Ann Long was excited.

The high school journalist expected her somewhat shocking profile of three gay students at Troy High School in Fullerton, Calif., to generate some buzz when it was printed in the school's newspaper, the Oracle. But she had no idea how far that buzz would go.

Upon publication, the school's administration asked her to resign from her post as co-editor in chief at the newspaper, claiming that she violated ethical journalism standards and a state education code that prohibits asking students about their sexuality. When she refused to step down, she was fired. And now students, faculty and journalism experts around the country are talking about the issue.

"This is very frustrating because you have a journalist who did her job and made sure she was as responsible in reporting a story as she could be and an administration that didn't like what it saw and went off the deep end," said Mark Goodman, director of the Student Press Law Center. "It seems that there are a lot of high schools around the country that don't want to celebrate the good work done by their student journalists, but rather punish them for it."

The controversy started when Long published an article this past December that profiled the lives of three students at Troy High School and their recent decisions to reveal their homosexuality to their friends and family. The three students, two of whom are 18 and one 15, all spoke on the record and gave permission to tell the story.

Long said she worked with journalism advisers on the story for about a month and even went as far as discussing what kind of an impact the story might have at the school and on the students involved. But she never expected to be in trouble herself.

After the story ran, Long said she was summoned to Assistant Principal Joseph D'Amelia's office and told she was required, by California education codes, to get permission from the students' parents to report that kind of personal information. The state codes also require parental permission before asking about family life, morality and religious issues.

However, here is where the situation gets sticky. Some education and legal experts say the code applies only to faculty and not to other students and therefore, the story was reported without violating any rules.

Others agreed with the school officials, claiming that since minors can't legally waive their rights to privacy in discussing these topics, a journalist, whether student or professional, is required to get parental permission. However, the consensus is that it would up to the parents to lodge a complaint and not the school, as was the case at Troy.

"I can't find any rational reason for telling the student to step down," Goodman said. "Nobody complained. The only people that seemed to have a problem with it were the administrators and that's strange."

Troy High School administrators as well as officials for the Fullerton Joint Union High School District aren't commenting on the situation. As soon as the issue was published, D'Amelia asked Long to step down and she refused. A couple weeks ago, she was fired. Long, a senior, said previously she would consider fighting such a decision, but so far she has kept quiet.

School and district officials said they had absolutely no problems with the content of the story, but rather the way the information was gathered and the story was reported. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Patricia Howell, deputy superintendent for the Fullerton district, said Long was only being punished for violating the state education code.

"We're not saying there is anything wrong with the article," Howell said in the LA Times story. "Freedom of speech is not at issue. Confidentiality and privacy rights are the issue."

Long has said that she feels she was treated unfairly. In retrospect, she said she can see now that maybe she should have tried to get the parents' permission before interviewing the students, but at the time she was unaware that getting permission was required. Also, she said she doesn't feel she needed permission to write or publish the story, especially after the students voluntarily talked to her. She said she was told that she had to make an example of herself for not doing her job or the school would. And she doesn't quite understand why.

Neither do many local and national organizations, many of who have voiced their support for Long and asked the school to rehire the former co-editor, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Student Press Law Center. Goodman said this was an important issue for media and student groups to discuss and do something about.

"She's not getting much support at the school, including from her journalism advisers and that's not a good sign," he said. "It's important to point out that she is a student journalist who did her job and she is getting punished for it."