In February 2008, principal Joseph M. Wilson was granted tenure in return for agreeing to resign at the end of the 2008–2009 school year. Wilson had been the subject of considerable controversy in his time at IHS. In 2005 he was sued in federal court for the alleged censorship of the school newspaper, The Tattler; the case was ultimately ruled on by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In December 2007, over 200 Ithaca residents signed a petition calling for him to be fired after what they believed was Wilson's mishandling of a series of racially charged incidents in the school.