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.

When I was in law school we participated in a mock court competition where the issue of gay straight alliances was in question. It was based on a landmark decision that had recently come out in favor of GSAs. But the news today illustrates that the question of support groups for gay students in high school is far from settled.

Florida, that lovely state that has been flip flopping on gay rights all year, houses Yulee High School. Yulee has banned the formation of a GSA and now the ACLU is suing on behalf of the students.

Many schools across the country have actually denied all non-academic clubs in order to legally prevent GSAs on campus (the logic is that if all types of a certain speech are banned it does not violate the Constitution – get rid of all social clubs and you get rid of the gays). But every once and a while a school slips up and allows a Christian club or a babysitters club to form. That triggers the constitutional right to set up your own GSA.

But the kinds of clubs do not settle the question.

Many administrators say that they are banning the GSA because gay kids in their school are harassed so mercilessly, gathering them all in one room would create a lightning point of contention and could risk the safety of gay students. The court gives deference to school administrators because they know the specific social circumstances of the school better than a judge in a different city or, in the case of the Supreme Court, a different part of the country altogether. This argument has convinced some lower courts that a GSA is just too risky at this point in history.

Thankfully, the Federal Court disagrees. It thinks that punishing a small group of students because of the intolerant actions of the masses is unconstitutional. Based on this logic, even if the whole school protested classes because of the GSA, the school administrators would be responsible for punishing each of their students before eliminating the gay club.

I think students who establish these alliances are incredibly brave. The courts have documented the kind of violence gay students face in small towns and conservative cities across America and has traditionally supported the students’ bravery.

Now if only we could get the administrators onside….