Take The Lead

Hip-Hop and ballroom dancing collide in Take the Lead, opening April 7th everywhere. But you don't have to be a dancer to take the lead -- check out how these teens take the lead in their own lives.

How I Started My School Newspaper

3 Comments » March 21, 2006

My junior high school was wack. We were a new school in New York and a part of a special program where we would get special help to prepare us for high school.

The focus of the school was computer heavy - every student was supposed to be computer literate. Only problem was a whole semester went by and we didn't have enough computers for everyone! In our computer class we would sit there for an hour having "independent reading time". It was bananas.

I got the idea to start a newsletter with some friends and investigate why we didn't have all of our equipment. We questioned our technology teacher who wasn't able to give us a straight answer. After including some other stories, we published our first issue.

The newsletter rocked the school. The teacher wasn't happy how she was quoted and the principal wanted to shut us down. The vice principal, who was cool with the students, agreed to start an official newspaper to fill the gap of the lack of a student outlet. Amazingly, the computers arrived the next week. I knew it didn't have anything to do with the article, but we took credit for it anyway. I don't go to that school anymore but I still think they have that newspaper, which makes me feel good. And that's how I took the lead. - H. Madison

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