Tattler (student newspaper)
Encyclopedia
The Tattler is the student newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
of Ithaca High School
Ithaca High School (Ithaca, New York)
Ithaca High School is a public high school in Ithaca, New York. It is part of the Ithaca City School District, and has an enrollment of approximately 1,675. Jarett Powers has been principal since 2011.-About:...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
. Founded in 1892, it is one of the oldest student newspapers in the United States. It is published six to ten times a year, and has a circulation of about 3,000, with distribution in both the school and in the community.
The Tattler has traditionally been almost entirely student-run, with a student editorial board and student writers working with the assistance of a faculty advisor (usually a teacher in the IHS English department). The publication has expanded considerably in the past ten years, increasing its number of pages, introducing distribution outside of the high school, and developing an online presence.
Famous alumni include Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
(Features Editor, 1959–1960; Editorial Assistant, 1960–1961) and Stephen Carter
Stephen Carter
Stephen Carter may refer to:*Stephen L. Carter , American law professor and writer*Stephen Carter, Baron Carter of Barnes , UK Government Communications, Technology and Broadcasting minister...
(Editor-in-Chief, 1971–1972).
The Tattler's slogan, a pun on the New York Times' slogan, is "All the news that's fit to tattle."
The Tattler has twice (in 2005 and 2007) won the Ithaca High School Class/Ithaca Public Education Initiative "Support Our School Community Award," an award given to the extracurricular activity "which has had the most positive impact on IHS".
History
There appears to have been a gap during the 1950s when the Tattler was not published. It returned by 1959 as a magazine-sized publication. It reported on the continuous upheaveals in the administration (garnering administration hostility) until the early 1980s, switching to its current tabloid size during the early 70s. From 1984 to 1992, it was renamed the IHS Press.
The "Tattler" name was restored (with the volume numbering restarted) in 1992 and has been in continuous publication since then.
2005 Controversy
The Tattler has been at the center of a controversy regarding censorshipCensorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
that has attracted attention from both the local media and national experts on journalism law.
In 2004 and early 2005 the Tattler published a number of controversial articles, most notably several articles strongly critical of the Ithaca High School administration and a restaurant review that some considered racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. In response, in January 2005 the Ithaca City School District
Ithaca City School District
The Ithaca City School District is a public school district centered in Ithaca, Caroline, Danby, Dryden and Enfield. Approximately 500 teachers work in the district, along with 100 other professional staff members and 200 paraprofessionals....
issued a set of guidelines, declaring the Tattler a school-sponsored publication and giving the faculty advisor considerably greater power to edit or remove objectionable material. The Tattler student editors believed that these guidelines violated First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
rights, and were angered that they had transferred power from what had been a primarily student-run organization to the school administration.
In the February 2005 issue, the Tattler's faculty advisor, Stephenie Vinch, found a sexually explicit cartoon in the issue offensive, and insisted that it be removed. 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. Both Wilson and Pastel ultimately rejected the appeals, also finding the cartoon obscene. In the midst of the controversy, Vinch resigned her position as faculty advisor, and school publication of the Tattler ground to a halt. At one point principal Wilson ordered the Tattler office closed.
Publication of the Tattler went underground, running out of editor-in-chief Rob Ochshorn’s house. The student staff produced a complete underground March issue, which the high school administration denied permission to distribute on school grounds because it contained the same cartoon that was earlier deemed obscene. Two further underground issues, in April and May, were also completed and were given approval to be distributed on school grounds.
Meanwhile, nationally renowned IHS mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
teacher Roselyn Teukolsky was named interim faculty advisor for the Tattler. The student staff worked under Teukolsky’s supervision to produce the June 2005 issue back on school grounds.
Later that month, the student editors announced that they were suing the Ithaca City School District, Superintendent Pastel, Principal Wilson, and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Bill Russell. The suit alleges that the school district violated the student editors’ First Amendment freedom of the press rights by instituting a policy of prior restraint. The suit seeks that the school district guidelines for the Tattler be declared unconstitutional, and that the district be prevented from enforcing these or any similar guidelines.
Some believe this to be a case of inappropriate censorship, violating freedom of the press, and see the school district as guilty of unconstitutionally censoring dissenting and controversial material. Others believe the school district is within their constitutional authority, taking appropriate action to prevent obscene and detrimental material from being distributed to the student body. The two Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
cases which govern this area of the law, Tinker vs. Des Moines
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that defined the constitutional rights of students in U.S. public schools...
(1969) and Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al., was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums for student expression are subject to a lower level of First Amendment protection...
(1988), are somewhat contradictory; the question of whether the paper is a "Tinker paper" or a "Hazelwood paper" is likely to be important to the outcome. "Tinker papers", established as "open forums", are relatively exempt from school censorship, while "Hazelwood papers", established as "limited public forums", are allowed more school control and restriction.
The matter is currently pending before Chief Judge Norman A. Mordue
Norman A. Mordue
Norman A. Mordue , is a United States District Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York....
of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York
United States District Court for the Northern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York serves one of the 94 judicial districts in the United States and one of four in the state of New York. The U.S. Attorney for the district is Richard S. Hartunian...
. The case is Ochshorn, et al., v. Ithaca City School District, et al., 5:05-CV-695. A judgment was originally expected in 2007. In March 2009 and again in January 2010, Judge Mordue refused to dismiss the lawsuit, although neither judgment was a complete victory for the plaintiffs. The case is now expected to be heard in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in the late spring or summer of 2010.
A similar situation occurred in the 1970s, with a student lawsuit against the District for censorship. The matter was settled out of court, but as part of the settlement the District made certain promises regarding the editorial independence
Editorial independence
Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising clientele....
of the paper in the future. At this time the details of the settlement are unavailable, but it is possible that the new guidelines violate this legal settlement.
News coverage about censorship
- "IHS Student Editors Dispute Content Rules", by Anne Ju, The Ithaca Journal, 13 May 2005
- "The Tattlers: IHS Senior Editors Continue Fight for the First Amendment", The Ithaca Times, 22 June 2005
- “Editorial: 'Tattler' troubles: Students and school must respect freedom”, The Ithaca Journal, 22 June 2005
- “Schooled”, Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2005
- "Ithaca High 'Tattler' Case Goes to Federal Appeals Court", The Ithaca Journal, 10 February 2010