Girls suspended for v-word use

A high school suspended three girls for saying the word "vagina". (Click on the link above for the news story.)

In the headline, they use "v-word". "V-word"? Oh, please. Since when is "vagina" a dirty word? They should have used "vah-jay-jay" - at least it would have made me laugh.

Update: OK, it's the next day, and I'm still thinking about this. The other "initial-dash-word" words that I can think of off the top of my head are the F-word, the N-word, and the C-word. Does that mean that "vagina" is on the same playing field as "fuck", "nigger" and "cunt"? I don't know why I can't let this drop - it just doesn't seem to me that "vagina" is an offensive word.