Wooster, Ohio ? School officials in a district where the policy is to allow students freedom of speech confiscated thousands of copies of the high school newspaper after learning it contained an article in which students talked about drinking alcohol at a party.

Student editors said the article quoted the daughter of a school board member saying she had consumed alcohol, and they believe that was the reason about 4,500 copies of the Wooster Blade were seized.

James Jackson, the principal at Wooster High School, confirmed Saturday that the papers was taken after a teacher told him about a possible confidentiality problem with the story.

Federal law forbids naming students who face disciplinary action without parents’ permission, and at least one student claimed to have been misquoted, Jackson said. Violating privacy rights could leave the school vulnerable to lawsuits, he said.

The student journalists disagreed and called the Student Press Law Center.

Mike Hiestand, an attorney for the Arlington, Va.-based center, said he reviewed the reporting at the student editors’ request and saw nothing in the Blade that violated libel laws.