News & Commentary

Community Rights Campaign, Public Counsel, and the ACLU of Southern California applaud today’s decision by the Los Angeles County Education Coordinating Council to endorse the findings and recommendations from the multi-agency Student Attendance Task Force (SATF). The recommendations, which were unanimously endorsed by the SATF’s members, are a step forward for Los Angeles County, because they emphasize connecting students to resources to address the causes of attendance issues – rather than punitive approaches proven ineffective as the primary response to truancy or poor attendance. They call for significant reforms to every county agency that interacts with youth who struggle with attendance, including courts, police, and schools.

This post originally appeared in The Tennessean. This week’s news of another suicide by a young student—brought about after years of anti-gay bullying at his school—reminds me of my own experiences attending schools in Tennessee twenty years ago. Unfortunately, it seems little has changed.

Chaz Bono doing the samba on Dancing with the Stars and Isis King posing fiercely on the All Stars cycle of America’s Next Top Model may mark the first time two positive transgender role models have broken through to the mainstream at the same time. That’s real progress for the widespread acceptance of the trans community, but not all trans people have the support that Chaz and Isis enjoy.

Most school districts are failing to provide students, teachers and staff with clear policies that balance students’ legal right to privacy with the need for safety and order, warns a new ACLU of California report,“H-E-L-L-O: Students have a right to privacy in their cell phones.” As cell phones become more and more indispensable to young people, confiscation and searches of students’ phones by school authorities has become widespread. Because such searches provide a window into every aspect of a students’ private life, they violate the laws that protect students’ privacy rights.

GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) help create a positive school environment, which is the objective of the ACLU/SC's student rights project. Excerpted from the ACLU Blog of Rights: GSAs are school clubs that aim to create safe and supportive environments for students to learn about homophobia, transphobia, and other types of oppression and prejudice. They are places to have important discussions, to make friends, and to get support from peers. They can help educate the school community — even people who aren’t in the club — about issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity. And they can help fight the discrimination, harassment, and violence that plague so many students.

Yesterday the Los Angeles School Police Department unveiled protocols intended to reduce the number of daytime curfew tickets written to students. The revised procedures are a result of collaboration and discussions between Public Counsel, the Community Rights Campaign, the ACLU of Southern California, Children’s Defense Fund, CADRE, and Youth Justice Coalition — groups that work to keep students in school — and Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) leaders.

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Wendy Walsh and sponsoring organizations held a press conference to celebrate Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of AB 9, Seth’s Law, into law. The bill passed the Assembly 52-26 on June 1st  and the Senate 24-14 on September 1st, with Governor Brown signing the bill on October 9th.