ACLU: Schools must stop blocking kids’ access to pornography

BeliefNet:  Using familiar tactics of threatening small school districts with expensive litigation, the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new campaign to force schools to give students access to internet pornography.

The ACLU has made its mark in American history campaigning to force Christianity out of the schools. Now, it is pressuring public schools to disable web filters that block student access to sexually explicit websites.

The ACLU “is pushing its radical sexual agenda for children by intimidating school districts with a long string of scare tactics disguised as a concern over censorship,” says David Cortman, Senior Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. “In truth, these school districts have no obligation to cave to the ACLU’s unwarranted demands. Our children come first.”

Such web filters stop children from accidentally or intentionally going to websites with sexually explicit material, notes Peter Baklinski for LifeSiteNews.

“Last February, the ACLU, in partnership with Yale Law School, launched a nationwide campaign, ‘Don’t Filter Me,’ to target schools that block lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) websites,” reports Baklinski. “The campaign asked students to see if their schools blocked web content geared toward LGBT communities. Students were encouraged to report their findings to the ACLU LGBT Project.

“Students may not realize that it actually is illegal for their schools to block educational and political content geared toward the LGBT community,” argued Joshua Block, a staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “Programs that block LGBT content violate First Amendment rights to free speech, as well as the Equal Access Act.”

“The ‘Don’t Filter Me Initiative’ would be better named the ‘Public School Porn Initiative,’” says Cortman.

So far seven school districts have been legally threatened by ACLU with an ultimatum that they either disable their filters or face a federal civil rights lawsuit. One school district in Camdenton, Missouri has already been sued by ACLU.

Read more: https://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/08/aclu-campaign-schools-must-stop-blocking-kids-access-to-pornography.php#ixzz1WBtRgu73