by the school district,” the suit states. (MSNBC)

(∆)High Point native skates in Olympics – Once a superstar roller skater in High Point, Heather Richardson didn’t switch to ice skating until high school and is now in the Olympics three years later.  “Here’s a girl that’s come out of nowhere, we couldn’t be more proud of her because she’s worked so hard,” said her uncle.”Anybody can say that, but for her, you had that little spark. You knew she’d do it because she has that drive and determination.” (MYNC)

(∆) Keeping track of teen drivers – A new program in Raleigh places decals on the cars of teen drivers that allows other drivers to call a number and report unsafe teen driving.  ”It’s not a tattle-tale program. It’s more of a preventative measure,” said Teen Road Angel co-founder Sherrie Holland, of Apex. “We are hoping that because teens have this on their vehicles that they are making better decisions when they’re driving, because they know they can be reported.” (WRAL)

H.S. student makes H.S. ap –  A West Virginia high school student developed and implemented an Iphone ap specifically for his high school, the first ap of this kind nationally. Dobson said he never programmed on a Mac before the iPhone project, and personally uses the Google Droid phone instead of the popular Apple version. But he said programming for the iPhone was much easier than other coding projects he’s done in the past. (Charleston Daily Mail)

1/22/10 Teen News – National

At-large teen bandit becomes legend - Profile 0f 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore who has been on the run from fugitives for over 20 months after escaping from his halfway house in an airplane. Since then, the now-18-year-old fugitive has eluded police in Washington, Idaho and Canada, repeatedly vanishing into the woods. Police suspect he’s stolen at least two planes, two boats and several cars, plus broken into more than 50 homes. Yet the only thing growing faster than Harris-Moore’s alleged rap sheet is his legend. (NPR)

Review of Lady Gaga concert in NYC -And Lady Gaga was great. Even without all the bells and whistles — video screens, smoke machines, costumes and dancers — she would have captivated the crowd. Her voice was strong, even while dancing; she didn’t lip sync; and her banter between numbers was alternately funny and touching. (Jezebel)

Schools reduce languages, except Chinese – Thousands of public schools are dropping foreign language classes, except for a huge increase in the number of Chinese classes taught in some cases by teachers provided free from China.The number of students taking the Advanced Placement test in Chinese, introduced in 2007, has grown so fast that it is likely to pass German this year as the third most-tested A.P. language, after Spanish and French, said Trevor Packer, a vice president at the College Board. (NYT)

Teacher’s Bible divides Ohio town – Is an 8th grade teacher who refused to remove a Bible from his desk a hero who is being unfairly punished for Christian beliefs or a zealot who pushed his beliefs onto students? “Freshwater’s supporters want to make this into a new and reverse version of the Scopes trial,” said David Millstone, the lawyer for the Mount Vernon Board of Education, referring to the Tennessee teacher tried in 1925 for teaching evolution. “We see this as a basic issue about students having a constitutional right to be free from religious indoctrination in the public schools.”(NYT)

Accident or senior prank? – During the senior class photo, students wearing t-shirts with the C and the L left A and S and S on their own.“I heard C and L ran off. That’s not ass’s fault. That’s C and L’s fault, said senior Austin Knight. “It was funny and they shouldn’t have been punished.” (KHOU)

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

JROTC ‘more than just a class’ - Enrollment is up in JROTC programs where students say they are receiving the discipline, structure and support they need while critics argue that these teens are merely being brainwashed.“The pride that these students display when you go in the schools who are in these programs is just amazing. You read it on their face. They walk with a certain confidence,”  researcher Gene Bottoms says. (USA Today)

Students in trouble for 9/11 shirts – A Michigan high school confiscated the hooded sweatshirts of 15 Arab-American students from the class of 2011 students that depicted the school mascot flying into the number 11 with the slogan “You can’t bring us down.” “What took place here today was an inappropriate, distasteful act,” said David Mustonen, a spokesman for Dearborn schools. “(It was) totally inappropriate, totally disrespectful, and they just were not thinking.” Or is all the furor just because these kids are Arab-American?  (WDIV)

Review of ‘Youth in Revolt’ – An original take on the standard teen seeking to lose virginity plot line. “There is a primal fascination with sex at that age that remains constant through generations,” director Miguel Arteta says. “And I think all of these types of movies, regardless of relative shock value, play on the same core concept of how one deals with that new and irrepressible urge.” (LA Times)

Sex abuse rampant at 13 juvenile centers - A government report states that 1 in 3 youths at 13 juvenile detention facilities were the victims of some type of sexual victimization. “Many of these are already the most vulnerable and traumatized youth from all of our communities and they’re placed for custody because they’re considered to be a danger,”Linda McFarlene said. “If sexually abused in those very institutions that are supposed to help them prepare for life in the community, then it’s just an incredible travesty.” (AP)

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

(∆) Profile of Durham teen filmmaker - 17-year-old Kelley Katzenmeyer received her first camera as part of a club at her elementary school, now she attends NC School of the Arts and is one 143 teens selected to participate in the Young Arts festival in Miami.“Because I love filmmaking,” she said when asked why she applied to YoungArts. “It’s just a form of communication that you don’t necessarily need words for. … There are some films that we could both watch together and still understand what was happening without needing to speak the same language.” (Herald Sun)

Auditioning for the NYC high schools of the arts - 24 high schools require auditions.“We see a combination of kids who heard that Alicia Keys went here and want to be like her and then we will see kids who live, eat, sleep and breathe performing,” said Chuck Vasallo, an assistant principal of Professional Performing Arts High School. “Every application represents a person with a dream, and it’s in our hands if they’re accepted. If not, your life might go in another direction. That’s something we take very seriously. It’s a little scary, even for us.” (photo by Michael Agins)

Review of MTV show ‘Teen Mom” – Teen Mom picks up where 16 and Pregnant left off: the series follows the same young women featured on the latter, demonstrating how the pain of childbirth is nothing compared to the difficultie of young motherhood. VIDEO (Jezebel)

Should students be protected by 4th Amendment? – Police are conducting random searches at a violence-plagued high school in Detroit.  Should this be allowed? (Time Magazine)