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.

The suit, filed last week, claimed that Charlie Pratt endured years of anti-gay harassment during his time at Indian River High School, and his sister Ashley suffered the same bias at the same high school years after her brother left.

The school is located in Philadelphia, New York, northeast of Watertown.

Both Ashley and Charlie are represented by Lambda Legal and attorneys from the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. The suit was filed at the US District Court for the Northern District of New York.

“After years of denying students like Ashley, her brother Charlie and others their right to form a GSA, Indian River is taking an important first step toward righting its wrongs,” said Lambda Legal attorney Michael Kavey.

“Respecting students’ freedom to stand up for themselves and each other is a key part of creating a safe learning environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and their allies.”

The lawsuit said that Charlie Pratt was severely harassed throughout his time in the school district. Students attacked him relentlessly with anti-,gay and sexist slurs including names like “faggot,” “sissy,” “queer,” and “fudgepacker,” often in the presence of teachers who failed to intervene.

Students also are alleged to have pushed Charlie into walls and lockers, threatened him, threw food and other objects at him, spat on him, and vandalized his locker with anti-gay slurs. Staff members at the high school joined the harassment by ridiculing Charlie with stereotypically effeminate gestures in front of other students, according to the suit.

Then-principal James Kettrick — now the district’s superintendent — refused to take appropriate action, and instead told Charlie and his parents, Bobbi and Todd Petranchuk, that Charlie should “tone it down” to avoid harassment, Lambda Legal said in a media statement at the time the lawsuit was filed.

Lambda said that the principal refused Bobbi Petranchuk’s request to train teachers to address anti-gay bullying, and he failed to change the school’s written policies to match state anti-harassment laws covering sexual orientation. Left with no other options, Charlie’s parents withdrew him from school for his own protection, the suit said.

“We hope the District’s statement that it will finally allow the GSA signals an effort to fully address the discriminatory atmosphere at the schools,”  said Sudwiti Chanda, a partner in the New York offices of Kirkland. ”We will work with Ashley to ensure that the District follows through on its promise to promote tolerance and inclusiveness by providing support, and equal opportunity and treatment to the GSA.”

While the District’s approval of a GSA addresses some aspects of the lawsuit, Lambda and Kirkland & Ellis said they will press forward with other claims, including claims for damages on behalf of both plaintiffs. The lawsuit seeks damages for Charlie for violations of the federal Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Free Speech Clause, as well as for violations of Title IX, the Federal Equal Access Act, and New York state antidiscrimination laws.

But a lawyer for the Nassau County School Board said the group’s name, Gay-Straight Alliance, is against school policy.

Yulee High School students Hannah Page and Jacob Brock, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, are suing the school board to overturn its decision banning them from forming the club at school. Yulee is about 25 miles north of Jacksonville, near the Georgia state line.

U.S. District Judge Henry Adams Jr. said he would issue a ruling on a motion for a preliminary injunction “as soon as I can,” but gave Nassau County three days to submit additional written arguments. The students want an injunction to allow them to meet until the case goes to trial.

ACLU Attorney Robert F. Rosenwald Jr. argued that Page and Brock had been the target of anti-gay epithets and threats of violence at school and wanted to start the Gay-Straight Alliance to open a discourse among students.

Attorney Frank Sheppard, who represents the school board, said the district’s main complaint is the name of the group, saying it does not approve of groups dealing with sexual orientation and noted the school has an abstinence-based sex education curriculum.

“If they change the name and comply with Nassau County School Board policies they can meet,” he said.

The judge questioned Sheppard over the school’s objection to the name.

“A Gay-Straight Alliance, that covers everybody doesn’t it?” Adams asked.

After the hearing, Page said the group doesn’t want to change its name because it represents what the club is about.

“This school is ashamed of using the word ‘gay’ In this environment,” she said.

School officials had no problem with the idea of tolerance and rejecting bullying, Sheppard said, but they believe the club will be disruptive.

Rosenwald noted that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meets on campus. He told the judge that an FCA booklet includes references to sexual issues, including a student pledge to remain sexually pure and an article about dealing with homosexuality in the locker room.

Sheppard said he was unaware of the document and Adams said he could have three days to respond to it.

Rosenwald asked for the injunction, noting that Brock, a junior, and Page, a freshman, might be out of school before the case is decided.

“These students are in a short window on this,” he said.

The ACLU recently won a similar case in Okeechobee. A judge there ruled schools must provide for the well-being of gay students and cannot discriminate against a Gay-Straight Alliance.

Rosenwald said the Okeechobee County School Board paid $326,000 in attorneys fees in the case.

The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus, said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to allow the club to meet at Yulee High while the case makes it way to trial.

Page said the group just wants to meet like others do.

“We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent,” she said.

John L. Ruis, the school district’s superintendent, said in a letter to Rosenwald that “a club highlighting sexual orientations will not be permitted as it would violate school board policy.” The Nassau County School Board was served with the lawsuit.

The ACLU recently won a similar case in Okeechobee. A judge there ruled schools must provide for the well-being of gay students and cannot discriminate against the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Rosenwald said the Okeechobee County School Board paid $326,000 in attorneys fees in the case.

Yulee is about 25 miles north of Jacksonville.

Irmo High School principal Eddie Walker in May said he would quit at the end of the 2008-09 school year because the group conflicts with his beliefs and religious convictions.

The resignation announcement sparked a fury of controversy in the community and led to demands by parents that the Gay-Straight Alliance be officially barred from organizing.

Faced with the threat of a lawsuit in support of the gay students, the Lexington-Richland School District 5 school board considered a proposal to ban all extra-curricular clubs.

The board then changed its mind and voted in June to allow clubs, but to give parents the right to decide which clubs their children can join.  The board also voted to prohibit clubs from discussing sexually explicit topics in keeping with the district’s abstinence-based curriculum.

At the time Walker repeated his intention to quit over the club. But now, it appears, Walker has changed his mind.

Interim superintendent Herbert Berg received a letter from Walker this week “indicating his desire to remain at Irmo High School,” The State newspaper reported Friday.

Like other employees, Walker’s contract will be up for renewal in the spring. A school district spokesperson did not indicate if he will be offered a new contract.

A study released by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in 2006 showed that homophobia is widespread in the nation’s schools.

Nearly one in five students reported they had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth  because of their gender expression.

Three-quarters of students surveyed said that over the past year they heard derogatory remarks such as “faggot” or “dyke” frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten  reported hearing “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” – meaning stupid or worthless – frequently or often.

Over a third of students said they experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter on the basis of their gender expression.

The study also showed that bullying has had a negative impact on learning.

Two students sued the school district in September 2005, claiming that groups including the Spirit Council, the Asian Culture Group and the Chess Club were allowed to publicize meetings and events, but members of Straights and Gays for Equality (SAGE) were consistently denied such requests.

The plaintiffs were two female students who were seniors at the school.  They were represented by  the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

Defendants included the current and past superintendents of the Osseo School District, the school’s principal and the district’s school board members.

The lawsuit claimed a violation of the federal Equal Access Act, which holds that public schools must extend the same privileges to all student-organized, non-curricular clubs.

Last year, a federal judge ordered the school district to recognize the club and to treat SAGE like any other student group when it came to access for meetings, avenues for communication and other rights.

The school district appealed to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court ruling upholds the lower court ruling.

“The federal Equal Access Act makes it crystal clear that schools can’t pick and choose how they treat clubs based on which students’ views they like and which ones they don’t,” said Chuck Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU of Minnesota. 

“These students wanted nothing more than a place to talk about how to stop anti-gay harassment and discrimination at their school and in the community.  That’s something schools should welcome, rather than waste taxpayer money and break the law to stop.”

Students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” Judge K. Michael Moore said in his written ruling.

The battle for recognition of the GSA began in 2006 ,when student Yasmin Gonzalez and her girlfriend were told they could not attend the school prom as a couple.

The rejection was one of several incidents targeting LGBT students at Okeechobee High School and led to the formation of the GSA.

The school blocked the club from meeting on campus and the students sought the help of the ACLU which filed the federal suit.

The ACLU argued that the Equal Access Act stipulates that when a school allows any non-curricular club to meet on campus, it must allow all non-curricular clubs to meet on campus.

The school district argued at the time that the Equal Access Act can’t be used in the case of a GSA and that Florida law requires schools to teach abstinence, “while teaching the benefits of monogamous marriage.”

In his ruling Moore made legal history for a federal court, saying that schools must provide for the well-being of gay students to the same extent as straight students, and therefore, the school may not discriminate against the GSA.

The school violated the students’ First Amendment rights, the ruling said.

Judge Moore quoted the famed 1969 Tinker case stating that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”  Moore went on to state that “the desire of the GSA to meet as a group to discuss matters pertinent to the challenges presented by their non-heterosexual identity and to build understanding and trust with other heterosexual students sounds in the political speech addressed in Tinker.”

In referencing Tinker, Moore was referring to Gillman v. School Board for Holmes County, Fla., a first amendment case won by the ACLU in May. In a two-day trial, the high school principal testified that he believed clothing or stickers featuring rainbows would make students automatically picture gay people having sex. 

In June, federal judge Richard Smoak ordered Ponce de Leon High School to pay $325,000 in legal fees to the ACLU after ruling that the school violated student Heather Gilman’s Constitutional right to free speech. Gillman and her friends were suspended from school after wearing clothes and stickers supporting their openly gay friends.

In his order Moore grants students in the Okeechobee GSA “all the rights and privileges granted to other noncurricular groups.”

“Judge Moore’s ruling that GSAs are beneficial to gay students and that they don’t harm straight students is unparalleled. This is a clear victory for the students, for the Okeechobee GSA and indeed for all high school students in Florida,” said Robert Rosenwald, director of the ACLU of Florida LGBT Advocacy Project. 

“These are brave students who would not be silenced and did not tolerate discrimination.  So many children cannot stand up for themselves, but hopefully this ruling will serve as warning to other Florida schools that equal access truly means equal access, and schools that choose not to follow the law will be inviting similar litigation,” he said.

The order will allow the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight students to meet on campus, just as other non-curricular clubs do, to discuss issues about bullying, tolerance and discrimination. GSAs across the state and country have been shown to help gay and straight students feel safer at school, and provide an open forum for students to discuss their fears, hopes and challenges.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am that the judge agreed we have a right to create a safe space for gay students at my school,” said Brittany Martin, a 17-year-old upcoming senior at OHS who is the GSA’s president.  She added, “All we’ve ever wanted was to have a club to talk about tolerance and harassment so we can try to make our school a better place for all students.”