diff --git a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
index 0e48889ebf8fd9cd5c39ddebb3902a3b9a63fd10..ab98c894b827016ec024df04e7bc76bbef9ed0bb 100644
--- a/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/application_helper.rb
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ module ApplicationHelper
               alt: "Sign in with #{provider.to_s.titleize}")
   end
 
-  def simple_sanitize str
+  def simple_sanitize(str)
     sanitize(str, tags: %w(a span))
   end
 
diff --git a/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
index 0d066be5b458f15a40663476150f8c1285e7049f..d63a2de880627d58f2833b28c4e8ef3a1873f977 100644
--- a/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/helpers/application_helper_spec.rb
@@ -123,4 +123,21 @@ describe ApplicationHelper do
     end
   end
 
+  describe "simple_sanitize" do
+    let(:a_tag) { '<a href="#">Foo</a>' }
+
+    it "allows the a tag" do
+      simple_sanitize(a_tag).should == a_tag
+    end
+
+    it "allows the span tag" do
+      input = '<span class="foo">Bar</span>'
+      simple_sanitize(input).should == input
+    end
+
+    it "disallows other tags" do
+      input = "<strike><b>#{a_tag}</b></strike>"
+      simple_sanitize(input).should == a_tag
+    end
+  end
 end