The debate over First Amendment rights in public high schools made a small advance Jun. 15, when the Student Press Law Center and two other journalism organizations filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to rule in favor of an Ithaca public school paper subjected to censorship.

Eight former editors of The Ithaca High School Tattler gained a small victory in their fight for First Amendment rights in high school journalism: On Jan. 26., U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue issued a decision allowing an appeal of his earlier ruling that dismissed some of the students’ claims.

This school year is bringing more than just new freshmen to Ithaca and Lansing High Schools. Two new principals, Don Mills at Ithaca and Eric Hartz at Lansing, will join these new students in getting their bearings on the unfamiliar terrain.

“I’m in a community that cares very much about kids and academics,” Hartz said. The former Cortland State football player is more than familiar with the Lansing community; he has been part of it for 18 years, and says he originally moved to Lansing because of the secondary education.

After four years of waiting, seven former editors of Ithaca High School’s newspaper received some good news from federal judge Norman Mordue on Mar. 24: their lawsuit against the Ithaca City School District for infringing on students’ First Amendment rights is now officially going to trial.

In 2004, The Tattler, IHS’s student-run publication, printed some controversial pieces, including one that criticized their Principal, Joe Wilson. The ICSD promptly imposed an unprecedented set of guidelines on the Tattler, which, among other things, gave the administration veto power over any proposed paper content. Rob Ochshorn ’09, The Tattler’s editor-in-chief at the time, resorted to publishing and distributing the paper underground for several months.