News & Commentary

LOS ANGELES - A Novato parent's group and a Los Angeles-based children's theater company filed a motion today in federal court to intervene as defendants in the case Citizens for Parental Rights v. Novato Unified School District. The ACLU of Southern California, ACLU of Northern California, and National Center for Lesbian Rights and the National ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project are representing a local coalition of parents, students and organizations concerned with equality, United for Safe Schools Novato; and the educational theater company, Fringe Benefits.

LOS ANGELES - Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, together with other public interest groups and the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, who represent a class of over two million California school children, submitted expert testimony on the conditions many of California's public school students encounter on a daily basis.

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LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California together with the law firm of Greines Martin, Stein & Richland, the American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship are pleased to announce that the Norwalk-La Mirada High School district has agreed to return William Styron's acclaimed novel Sophie's Choice to the La Mirada High School library. The book was abruptly removed from the school's library after a parent complained about selected isolated portions of the novel.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California together with the law firm of Greines Martin, Stein & Richland and the American Library Association have asked the Norwalk-La Mirada School District and La Mirada High School to return the novel Sophie's Choice to the school's library collection after the book was pulled by La Mirada High School's principal. The book was apparently removed from the school's library after a parent complained about certain isolated portions of the novel.

LOS ANGELES - In response to concerns voiced by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the Claremont Unified High School District has agreed not to pat- down students and conduct "breath searches" at school graduation ceremonies without reasonable suspicion that a particular student has violated applicable law or school rules.

LOS ANGELES -- A California Supreme Court has granted the motion for class certification in the Williams vs. California suit. The decision allows thousands of California public school students to be represented as a whole in a suit against the state of California.

SAN FRANCISCO - Today in the California Supreme Court, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the League of Women Voters of California, the California Teachers Association (CTA), the Children's Advocacy Institute, Coleman Advocates For Children And Youth, and the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case Manduley v. Superior Court, in which the San Diego District Attorney is prosecuting eight teenagers as adults, an act made possible by the passage of Proposition 21, the "Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act," in March 2000.In the brief, the organizations argue that Proposition 21 is unconstitutional because it violates the single-subject rule of the California Constitution. The Court is expected to address this claim, along with constitutional challenges to the individual provision within Proposition 21 that enabled the minor defendants to be tried as adults in criminal court.

LOS ANGELES ? Attorneys for special education students and their parents filed a formal complaint today with the Consent Decree Administrators overseeing the Chanda Smith consent decree, an agreement requiring Los Angeles Unified School District to identify and educate special education students in a manner consistent with state and federal special education and civil rights laws.