The Black and Gold

I am on my school's paper, the Black and Gold, at my high school, Cleveland Heights High. Lately, our paper's been having trouble: it rarely exceeds four pages, the stories rarely exceed 200 words, and they are not well-written. Our rival school, Shaker Heights High, produces a 30 page paper, The Shakerite, with long well-written stories, sections, and color photos.

So since I thought the Black and Gold was bad, I brought up how it isn't good anymore at our last meeting. The editors got mad at me and gave me a negative credit - for constructive criticsm. (sp?) They'll demerit ANYONE who doesn't agree that The Black and Gold is world's premier paper! Then I got mad, and got really critical of The Black and Gold. Now everyone there's being mean to me, making fun of my undying support of John Kerry, and I don't know what to do!

how did you start out your opinion? it could have been the way you said it or how you said it...

but even so, I'd talk to one of the teachers/adults there and explain how you feel... I'm sure you've got an adult supervisor there...

Well, in the great tradition of debater John Kerry , you could stage a written debate for the paper jointly with another student on a topic like:

*The Black & Gold is the best paper, pro and con
* Criticism of student productions is destructive and should be stopped, pro and con
* Free speech is essential to democracy, pro and con

Or you could write your own editorial making your case. But as one who did that and got seriously burned (in college), I'd say it's more prudent to team up with another student. That way, the point about free speech gets demonstrated in action, and everybody calms down because they realize both/all points of view are being respected.