“LA Youth has addressed many controversial topics over the past ten years, ranging from police brutality to incest, from race problems to suicide. We have written about a teacher who was suddenly and inexplicably sent home one day after an angry discussion with a school board member. We have looked into whether mental hospitals are keeping teens there against their will in order to get their insurance money.
But the topic that has generated the most controversy has been sex. After we published teen essays about virginity, a principal’s secretary called to cancel the newspaper, saying “LA Youth is not a very nice newspaper.” Several students admitted to having had sex in their essays—but they went on to explain all the negative consequences. They warned our readers not to make the same mistake.
A cover illustration from 1996 caused a parochial school to turn the newspaper away at the gates. The drawing showed a girl contemplating the idea of sex. She is attracted by notions of romance and love, and frightened by all its consequences: STDs, pregnancy, AIDS.
A photo of John Lennon embracing his wife Yoko Ono drew an outraged call from a middle school administrator. John Lennon is naked in the Annie Liebowitz photo, which has been displayed in museums and graced the cover of Rolling Stone. The administrator said his students couldn’t handle that kind of material. If they wanted to see that kind of thing, he said, they could read Playboy.
We feel it’s important to write about sex, not because we want to offend, not because we want to attract readers with sensationalized stories, but because youth (like everybody) are sexual beings. Articles dealing with teen sexuality have a place in a teen publication. In this issue, for example, some readers may take offense to the articles on teen prostitution or nudist camps. But those articles belong here, along with the ones on summer jobs, athletic scholarships and music.”
