N Y Principal Suspends students for saying "Vagina"

Is vagina a naughty word or a proper anatomical term? Does use of the "v-word" in high school rise to the level of the "n-word?"

Three students at John Jay High School in Cross River, N.Y. Hannah Levinson, Megan Reback and Elan Stahl, were suspended for saying one of the title words from “The Vagina Monologues” at a an event sponsored by the school literary magazine.

Principal Rich Leprine, said on Tuesday that the girls were told not to use the word because young children could be in the audience, but that they used it anyway after agreeing not to.

The girls say they never made such an agreement.

Mr. Leprine’s explanation that the girls were suspended for insubordination has not stemmed an outpouring of support from the girls’ peers, as well as from many parents, who contend that the word is not vulgar and that the effort to muffle the three was censorship.

See the New York Times story.