The Chambersburg Area School District’s school board has voted 5-4 to reverse its decision and provide the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) with the same rights and privileges as any other noncurricular club at the school.
Continue reading...As reported on Fox43.com, following a 5-4 vote by the local school board to refuse to recognize a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Chambersburg Area Senior High School, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Equality Pennsylvania sent a letter to the Chambersburg Area School District officials saying the Board is in violation of the federal Equal Access Act.
Continue reading...The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Lake County School Board is considering adopting new rules that would restrict extracurricular student clubs in secondary schools, as it is currently faced with a middle school student’s request, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, to form a Gay Straight Alliance club.
Continue reading...A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (CA, OR, WA, AZ, MT, ID, NC, AK, HI, GU, MP) has held that San Diego State University (SDSU) did not violate the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of a Christian sorority and fraternity by denying the organizations official recognition based on their failure to comply with the university’s nondiscrimination policy. The panel also ruled that the student organizations had “raised a triable issue of fact as to whether the narrower policy was selectively enforced in this particular case, thereby violating Plaintiffs’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Continue reading...A federal court judge has issued a decree ordering the West Bend School Board (WBSB) to recognize the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) as an official school-sponsored club at the district’s high schools, says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The decree also prohibits any current or future board members from retaliating against the club or anyone affiliated with it while the case is under the court’s supervision for the next seven years.
Continue reading...West Bend School Board (WBSB) is being sued by two students, says Courthouse News Service, after the board denied a request by the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) for official recognition as a student organization. The suit charges that the board has violated the students’ rights under the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act, “which grants all non-curriculum related student groups equal access rights if a school recognizes one or more non-curriculum related student groups.”
Continue reading...Courthouse News Service reports that two students and their parents have brought suit in federal court against Hicksville High School in Long Island, New York challenging the principal’s rule that any religious club on campus be “a ‘multi-faith’ club for all religions and denominations,” and that “non-believers must be allowed to lead the religious club.” The suit names the Hicksville Board of Education and high school principal as defendants.
Continue reading...Reuters reports that the Clovis school board, claiming coincidence, adopted a new policy prohibiting any extra-curricular club from meeting during school hours or using school resources to meet and gather after a gay-straight alliance applied to become a club. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM), however, expressed concerned about the timing of the decision. “This sort of tactic has been used in the past by school districts to discourage gay-straight clubs from forming,” said Micah McCoy, ACLU-NM’s communications specialist. Clovis Superintendent Terry Myers provided assurance that the gay-straight alliance’s application did not trigger the policy review.
Continue reading...eSchool News reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), including local chapters in Michigan, Kansas, and western Missouri, has issued letters to several high schools in those states demanding that the schools stop using web filters to eliminate access to websites that support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. The ACLU claims it learned that the schools were censoring material after teaming with Yale Law School to launch the “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, which asks students to check to see if their schools are blocking content.
Continue reading...The Secular Student Alliance (SSA), which promotes atheism and humanism, currently has chapters at more than 200 colleges and is seeking to launch 50 new high school clubs, according to USA Today. SSA’s goal is to provide Godless teens with the same social benefits that evangelical teens find at the annual “See you at the pole” flagpole prayer events at thousands of schools every September, court-sanctioned after school Bible clubs, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim student groups.
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