Tattoo's suicide project wins second award

NORTH HAVEN - The teen suicide page published by
The Tattoo late last year recently captured a
second place award for in-depth reporting from
the Connecticut Society of Professional
Journalists.

It was the first time in the annual contest's
history that high school students garnered a
prize, according to Southern Connecticut State
University Prof. Jerry Dunkle, the group's
president.

When Dunkle announced the nine Bristol students
had won, they received a standing ovation from
the large crowd of reporters and editors from
across the state.
 
The teen page, published occasional Mondays by
The Bristol Press, recently captured a National
Gold Key award in the country's top high school
journalism contest, Quill and Scroll.

The in-depth journalism prize was given to nine
area students who worked for almost a year to
produce a project on teen suicide that ran in
the Dec. 30th edition of The Tattoo.

In addition to its second place award, The
Tattoo's teen suicide project was also a
finalist for the Stephen A. Collins prize for
public service journalism -- the highest honor
given by the professional journalists' group.

In doing the project, the students interviewed
survivors of teen suicide, including parents and
friends of young people who took their own
lives.

They also searched through 15 years of death
records in Bristol, Plainville and Plymouth to
determine the scope of the problem.

The students who worked on the page were
Danielle Ouimet, Amanda
Lehmert and Aimee Lehmert of Bristol Central
High School; Bryan Pena, Michelle Driscoll and
Brian LaRue of Bristol Eastern High School; and
Mark Cyr, Paul Bartok and Shauna Fauchon of St.
Paul Catholic High School.

During weekly sessions at the paper, the
volunteer staff members of The Tattoo learns the
ins and outs of journalism from two Press
reporters who donate their time, Jackie Majerus
and Steve Collins.

The group includes students from all three
Bristol high schools and is in its fourth years.

The teen suicide project, along with many other
Tattoo stories, can be seen on the Internet at:
www.ReadTheTattoo.com.