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Loading ...Tennessee schools sued for blocking LGBT sites
05.19.2009 5:33pm EDT
(Nashville, Tennessee) The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against two Tennessee school districts, charging the schools are unconstitutionally blocking students from accessing online information about LGBT issues.
The lawsuit names Knox County Schools and Metropolitan Nashville Schools and was filed on behalf of two high school students in Nashville, one student in Knoxville and a high school librarian in Knoxville who is also the advisor of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).Students at Knox County and Metro Nashville schools and others are being denied access to content that is protected speech under the First Amendment as well as the Tennessee state constitution, the lawsuit says.
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.
When public schools only allow access to one side of an issue by blocking certain websites, they’re engaging in illegal viewpoint discrimination, the ACLU 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.
The ACLU said that as many as 107 Tennessee public school districts, or roughly 80 percent, could be illegally preventing students from accessing online information about LGBT issues.
While non-sexual websites advocating the fair treatment of LGBT people are blocked, websites that urge LGBT persons to change their sexual orientation or gender identity through so-called “reparative therapy” or “ex-gay” ministries can still be easily accessed by students, the ACLU said.
Andrew Emitt, a 17-year-old senior at Central High School in Knoxville, was at the school library searching for scholarships for LGBT students when he discovered he couldn’t access websites for non-profit advocacy and educational organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Instead of the websites, a message appeared on his screen stating that the filtering software his school used blocked gay websites. Frustrated in his attempts to resolve the issue on his own, Andrew contacted ACLU-TN.
The ACLU sent a letter to the school districts last month warning them they were illegally preventing students from accessing online information about LGBT issues.
The letter demanded 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.
The lawsuit was filed when the school districts did not respond.
Thank god something is happening in Tennessee. Our rights have been ripped away by conservative voters and lawmakers. I hope something good will come from this. I am a Tennessee resident and voter. I wish nothing but clarity and hope for the ACLU and Tennessee students who have a voice and maybe just maybe we can change this ugly picture known as marriage defense act.
Cool! The school district won’t win this one, IMO…
Upside of this article: Despite the oft-lamented decline in civics education, it appears that high school kids still know how to spot a constitutional issue… and who to call when they do.
Oh, and RJLigier: No way are these going to remain blocked. The chief circumstances in which restrictions on student speech or access to information have been upheld involve the potential for disruption of educational activities and/or content that is sexually indecent (even if not quite obscene).
For the former – the risk of disruption must be significant and immediate, and the disruption itself substantial. Tinker v. Des Moines – the famous “black armband” case – extended constitutional protection to students who wore the armbands to protest the Vietnam War, because the high Court found that this conduct would NOT be sufficiently disruptive of the school’s educational mission. And this was at the height of the controversy – in 1969. Disagreement over Vietnam drove apart entire families, across the country. While there are still a few places where homosexuality is that controversial, I don’t think that, on average, it could possibly be MORE so in 2009 than Vietnam was in 1969. (And can there possibly BE anything more “disruptive” of an educational mission than restricting students’ access to both sides of a complex, ongoing social debate?!?)
For the latter – indecency, in the setting of constitutional law, is defined as “having a tendency to excite a prurient [i.e., lustful] interest in the mind of the audience”. Admittedly, this is to some extent a subjective standard – i.e., the boundary for indecency does depend somewhat on the people in the setting. Even so, I don’t think there’s even a remote chance that sites like HRC, PFLAG, and GLSEN, addressing as they do the *social and legal* matters surrounding GLBTQ-ness, could be regarded as indecent. I presume the school is hanging its hat on a sort of ill-defined ramble about how sexual orientation necessarily implies sex – but this can be shot down with a spitball and a soda straw. A, sites OPPOSING GLBTQ equality would “imply” sex in exactly the same way. And B, if a limited, cursory mention of an orientation or attraction is tantamount to selling “sex”, then high schools would also be able to toss out of their libraries any teen novel that so much as mentions DATING (because dating implies attraction, and we all know where THAT often goes!) Yet we don’t see that happening – which just re-emphasizes the viewpoint-discriminatory and animus-laden quality of Central High’s actions. (And note that “time, place and manner” restrictions in general cannot even discriminate on the basis of CONTENT of speech, much less specific viewpoints within a given set of content!)
It’s a clear case. Now these brave students and their attorneys just have to undertake the effort of sticking the school to it. Good luck and Godspeed!
If it was another time in our history, African American sites would be blocked, and the KKK would be the computers homepage.
Lets just relable the south the Homophobic States of America.
And yes, I support the ACLU also.
I thought this was all fought out earlier this year. Maybe that was the GSA formation itself. GO ACLU… they are getting over half of all my donation $$.
This will be a difficult fight in Tennessee. Apparently one the ACLU of Tennessee is willing to take on.
God Bless the ACLU and all they do to protect the rights of the people.
Its tough time, but send a donation to show your support
The funniest thing that I find is that all the ex-gay organizations are christian based. There doesn’t seem to be any out there for any other religions. Nothing for the Jews, Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists or even the Muslims. I could be wrong but that is the way it looks. And we know how much christian priests like their little boys. I hope the ACLU really gets a BIG settlement for this one just to show that there are two sides to every story.
RJLigier, why don’t you have a filter like this, so you can avoid contaminating your brain with anything beyond Fox News? Doesn’t somebody love you enough to do that for you?
No, it’s not already decided.
RE: post by “RJLigier”
Actually, it hasn’t been decided in “other” venues. I know and you know the sites will be unblocked.
Ken
San Francisco
It is outrageous how schools seem to think that blocking these sites will prevent the students from learning about LGBT issues. Is this a way to show their discrimination against the LGBT community? If so then not only do children need to be educated but the teachers do also.
I am currently in high school and my school also blocks LGBT sites. Of the major sites that are blocked are this one, the Point Foundation, and the Day of Silence website. But they do not even try to hide why they are blocking it, when you try to go to the sites it comes up as ‘Gay and Lesbian.’
The students should certainly win in this case. If the school is supported in this it’s just another show to LGBT students that their schools do not care about them nor will they protect them.
Already been decided in other venues. The sites will remain blocked.
People…ignoring people never makes them go away – we learned that what, nearly 50 years ago now?
This was really cute. Its like they’re asking the gay community to do it, haha. They must be under the impression that we’re all as complacent as ever like during the “good ol days”. You can see it everywhere – every anti-lgbt nut who gets locked into a debate with someone on the LGBT side, ends up looking foolish.
I mean come on now….blocking internet sites centering around the LGBT community? Damn fools probably thought it would encourage people to become gay or they assumed it was pornographic. Cant wait to hear this excuse when they do get enough courage to make a “response” and it had better involve some serious butt-kiss.
Most of the time, I love the ACLU. This is one of those times!