Demand Letter Sent As Part Of Organization’s “Don’t Filter Me” Initiative
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dotty Griffith, ACLU of Texas, (512) 600-8421 or (512) 923-1909; [email protected] or Robyn Shepherd, ACLU national, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; [email protected]
AUSTIN – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Texas today demanded that officials at Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District stop viewpoint-based censorship of web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The ACLU has sent similar letters to schools across the country as part of the organization’s national “Don’t Filter Me” initiative, which seeks to combat illegal censorship of pro-LGBT information on public school computer systems.
The campaign asks students to check to see if web content geared toward LGBT communities – a frequent target of censorship in schools – is blocked by their schools’ web browsers, and then report instances of censorship to the ACLU LGBT Project.
“When schools deny information to gay-straight alliances and other support groups by blocking access to LGBT websites, they risk aggravating situations that could prove tragic for troubled LGBT youth who either don’t have access to the Internet at home or do not feel safe accessing such information on their home computers,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas.
“Public schools are obligated to provide students with viewpoint-neutral access to the Internet,” said Manuel Quinto-Pozos, Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Texas. “When used by a public school, programs that block all LGBT content violate First Amendment rights to free speech, as well as the Equal Access Act, which requires equal access to school resources for all extracurricular clubs.”
