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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.”
“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.
Comments
I can't believe I am siding with a school. Our kids don't need to be presented with a gay or straight sex agenda in school. What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic? It seems to be anything but that. Why should children and parents be forced because it is politically correct to paricipate in a presentation? The school gave the student a time and a place to present her views. If students and parents wanted to see the presentation, they has the option of going. We need to get politics out of our schools. This is social engineering at it's worst. I love all people, gay, straight, bi-sexual, transgender, white, black, yellow, red, brown, etc. The school is not the place to teach our kids any straight or alternative sexual practices and lifestyles. Let's get back to the business of teaching our kids what they need to know to succeed in this world.
Bull. That's bigotry, pure and simple. This is a topic of historical record and significance, and a part of current conversation, both because of the Prop 8 campaign and because of the enormous popularity of this particular movie. There wasn't any indication that this was about sex or sex education; it was simply a report about an historical figure. Or, don't you think history is a valid subject for school?
So Meredith, you're against teaching history? Nobody said anything about presenting "a gay or straight sex agenda"... whatever that might be. It seems to me it was the school injecting politics into this matter, certainly not the student.
Meredith...you're just plain wrong. The report was on an elected official who happened to be gay....end of story. By your train of thought, teachers should be forbidden from mentioning anything about their families in school because this would present a "sex agenda." If Mrs. Smith mentioning her husband to a class is no more or less an "agenda" than a gay teacher mentioning his/her partner.
What foolishness. I hope the school will agree to terms before five days are out, because it is quite clear that the student was singled out because of content. If the class were doing papers on the current representation in the US House, would a report on Barney Frank be similarly restricted? The mere existence of people with non-majority or non-"standard" qualities is not something subject to censorship by the school. The school has indeed harmed young Jones and needs to apologize forthwith.
This is a problem in many public schools in many ways. Administrators, after all are "just people" and many of them are only as educated as they need to be to qualify for a job. Not only in this matter, but in what is and isn't "inappropriate touching," what is and isn't "prayer in school," what is and isn't free speech-- these guys really need it all spelled out for them in a nice fat, easy-to-reference handbook, before they overreact -- one way or the other.
I guess there can be no reports done on Michealangelo or Leonardo da Vinci or music by Beethovan and absolutely no Socrates. I have barely skimmed the surface.
This is not violation of anyones freedom of speech, this is a choice we were thankfully given. Our children attend this school, we are given permission slips sent home for certain PG movies to be viewed as well, and have a choice if we want our children to view it or not. We thankfully had a choice if we wanted our child to view this Powerpoint as well related to a rated R movie. I would not take my own children to see this movie do to the fact it is rated R, and 6th graders should not be viewin
To Romona parent, this was not a movie they were to see. This was a report on a public official. Do you decide which historical figures your children may learn about? Hmmm that Julius Ceasar was a wild guy I don't think my children should know about him.
If you read my comment more clearly I stated it was a POWERPOINT. Yes, the mother stated after the child viewed the movie she wanted to write about it, it was based off the movie she decided her powerpoint. This was not a district decision, nor a principals. It was the parents decision, and the district backed us up. It was not age appropriate. My child is not mature enough to relate to the topic this powerpoint would present. In time my child will learn in more details about historical figures.
I pity the parent that tries to shield tier child from reality.
This reminds me of teh Elvis controversy back in the day.
His thrusting of pelvis would cause young girls and boys to ...??????
I applaud the Jones parents for raising what would appear to be a well rounded open minded child. People dont fit into a cookie cutter shape. The fact is this type of fear based oppression says more about the fear community than it does the gay community. Ultimately I have to laugh, out loud even, at
Argue it anyway you like, this was a thinly veiled act of bigotry and oppression by an uptight petty administrator who misused their position and power. Due to their own prejudice and bias, they've now blown a 6th grader's school report into a media event and a possible lawsuit.
Imagine if that child was told they couldn't do their presentation on Martin Luther King because his was black. Same thing.
Wake up folks. It's a diverse world whether you like it or not and some historical
To Ramona Parent. So shold a not ebe sent home for every historical figure to be discussed?
That's ridiculous. Does this mean that children also can't give speeches discussing Oscar Wilde and his work without parental consent?
I grew up with gay family members. No one ever explained anything to me about homosexuality. They were just who they were, no lable of any kind, no talking behind their back, nothing different. I saw them as family members. When I saw my uncle with his boyfriend it did not seen ususual to me, it was just his boyfriend. I'm in my 50s and to this day, no one ever talks about them as gay, they are family, just like everyone else. They ARE like everyone else
Conservatives go on and on about liberal blue state California, when in reality California is a Red state, with a couple of large democrat voting blocs.
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