Fallbrook

Attorneys representing two high school students suspended for publishing an underground newspaper have filed a countersuit against the Fallbrook Union High School District in North County Superior Court. Charles Bird, who is representing the youths in conjunction with an attorney from the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages and a guarantee that the Fallbrook High School students may “publish without threat.”

Fallbrook High School Principal Henry Woessner suspended junior Daniel Gluesenkamp from school for several days last fall after one issue of The Hatchet Job was published. School officials contended it contained obscene and libelous material. Woessner said Gluesenkamp and assistant editor Philip Tiso had violated policy by not letting administrators review the publication before it was distributed on campus.

In February, the district filed a declaratory release against the students and their parents, asking the court to rule that school officials did not violate First Amendment rights by suspending the teen-agers.

Bird said the countersuit essentially “seeks a ruling by the court on the illegality of certain written policies of the district, and the illegality of actions by certain school authorities.”