LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of California is calling on Gov. Schwarzenegger to take "immediate steps" to stop the California National Guard from spying on people who are engaged in peaceful protest following revelations that an intelligence unit recently spied on a rally organized by families of slain American soldiers. A California Public Records Act request was filed with both the Governor and the California National Guard seeking documents relating to the peace rally and the Intelligence Unit.

"We were shocked to learn that grandmothers protesting on Mother's Day were the target of a National Guard terrorist unit," said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. "We fear that the surveillance of the Mothers' Day peace rally is just the tip of the iceberg and we call on the Governor to take immediate action to put a stop to this illegal activity. The national guard should not be spying on families of slain Americans soldiers."

The Mothers' Day incident was revealed in the San Jose Mercury News - disclosing that a handful of peaceful, anti-war protestors at the Sacramento Capitol were spied on by a special intelligence unit of the National Guard. The May 8 rally was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace, Raging Grannies and Code Pink.

California affiliates of the ACLU, representing more than 90,000 members, are calling on the Governor immediately to take the following steps:

'Disband the National Guard's Intelligence Unit or impose strict regulations on the unit. Strict regulations include: prohibiting the monitoring and collection of information on individuals and organizations engaged in First Amendment protected activity; prohibiting dissemination of information already collected to other government agencies; creating clear guidelines and definitions that protest activity - including civil disobedience - is not terrorism; and regulation of file storage and data retention to ensure regular purging of any databases and storage systems.

'Under the California Public Records Act, release all information related to the May 8 incident and other incidents in which the National Guard has been used to monitor protected First Amendment activities. This includes all documents related to the anti-war protest held at the Capitol on Mothers' Day; to any anti-war demonstrations in the past year; all correspondence from members of the Intelligence Unit related to Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace, and/or Raging Grannies.

The ACLU of Southern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Millbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy reached a settlement yesterday in their lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of Washington Preparatory High School students and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network who sued to stop harassment on the basis of sexual orientation.
The settlement includes a comprehensive series of mandatory training sessions for Washington Prep teachers, staff, and students, and for middle school students who will attend the South Los Angeles high school. The settlement aims to prevent harassment and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students through training and other efforts by LAUSD's Education Equity Compliance Office that will focus on ending sexual orientation and gender identity prejudice.
"History has shown that ignoring bias never works and only silences the voices that need most to be heard. Other school districts have tried to hide sexual orientation and gender identity issues as too controversial, so we are pleased that LAUSD has chosen to face these issues head on and is working to create a better environment for students at Washington Prep," said Christine Sun, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. "The training is a model for the rest of the state."
The settlement includes a mandatory day-long faculty training on diversity, discrimination and harassment, focused primarily on issues pertaining to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. The Anti-Defamation League will conduct the training, which began this year and will be repeated in the next two school years.
Gays and Lesbians Initiating Dialogue for Equality (GLIDE), will hold classroom training sessions and assemblies for Washington Prep students and middle school students slated to attend the high school that encourage diversity and aim to eliminate discrimination and harassment.
"I am so happy all the students at Washington Prep will have this training," said David Ramirez, who will graduate next week. "It was really hard to go to school before because some people here just didn't know how to be tolerant. Things have gotten better since we stood up for gay students and I think they'll improve even more now."
Added Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit: "GSA Network is pleased that the settlement agreement includes mandatory staff training and student education on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues because these proven strategies will help create what all students at Washington Prep deserve -- a safe place to learn."
The lawsuit originally charged LAUSD and Washington Preparatory High School administrators, teachers, and security guards for harassing gay and lesbian students on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and operating "a climate rife with hostility towards and discrimination against students and staff based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation."
Students at the school sued on the grounds that they were subjected to administrators, teachers, and staff calling students names such as "faggot" and "sinner" and telling students they are "wrong," "unholy," "hate[d]," and "not supposed to be like this" because the students are, or are perceived to be, lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The suit also charged that teachers threatened to "out" students to their families as punishment for students' sexual orientation, the lawsuit said.
Deanne Neiman from LAUSD's Education Equity Compliance Office said: "It is important to acknowledge that the District has had a long-standing and pro-active commitment to protecting LGBT students from discrimination and harassment. Since 2001 and continuing to date, 216 Anti-Bias LGBT Trainings were conducted for school administrators and staff. At Washington Prep this settlement agreement augments the comprehensive training and activities already underway at the school and in the District as a whole."

A bill that puts California at the forefront of efforts to guard the privacy rights of its residents cleared a major hurdle on this week when it was approved by the Assembly Judiciary Committee with strong bipartisan support.
The Identity Information Protection Act of 2005 (SB 682) zeros in on the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. It would prohibit identity documents issued by the state from containing an integrated circuit or other device that can broadcast an individual's personal information. The bill was introduced by Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), and is supported by a diverse coalition of privacy, women's and conservative groups from throughout the state.
SB 682 would prohibit the most common state-issued identification documents from containing an RFID tag or other device that can broadcast an individual's personal information, unique identifier number, or location. The bill now heads to Assembly appropriations for review.
"This represents significant progress for protecting the privacy, personal safety, and financial security of all Californians," said Simitian. "RFID technology is not in and of itself the issue. The issue is whether and under what circumstances the government should be allowed to impose this technology on its residents. This bill provides a thoughtful and rational policy framework for making those decisions."
Long in use in the manufacturing, distribution and retail industries to track goods, RFID tags are also widely used in toll booths, inside pet id tags, and even seismic sensors used to collect data in land prone to earthquakes. But the escalating use of RFID in everyday lives poses a threat to the privacy and civil liberties individuals. All matter of personal information can be embedded in these chips - an individual's name, address, telephone number, date of birth, social security number, fingerprint and photograph, which can then be easily captured using scanners widely available off the shelf. Secret and remote reading of this critically personal data broadcasting from the chips puts an individual at risk of identity theft, tracking and surveillance by the government, stalking or even kidnapping.
&#34With each step in this process, California's legislators are letting residents know protecting our privacy is their concern, &#34 said Pam Noles, a policy associate with the ACLU of Southern California. &#34Residents must be protected from inappropriate use of this useful technology, and once again California is on track to take a leading role ensuring technological advances do not come at the expense of everyday people. Our belief is simple - Tag goods, not people.&#34
The legislation was introduced in February, about a month after controversy erupted in a small Northern California town over mandatory use of RFIDs to track student movements at an elementary school. Parents had no idea their children had been tagged with chipped badges that carried the student's name, photo, grade, class year and four-digit school identification number.
Recent U.S. State Department testing showed that even IDs with an intended read range of just 4 inches can actually be read from 2-3 feet away with modified readers.
"People have a right not to be tracked. The government shouldn't be putting tracking devices into driver's licenses and other ID cards that people need to go about their daily lives,&#34 said Lee Tien, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. &#34That is why this bill is so important, because it represents a positive first step in managing a problem that will make all Californians safer."
SB 682 is supported by a diverse coalition that includes the Free Congress Foundation and the California Family Alliance, to the Consumer Federation, the PTA, and AARP.
"California legislators have always been on the forefront of introducing important legislation to balance the potential benefits of emerging technology while safeguarding the privacy and security of Californians,&#34 said Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California. &#34With today's vote, legislators have sent a strong message that the privacy and security of Californians must be protected.&#34