By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:26pm
On Thursday, subscribers to the conservative Weekly Standard received an email fundraising pitch from the president of a fringe anti-gay organization, Public Advocate of the United States, which directed tremendous venom at the Student Non-Discrimination Act, labeling it the “Homosexual Classrooms Act.” The email, first reported by Justin Elliott writing on Salon.com, opens with the following outrageous and hate-filled accusation, which would be laughable if it were not so deeply offensive:
By Kary L. Moss, Executive Director, ACLU of Michigan at 1:21pm
Michigan is a microcosm of the nation’s current economic crisis: a shrinking job base and an education system that is failing its youth. As the presidential candidates wind through Michigan this campaign season, like they did last week for a national debate on the economy, we hope they focus on ways to ensure that more students graduate with high school diplomas. We need every eligible high school graduate to attend college and help build the American economic engine with highly skilled labor and entrepreneurial know-how.
By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 1:18pm
According to a new study, sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual touching and sexual coercion as well as milder behaviors, is a regular feature of going to school for a significant number of American middle- and high-school students. The American Association of University Women released a study yesterday, surveying nearly 2000 students in grades 7 through 12. According to the study, girls reported being harassed more than boys, and harassment affected girls more negatively than boys. Of great concern, 13% of girls reported being touched in an unwelcome sexual way, 9% reported being physically intimidated in a sexual way, and 4% reported being forced to do something sexual.
We've put together a step-by-step video that guides you through starting a GSA, from explaining why you want a club, to things to do when you start meeting.
This week, a college in Missouri broke the law and violated the Fourth Amendment rights of its students. Linn State Technical College became the first public institution of higher learning to implement mandatory drug testing of all new students, as well as those returning from extended leaves of absence.
Can't say we didn't warn them. Back in May, as part of our Don't Filter Me project, the ACLU sent a letter to the Camdenton School District informing them that the web filters they use on school computers were unconstitutionally blocking access to hundreds of LGBT websites, including sites that contain anti-bullying information and other resources for student gay-straight alliances. We informed them that if they failed to disable the filter, they would be "subject to legal liability and the expense of litigation…"
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:08pm
This Monday marks an historic first for the federal government. The Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice are hosting a two-day federal summit to focus specifically on the unique needs and challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. This is the first-ever federal summit to focus specifically on LGBT youth. In announcing the summit, the Department of Education wrote:
With so much recent news coverage on suicides of LGBT youth, those of us who work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender safe schools issues have a lot on our plate. We're trying to figure out how best to respond to the needs of LGBT youth, as always. But we're also thinking about how to use the current media attention to these issues as a teachable moment to get the public to understand the importance of school anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and laws that include gender identity and sexual orientation. Those topics and more were part of the discussion at last week's convening of the National Safe Schools Roundtable, a coalition of organizations that work to make schools safer for LGBT students, which I attended in Minneapolis on behalf of the ACLU LGBT Project.
