School does the right thing, ACLU threatens lawsuit.

I found this gem via Pewsitter. Parents & grandparents might want to think about where this crap will lead us.

The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties is threatening to sue the Ramona Unified School District after a sixth grade student was forbidden from presenting a project on homosexual rights icon Harvey Milk to her classmates without first getting written permission from the parents of other students. (Sixth grade, that puts the age group at about 11-13. Right when puberty hits so giving a fluff piece on some gay figure would go a long way towards encouraging homosexual experiments. Just my opinion.)

According to a press release from the ACLU, Natalie Jones, a sixth grader at Mt. Woodson Elementary School in Ramona, was told by school officials that her classmates must first get written permission from their parents before she could present a PowerPoint presentation about Milk to them. Officials at the kindergarten through sixth grade school of 530 students said school board policy governing the presentation of materials regarding family life or sex education required signed permission from the parents of the students involved. (Nice to see some schools actually pay attention to the parent's wishes.)

According to the ACLU, “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.” (Now hold on a minute. This kid could give her presentation, just not in the classroom. Aren't her free speech rights thereby guaranteed in the same manner as those students wishing to pray who have to rally round a flagpole during 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,” Natalie’s mother, Bonnie Jones, told the ACLU, according to their press release. “Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. (Important for what? Other than helping to pass the nation's first pooper scooper law the guy did nothing notable. His fame is chiefly due to getting killed by a nut case. Comments like this shouldn't go unchallenged, next thing you know we'll have a national holiday named after this guy. Ooops, never mind. It's already happening!) To say my daughter’s presentation is ‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong.”

“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,” said the ACLU’s statement. “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 (WTF! 12 pages! About what?) 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.’” (Gee, is it JUST possible a presentation inspired by a movie centered around the man and making his sexual perversion at least a secondary plot line something that might JUST have fallen under guidelines of the district policy? Since the original report had to be graded by school officials is it JUST possible they knew what they were doing?)

The ACLU said that, a few days after Natalie was called into the principal’s office, the school district sent letters to the parents of all the 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.”

Ramona Unified School District policy provides, “Parents/guardians shall be notified in writing about any instruction in which human reproductive organs and their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases are described, illustrated, or discussed. In addition, before any instruction on family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases is given, the parent/guardian shall be provided with written notice explaining that the instruction will be given.” (...functions, processes...are described, illustrated or discussed. Would that discussion include a choice by an elected official to have his organs "function" in an other than normal manner? )

“The principal and superintendent grossly misinterpreted school policy,” said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment and the California Education Code. 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.” (No, but placing that historical figure in a favorable light and mentioning his sexual preferences DOES bring the conversation around to sex.)

“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.” (I feel sorry for the school here. If they'd just allowed the kid to present her fluff piece there would have been hell to pay from some (rightfully) indignant parents. They're damned if they do, damned if they don't.)

Neither Blair-Loy nor Gill made reference to the “human sexuality” provision in the school district’s policy.

The ACLU sent a letter to the school demanding a written apology to Natalie Jones, as well as an apology letter to the parents who received notification from the school about the Milk presentation. The letter also demands that Natalie be given an opportunity to make her presentation to members of her class, and that the school district “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.’” (So what happens to kids whose parents get a heads up on this and keep their children home rather than be subjected to indoctrination the parents disapprove of? Do they get charged with an unauthorized absence? Speaking of First Amendment rights, will Christians have any in the fallout from this?)

The ACLU gave the Ramona Unified School District five days to respond to its demands “or it may file a lawsuit on Bonnie and Natalie Jones’s behalf.” (One time, just one time I'd like to hear of somebody receiving such an ultimatum from the ACLU and telling them to piss off!)

Seriously, if the girl had done a report on some Christian religious figure and the school followed the same path, just where would the ACLU be on this? My guess is they'd be suing because public school facilities were being utilized to promote religion.