ACLU: California School Bans Sixth Grader’s Presentation on Harvey Milk

California School Bans Sixth Grader’s Presentation on Harvey Milk (5/20/2009)


Faces Possible ACLU Lawsuit For Violation Of State Education Code

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

RAMONA, CA – Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, a California school illegally censored a sixth grader’s classroom presentation about Harvey Milk earlier this month. According to a demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to the Ramona Unified School District today, the school violated Natalie Jones’s free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class. Instead, the school improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation during a lunch recess.

“This whole thing is unbelievable – first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something icky,” said Bonnie Jones, mother of the Mt. Woodson Elementary School student. “Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. To say my daughter’s presentation is ‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong.”

The assignment, part of an independent research project class, was originally to prepare a written report on any topic. Natalie Jones, who was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the written report. Students were then told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they would show to other students in the class. The day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the principal’s office and told she couldn’t do so.

When Bonnie Jones spoke with the superintendent about the presentation, he said Natalie couldn’t give her presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex Education.” A few days later, the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had parental permission.

“The principal and superintendent grossly misinterpreted school policy. They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment and the California Education Code,” said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “Writing or talking about a gay historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should not pretend otherwise.”

The Ramona Unified School District policy on “Family Life/Sex Education” reads in part:



“Schools that act as if any mention of the existence of gay people is something too controversial or ‘sensitive’ to discuss are doing a disservice to their students,” said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s national LGBT Project. “This school completely overstepped its bounds in trying to silence Natalie Jones by shunting her presentation off to a lunch recess time and misusing a school policy to justify requiring parental permission to see it.”

In today’s letter, the ACLU is demanding that the school:

•Apologize in writing to Natalie Jones and send a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the principal’s letter about the presentation
•Give Natalie Jones an opportunity to give her presentation to all the other members of her independent research project class
•Clarify in writing that the parental notification and permission portion of the “Family Life/Sex Education” policy only applies to the curricula identified as “course content” for “Family Life/Sex Education instruction”


The ACLU is giving the district five days to respond or it may file a lawsuit on Bonnie and Natalie Jones’s behalf.

Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century” in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Milk’s birthday, the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature that would make it a state holiday, is this Friday.

For additional information, including copies of Natalie Jones’s presentation on Harvey Milk, the school’s letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. “Family Life/Sex Education” policy, visit http://www.aclu.org/Milk.

if it wasn't so serious. people with sticks up their asses shouldn't be educators.

This is the "education" part of the GLBT issue. Harvey Milk wasn't a topic about sex. It was about a civil rights pioneer. Would they have sent home a notice about MLK? We can't seem to get past the idea that GLBT issues are about sex. They're not, they are about civil, human, rights.

..learn that Authority figures don't always know what they're talking about.

I thought it was a kind of milk like actual milk or something. Then I got to the explanation of the report.

That was a colossal screw up the principal and the admin.

It's an inspiring and moving story. And sad, but hopeful at the same time. Worth your time.

The principal is a Mormon or something.

It's possible, but knowing that area, it's more likely that the principal knew that if they let the kid give the presentation, there would be 50 parents at the school in the morning with torches and pitchforks because their kids "rights had been violated" by forcing them to listen to the homosexual agenda. It could have ended up costing the principal his job.

I took a course at a local college last year. I was stunned. The teacher had to walk on eggshells constantly on any subject that even came within 100 yards of religion.

She mentioned Halloween once and had to give a 10-minute disclaimer about how she wasn't promoting Halloween nor was she suggesting that any students had to celebrate Halloween, nor did they . . . .

I couldn't freaking believe my ears. I had been considering applying for a part-time teaching job at this school -- and right then and there I decided I didn't need that shit.

second one i have bumped into, and i have only been on for 10 minutes.

I am so glad that the parents went to the ACLU.

The principal of this school is a moron.

They're introducing them to... to... PowerPoint! Won't somebody please think of the children?

It's a gateway drug. Next, they'll introduce them to Excel in physics class or something.

What will it take to undo these official lunacies?

It takes a village to perpetuate prejudice.

When will come the day that her classmates,
(raised well, with open minds & hearts) cry "bullshit"?


• "Dangerous empathy"? How Orwellian is that?

Idiots...total idiots. Guess the NEVER heard the term "equal rights."

K&R

Very few are asexual beings, even the chaste ones.

:evilgrin:

sexual person?

If I had gotten the letter from the principal that a report on Harvey Milk required my parental consent I'd have been in that office and on the administration like white on rice.

:kick: