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Loading ...Tennessee schools block LGBT info sites, not ‘ex-gay’ sites
04.16.2009 12:39pm EDT
(Nashville, Tennessee) As many as 107 Tennessee public school districts could be illegally preventing students from accessing online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, according to a letter to sent to school officials by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The letter demands that Knox County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the Tennessee Schools Cooperative unblock the Internet filtering category designated “LGBT” so that students can access political and educational information about LGBT issues on school computers.“When I found out about this web filtering software, I wasn’t looking for anything sexual or inappropriate – I was looking for information about scholarships for LGBT students, and I couldn’t get to it because of this software,” said Andrew Emitt, a 17-year-old senior at Central High School in Knoxville, in a statement released by the ACLU.
“Our schools shouldn’t be keeping students in the dark about LGBT organizations and resources,” Emitt said.
In its letter, the ACLU gives the districts and the Tennessee Schools Cooperative until April 29 to come up with a plan to restore access to the LGBT sites or any other category that blocks non-sexual websites advocating the fair treatment of LGBT people by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.
If that deadline is not met, the ACLU will file a lawsuit, the letter warned.
“Students at Knox County and Metro Nashville schools are being denied access to content that is protected speech under the First Amendment as well as the Tennessee state constitution,” said Tricia Herzfeld, Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee.
“This kind of censorship does nothing but hurt students, whether they’re being harassed at school and want to know about their legal rights or are just trying to finish an assignment for a class.”
The Internet filtering software used by Knox County and Metro Nashville school districts blocks student access to the websites of many well-known national LGBT organizations, including: Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network; the Human Rights Campaign; The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; Dignity USA; Marriage Equality USA; and the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry.
In its demand letter, the ACLU notes that websites that urge LGBT persons to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through so-called “reparative therapy” or “ex-gay” ministries – a practice denounced as dangerous and harmful to young people by such groups as the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics – can still be easily accessed by students.
“One of the problems with this software is that it only allows students access to one side of information about topics that are part of the public debate right now, like marriage for same-sex couples,” said Karyn Storts-Brinks, a librarian at Fulton High School in Knoxville.
“Students who need to do research for assignments on current events can only get one viewpoint, keeping them from being able to cover both sides of the issue. That’s not fair and can hinder their schoolwork,” she said.
No federal or state law requires school districts to block access to LGBT sites. Tennessee law only requires schools to implement filtering software to restrict information that is obscene or harmful to minors.
About 80 percent of Tennessee public schools, including those in the Knox County and Metro Nashville districts, use filtering software provided by Education Networks of America, and the software’s default setting blocks sites ENA categorizes as LGBT the ACLU said.
The ACLU said it believes that most of the 107 Tennessee school districts that use ENA’s filtering software keep the LGBT category blocked. ENA blocks access to a wide category of “LGBT” sites described on the organization’s website as ” Sites that provide information regarding, support, promote, or cater to one’s sexual orientation or gender identity including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender sites.
“When public schools only allow access to one side of an issue by blocking certain websites, they’re engaging in illegal viewpoint discrimination,” said Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director of the ACLU of Tennessee.
“Over a hundred other school districts in Tennessee use the same filtering software used in Metro Nashville and Knox County, and we’re eager to find out whether any of those systems are also violating students’ Constitutional rights by restricting access to LGBT sites.”
If anyone or 365 can get info to Andrew let him know LEAGUE at ATT has a scholarship foundation
http://www.league-att.org/league_foundation.
Keep up the Good Fight Andrew.
I live in the South, namely Alabama. I know first hand how the school system looks the other way when gay people’s rights are being violated. In our Health class, when we studied the chapter on human sexuality, homosexuality was hardly mentioned (less than a paragraph) and the teacher didn’t mention it at all during the lectures. It’s as if they pretend that it doesn’t exist, or wish it didn’t.
Racial comment are punished, however any derogatory comments about homosexuals or anyone perceived as homosexuals go ignored even when made by teachers or staff. My little brother is in 5th grade and his teacher has called the students fairies on many occasions. How can we teach tolerance when these kids are learning just the opposite from their teachers.
Blocking information about LGBT is just another example of how school systems try to keep children from learning the truth.
Some of you have a certain pungent and reflexive hatred of anyone and anything with its origins in a state which seceded from the US roughly 160 years ago. I went to Nashville schools; strangely enough, as conservative as they were, I got a FAR better general education than what I see in Ohio. Sarrellec, you especially seem to insist on reliving the childhood trauma of living in Arkansas. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but your willful ignorance is stunning. I guess you and some others assume that ALL of Tennessee is illiterate, spending the live-long day playing banjo while wandering from still to pot patch to Klan rally. Hmm…guess I missed that. Must’ve been time to go to the company store and pick up that year’s new shoes.
Did any of you bother to ask the obvious questions? First, was the filter state- or possibly Federally-mandated? Second, who paid for the filters–the state, Federal grants, or the school districts from their own revenues? Third, who established the parameters for vendor eligibility? Fourth, who established the filter parameters? Fifth, does the vendor have a history of aligning itself with a political party? All of these are easy questions to ask. But why ask questions and get more information about something, when instead you can sling mud for no other purpose than an ad hominem gotcha?
As it stands right now, one of the major obstacles to marriage equality in New York State is a representative-cum-reverend from the Bronx, which by itself has almost as many people as the Nashville metro area. Oh, that’s different–and I guess the pleasantly-homophobic Alfonse D’Amato wasn’t representative of millions of New Yorkers outside of Chelsea. Bigotry and ignorance are everywhere. Sometimes, bigotry and ignorance are especially pungent among “victims”–condescending gays in gay colonies, man-hating women, racist blacks. Some of you should be so gracious as to remove yourselves from that camp.
Nothing like blowing this whole deal open. Send a contribution to the ACLU. And sit back and hopefully watch the grandchildren of the KKK of old get what they deserve.
Why are kids searching the internet at school?
That is the same thing in our school….it will let me on 365gay but not on logo and a huge ERROR page comes up when I try to go on any other gay sites….its ridiculous
I think this ready availability of information on the discredited “reparative therapy” is the most dangerous aspect of this whole situation. All reputable medical and mental health organizations have stated it is useless and very dangerous. In view of this, why is it allowed? Shock treatments and brain surgery were eliminated long ago after doing much damage. This type of abuse is in the same category. Just because ignorant people promote it and ignore its dangers. doesn’t mean society has to tolerate it.
Oh so what.
What else can be expected of the dumb-shit south?
Hello, Jesusland–reality calling!
How else can they maintain their determined ignorance without artificially altering information and the access thereof?
The greatest threat to religion and conservatism is information and knowledge.
Repubnicans LOVE imbeciles.
As do religious organizations.
As the greatest threat to religion just happens to ALSO be information and knowledge.
Imagine that.
Yes. TN will take this to court, and they will LOSE. They will take it to more courts and they will LOSE. They will waste tons of money and in the end, they will LOSE. Issues such as this have already been settled in any number of cases. The fact that ONLY gay neutral and gay supportive content is banned and not anti-gay content as well is particularly bad for the states argument.
I think all of this internet filtering in the schools is absurd anyway as I know from experience that it is very heavy handed and ALL kinds of valid educational resources are blocked. It would really make what’s left of the internet not worthwhile if it weren’t for the fact that ALL the kids STILL get to the sites they want to go to most of the time through the use of proxie servers. If that fails, they can STILL access the sites they want on their iPhones and such.
When will the censors of this country realize that they have lost. If they want to live in a world where internet content is strictly controlled and censored, they should consider moving to North Korea.
This filtering software is just a big waste of money and an inconvenience.
Hey, at least rest easy knowing that there are probably a ton of pro-incest sites available to the kids. So when they follow their inbred parents example and breed amongst themselves, they’ll eventually die out.
As an added note, I’m fully aware that not everyone in the South is an inbred hick…just a vast majority.
I agree that school boards and schools MUST block sites showing sexual activity whether Gay or straight. However, students do have a RIGHT to have access to information so they can learn real facts about human sexuality, their sexual orientation and human rights issues for LGBT people. As for reparative therapy, reputable psychologists and medical practitioners regard it as either quack therapy or very dangerous. Furthermore, allowing transformation ministries access to students could violate laws regarding separation between church and state. Clearly, Tennessee schools are involved in several violations of students rights to a complete education.
Patrick: Unfortunately so. Too bad the district will probably decide to waste that money rather than betray their “morals.”
Now that this has been brought to light, let’s see if the school will comply with the demand made by the ACLU. Sad to say, but I doubt it. If not it will just be more tax dollars spent fighting a useless lawsuit when the money could be going toward education.
So, the Christian Taliban is alive and well in Tennessee. Maybe Obama needs to direct some of our troops headed to Afganistan to Tennessee. The heads of these edcation institution need to be sent to a “reparative” camp – after a brain implant.
Whenever it’s a government agency, you follow the money to get your answer. How did this happen? The content filter. I’d like to know if the vendor has a habit of making political contributions, and I’d like to know what contacts they have both in state government and in the legislature. This wasn’t an accident–as shown by Amazon, content filters only filter what a human tells them to.