Tattoo takes national awards

Seven writers for The Tattoo have swept up journalism
awards in the past month.

During the Scholastic Press Forum's annual conference
at American International College in Springfield,
Mass., The Tattoo garnered honors in the news, news
features and cartoons categories.

It captured four writing awards this month from the
nationwide contest sponsored by the by the National
Newspaper Association and the Quill and Scroll
International Honorary Society for High School
Journalists.

Bristol Eastern High School senior Joe Wilbur captured
four awards and another senior at Eastern, Merissa
Mastropiero, won three times. Amanda Lehmert, who
graduated from Bristol Central High School last year
also collected a trio of wins.

Other winners included Eastern senior Hila Yosafi, St.
Paul Catholic High School senior Courtney Pendleton
and Jessica Majerus, a Mayo High School graduate in
Rochester, Minn.

Jen Rajotte, an Eastern sophomore, won her first
journalism award from the Quill and Scroll contest for
a news story she wrote on proposed legislation to
change the dropout age in Connecticut.

The Tattoo's coverage of school violence issues
produced awards from both contests.

In the Quill and Scroll competition, Yosafi, Wilbur,
Mastropiero, Lehmert, Majerus and Pendleton shared a
win in the in-depth team category.

The SPF gave the nod in the news feature category to
Mastropiero, Yosafi, Wilbur and Lehmert for a story
raising questions about the "Lancer Lockdown"
procedure established for use during a school
emergency at Eastern.

Wilbur and Mastropiero each won awards in the
general column category of the Quill and Scroll
contest. Mastropiero wrote a piece about teen apathy
towards politics while Wilbur got the nod for a piece
on the death of a fellow student.

Lehmert and Majerus won in the news category of the
SPF contest for a story they wrote after interviewing
students who knew one of the Columbine High School
gunmen when they all went to school together in New
York.

Wilbur also won a prize in the SPF news category for
a freelance piece he wrote for The Bristol Press last
spring about a wake held at Page Park after a fellow
student died in a car crash.

Pendleton emerged with an SPF  win for an editorial
cartoon she drew about the Columbine shooting.

Lehmert, who was Connecticut's high school journalist
of the year in 1999, won a Quill and Scroll prize for
the fourth straight year. She collected five in all. She is
now studying journalism at Emerson College in
Boston.

Most of the winning stories are available on The
Tattoo's web site at www.ReadTheTattoo.com.

The Tattoo, now in its seventh year, is a teen-written
page sponsored by The Bristol Press. Reporters Jackie
Majerus and Steve Collins serve as its volunteer
advisers. Any questions or concerns about this page
should be directed to them at Majerus-
Collins@bigfoot.com or by phoning 523-9632.