'Mr. Pratt's fight for justice will continue' In an important development in the civil rights suit brought by former Black Panther party leader Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a federal district judge said today that she would permit the case to proceed, and that she was rejecting efforts by the defendants to have the case thrown out. Judge Christine Snyder said that it would be 'improvident' to dismiss the case at this point.

Mr. Pratt, who spent nearly three decades behind bars, is alleging that his conviction and life sentence for a 1968 murder was the result of a conspiracy by federal and local law enforcement agents. In 1997, Pratt's conviction was invalidated by a California state court that held he had not received a fair trial because evidence had been withheld. It was revealed that the star witness against him, Julius Butler, was a confidential informant for the Los Angeles Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That piece of evidence, along with a startling array of additional information that surfaced after three decades, has cast new light on the actions of the LAPD, FBI, and Mr. Butler. It is these ties, Pratt alleges in his civil rights suit, that resulted in a coordinated campaign against him.

Defendants in the suit are the city of Los Angeles, five retired LAPD officers, seven former FBI agents, and Julius Butler. Each of the defendants filed motions to dismiss the case on various grounds. As co-counsel for Pratt in the civil right suit, the ACLU filed papers that declared that the motions to dismiss 'cobbled together a string of painfully weak arguments' in which the defendants had 'misstated, mangled, and ignored fundamental legal principles.'

'We are pleased that Judge Snyder recognized the patent deficiencies in the motions to dismiss this case,' said ACLU-SC Chief Counsel Michael Small. 'As a result of today's ruling, Geronimo Pratt's fight for justice will continue.'

In addition to the ACLU, Pratt is also represented by Johnnie L. Cochrane, who was Pratt's lawyer at his original trial, and Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco civil rights lawyer, who has been part of Pratt's legal team for over a quarter-century.

The ACLU of Southern California and Bristol Park Medical Group, Inc. announced today that they have settled a lawsuit brought against the company and one of its physicians earlier this year over alleged discrimination due to sexual orientation.
The ACLU filed the case on behalf of Michelle Dupont against Dr. Ronald Axtell and Bristol Park Medical Group, Inc. Dupont, in her suit, alleged that Dr. Axtell had discriminated against her during a June 1998 medical appointment when he stated that, because of his personal beliefs concerning homosexuality, in the future she should be treated by other physicians in the Bristol Park practice.
The settlement announced today provides Ms. Dupont with financial compensation.
In addition, Bristol Park Medical Group, Inc. has agreed to do the following:

• Sponsor an in-house seminar for all Bristol Park Medical Group employees and support staff that will include reiteration of non-discrimination policies and sensitivity training for people directly involved in patient contact, with particular emphasis on non-discrimination based on patients' sexual orientation;
• Provide in-house materials that reiterate non-discriminatory policies at Bristol Park Medical Group and sensitivity training for all physicians in the group with regard to patients' sexual orientation;
• Require that all Bristol Park Medical Group support staff employees and physicians sign a form stating that they will comply with the non-discrimination policies;
• Post signs at each Bristol Park Medical Group facility stating the group's non-discriminatory policies, including non-discrimination with respect to patients' sexual orientation.

Plaintiff Michelle Dupont said, "I am happy to finally put this painful chapter behind me and get on with my life. My only hope is that through this suit, and today's settlement, medical professionals now understand that discrimination against gay men and lesbians must come to an end."
Andrew Siskind, M.D., medical director of Bristol Park Medical Group, said, "We at Bristol Park Medical have always had a policy against discrimination of any kind with respect to the delivery of patient care. We are very sorry Ms. Dupont had an unsatisfactory encounter at one of our facilities. In order to avoid any future problems, Bristol Park has agreed to reiterate its longstanding policy against discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation."

Today the ACLU of Southern California filed suit in federal court against the Belridge School District, a public school district near Bakersfield, in Kern County, California, challenging the constitutionality of the use of textbooks that convey a particular religious perspective on a wide range of classroom subjects, and that are replete with verbatim biblical passages and prayers for students to read. The suit also challenges the display of a banner on the walls of the Belridge School cafeteria that sets forth a Psalm.

The lead plaintiffs in the suit are Veronica Van Ry, a single mother, and her twelve-year- old daughter, Rita Elliott. Rita, who is about to begin the eighth grade, has attended Belridge School since the fourth grade and had hoped to graduate from the eight grade there this year. Ms. Van Ry thought it vital for her daughter to remain at Belridge, and so she received a transfer to enable Rita to continue at Belridge even though they now live in another school district. At the same time, however, Ms. Van Ry was deeply concerned that the Belridge School had adopted a new curriculum with religious textbooks at its core for the 1999-2000 school year. In the end, Ms. Van Ry decided that she simply could not stand idle and permit the school district to teach out of religious textbooks; thus she removed Rita from Belridge before the new school year began on August 23. "It is not the place for public schools to teach religious tenets to students. The constitution leaves that job to parents and children together, in their homes and in their houses of worship," said Ms. Van Ry.

A Beka Book, Inc., the publisher of the textbooks that the school district is using for instruction in kindergarten through the eighth grade at Belridge School, is, in the company's own words,"unashamedly Christian and traditional in its approach to education." Its stated mission is to "build the content of every textbook on the foundation of God's Word." That mission is plainly reflected in the pages of its textbooks.

For example, the introduction to A Beka's third-grade American history textbooks states :

Throughout the history of America, God has heard the prayers of those who love him and their country. The names of many of these praying Christians are not written in history books, but their prayers were heard by God.

Likewise, in an exercise that lists ten sentences or sentence fragments, the third-grade English textbook includes the following:

2. Noah built an ark for God.

7. Jesus loves children.

Similar themes resonate in A Beka's eighth-grade history text. The A Beka website states that, in this book, "[t]hrough the story of America's rise to greatness, students will learn to recognize the hand of God in history and to appreciate the influence of Christianity in the government, economics, and society." The website also states that "biblical principles" are employed to teach mathematics to seventh-graders, and that "[u]nlike secular grammar books," A Beka's eighth- grade grammar text emphasizes "Christian" principles.

The use of A Beka textbooks is entirely consistent with the stated mission of the Belridge School District, which is said to be based on the principle of "honor[ing] God" . a principle that the website says "can only be accomplished through a unified effort between families, school, and God." The school district's homepage even contains a direct quotation from the Bible.

The school district has carried out its religious mission beyond the use of A Beka textbooks. On the wall of the Belridge School cafeteria hangs a banner, that states, "This is the Day That the Lord Has Made". a biblical psalm. It is telling that no other banners, posters, or signs hang on the cafeteria walls.

In addition to Veronica Van Ry and Rita Elliott, a retired Methodist minister, Milton Andrews, is a plaintiff in the suit. Mr. Andrews, who has university degrees in divinity studies, is a taxpayer in Kern County and California. He strongly objects to the use of taxpayer money for expenditures by the school district in connection with the use of religious-oriented textbooks in public school classrooms and the display of the religious banner on public school walls.

"Nothing in the constitution prevents a public school from integrating the Bible into its curriculum in an objective manner as part of the study of history, literature, comparative religions, or ethics and moral values," said Michael Small, chief counsel of the ACLU- SC. "That is not this case, however. Here, the school district is not teaching about religion; it is, instead, teaching religion. It has embarked on a frightening crusade in which it seeks to indoctrinate behind the schoolhouse gates impressionable students . as young as five years old . into accepting a prescribed religious orthodoxy."

The ACLU-SC complaint argues that the school district's use of A Beka textbooks and its display of the religious banner on the walls of the Belridge School reflect an impermissible religious purpose, in plain violation of the religious freedoms that are guaranteed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution. The complaint further argues that the school district's actions have the impermissible effect of advancing religion generally and endorsing one religious sect over all others . again, in plain violation of the Establishment Clause.

ACLU-SC Staff Attorney Peter Eliasberg said, "This is a case about a public school that inculcates students with its own proscribed version of what God is, who God chooses to listen to, and how one gets on God's good side. It is shocking that public school officials would trample on religious freedom in that way, and turn a blind eye to four-decades worth of fundamental constitutional principles that flatly forbid public schools from converting classrooms into pulpits in which school officials conduct what amount to religious exercises and rituals."

In the papers it filed today, the ACLU has asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order that would compel the school district immediately to cease using religious-oriented textbooks for classroom instruction, and to take down the religious banner now displayed on the walls of the school.