Tattler (student newspaper)

In response, in January 2005 the Ithaca City School District issued a set of guidelines, declaring The Tattler a school-sponsored publication and giving its faculty adviser considerably greater power to edit or remove objectionable material.

A cartoon intended for the February 2005 issue included stick-figure depictions of sexual positions was removed by The Tattler's faculty advisor, Stephanie Vinch.

The student editors refused to allow a "censored" version of the issue to be published, and appealed the decision to IHS principal Joe Wilson and ICSD superintendent Judith Pastel.

IHS mathematics and computer science teacher Roselyn Teukolsky was named interim faculty advisor for The Tattler and the student staff produced the June 2005 issue back on school grounds.

Later that month, the student editors sued the Ithaca City School District, Superintendent Pastel, Principal Wilson, and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Bill Russell, alleging they violated the student editors’ First Amendment press rights by censoring the February issue cartoon, prohibiting campus distribution of the underground March issue, and imposing guidelines that required pre-publication approval by the faculty adviser.

562, 98 L.Ed.2d 592 (1988) (schools may exercise editorial control over student speech in school-sponsored activities if "reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns").