Like many a publisher before him, Tom Giratikanon founded a newspaper so his voice could be heard.

For the past year and a half, his alternative student paper at Edmonds-Woodway High School, The Prophet, has provided critical commentary on student elections, pep assemblies, college applications and disaster drills.

After a mock terrorist attack was staged to test the school's emergency preparedness, a Prophet headline posed the question, "Would they really put us on the softball field if there was a sniper?"

A college-admissions article, modeled on the "For Dummies" publications, advised essay writers to "pretend that you are old enough to know exactly what is significant for you and what you want to do for the rest of your life."

Unlike the alternative papers of the 1960s and '70s that advocated radical political action, lifestyles to shock the parents and a general contempt for authority, The Prophet's most radical subjects have been the small-schools-within-a-school movement and whether Warrior Period — the Edmonds-Woodway equivalent of homeroom — is a waste of time.

"They safely stay within the status quo, but they do it in such an articulate and informed way," said faculty adviser Matt Delaney.

For his work on The Prophet, Giratikanon was recently awarded a $1,000 Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholarship and a five-day, expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. The award is given annually to aspiring high-school journalists who demonstrate vision and innovative leadership and take risks to realize their goals.

Around the country, alternative student newspapers usually spring up around a single issue, said Mark Goodman, the director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va. He said these papers — no one's sure how many there are — often express views that go against the views of school administrators.

Today, those contrary views are more likely to be conservative, Goodman said, such as opposition to immigrant rights or gay marriage. And, he said, many independent papers stop publishing once writers have aired their views.

Giratikanon also wanted to give voice to ideas he didn't think were being heard in January 2004, when he launched The Prophet, which is student-financed through donations, fund-raisers and advertisements.

An "off-the-charts-smart" student, in the words of Edmonds-Woodway Assistant Principal Geoff Bennett, Giratikanon said he felt shut out of student government because his rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) program schedule conflicted with leadership class, a prerequisite for holding office.

He and a handful of other IB students formed Students for Democracy, a club whose goal is to make student elections less a popularity contest and more a meaningful discussion about how to improve the school.

Edmonds-Woodway has a school newspaper, The Wireless, which has been published by students in journalism classes for more than 80 years. But Giratikanon said the paper didn't delve deeply into candidate qualifications or their views. He felt it didn't present a variety of perspectives nor engage students in a way that would make them informed participants in their government or education.

The Edmonds-born son of Thai parents and Chinese grandparents who fled communism, Giratikanon's most eloquent writings may have been on the subject of democracy.

In March 2004, for the paper's second issue, he called student elections bland, uninspiring and boring, and argued that democracy is as much the public discussion of ideas as it is the voting.

"And democracy matters," Giratikanon wrote. "It's an effective way to involve people in the community. It's the best way to promote the free and open exchange of ideas. And it's the only way to give people power and to make government legitimate."

Giratikanon said he didn't consider himself a journalist at the outset and learned on the job, as he planned issues and enforced deadlines, as "Prophet nights" — when the staff exchanged and edited stories, chose photos, did layout and wrote headlines — turned into "Prophet weekends." If there were blank spaces to fill, Giratikanon wrote more articles.

"Tom is the motivating factor, the passion behind the project," said senior Grace Kendall, an IB student who writes for the paper.

Somewhere in the process, Giratikanon got hooked. He plans to major in journalism and has been accepted to several colleges, including Northwestern University, near Chicago, which has a highly regarded journalism program, and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

After student elections were held at Edmonds-Woodway last week, Giratikanon said he wouldn't comment on who won. The Prophet's purpose in publicizing the candidates and their ideas, he said, was to raise the level of discussion and participation, not to elect a particular individual. He thinks that goal was accomplished.

"We've broken the ground to say, 'This is what should be,' " he said.

No one is sure whether the new officers of Students for Democracy will continue the paper next year.

"I'll be curious to see what kind of product comes out in the fall," said faculty adviser Delaney. "Tom and his friends have been the fuel that feeds The Prophet."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com