diff --git a/app/models/story.rb b/app/models/story.rb
index 7e41645b7..2c51dc3f7 100644
--- a/app/models/story.rb
+++ b/app/models/story.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
   UNTITLED = "[untitled]"
 
   def headline
-    self.title.nil? ? UNTITLED : self.title[0, 50]
+    self.title.nil? ? UNTITLED : Loofah::Helpers.strip_tags(self.title)[0, 50]
   end
 
   def lead
diff --git a/spec/models/story_spec.rb b/spec/models/story_spec.rb
index 3667a4dbd..24d09c6d5 100644
--- a/spec/models/story_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/story_spec.rb
@@ -13,13 +13,31 @@
   end
 
   describe "#headline" do
-    it "truncates to 50 chars" do
-      story.headline.size.should eq(50)
+    context "plain string title" do
+
+      it "truncates to 50 chars" do
+        story.headline.size.should eq(50)
+      end
+
+      it "uses a fallback string if story has no title" do
+        story.title = nil
+        story.headline.should eq(Story::UNTITLED)
+      end
     end
 
-    it "uses a fallback string if story has no title" do
-      story.title = nil
-      story.headline.should eq(Story::UNTITLED)
+    context "title with HTML tags" do
+      before { story.title = "<a>#{Faker::Lorem.sentence(50)}</a>" }
+
+      it "strips HTML tags from story title" do
+        story.headline.should_not start_with('<a>')
+        story.headline.should_not end_with('</a>')
+      end
+
+      it "truncates to 50 chars after stripping tags" do
+        story.headline.should_not start_with('<a>')
+        story.headline.size.should eq(50)
+      end
+
     end
   end