Schools

At different locales around the country, in places as diverse as Detroit, Mich., Lawrenceville, Ga., and Camdenton, Mo., the ACLU is sending letters and filing lawsuits seeking to disallow government school usage of certain Internet filters. They claim their campaign is designed to end the blocking of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” activist group sites, but in reality it will allow school children to access to pornographic websites.

This push is part of the ACLU’s national campaign called the “Don’t Filter Me Project.” Done in conjunction with Yale Law School, it is really nothing less than an attempt to bully entire school districts – including elementary, middle, and high schools in those districts – into allowing students to be exposed to sexually explicit material.

It’s important to understand that the ACLU is carrying out this madness in a systematic way. Rather than simply blindly shooting off letters or having attorneys call a given school, they try to find a student who is willing to complain of “First Amendment rights” violations before sweeping in.

This may entail a student who is a member of a campus group like the Gay-Straight Alliance who then complains that his or her rights were violated because the school computer system would not let them access information that the on-campus group could use in their meetings. When this happened in Detroit, the ACLU fired off a letter erroneously arguing that “the filter violates students’ First Amendment rights and the Equal Access Act, which requires federally-funded schools to provide equal access to extracurricular clubs.”

Once a student complains, the ACLU tries to make the case that such student groups deserve access to materials for on-campus activities just like any other campus group.  In the example from Camdenton, Mo., the ACLU went so far as to say that the sites “contain anti-bullying information and other resources for student gay-straight alliances,” and, therefore, if the school refused to remove the filters, the school would be held liable for students who were bullied, etc.

But no matter how the ACLU plays this one, it’s indefensible for a simple reason: it does not violate the First Amendment protected rights of anyone to block sexual sites in school. And make no mistake, the sites that would be accessible if the filters were removed are rife with what can only be considered pornography.

Don’t believe me?  Then look up The Trevor Project, GSA Network, and GLSEN. Or look up the books that homosexual activist websites want kids to read, some of which are too vulgar to even describe, let alone read.  (And while I am not including any of their content, you can view it here if you so desire. But be forewarned: the link provides access to inappropriate sexual material.)

Suffice it to say that children should not be reading this stuff.  And this doesn’t even scratch the surface.  The filters that the ACLU wants totally disabled (which include “sexuality,” “sexual education,” and “lifestyle” filters) block thousands of other sites with pornographic and sexually explicit material.  Does the ACLU really care about our children or their “First Amendment rights?”  You decide.

The biggest concern of parents has always been whether their schools were teaching “reading, writing, and arithmetic.”  They are not interested in the ACLU’s goal of turning those schools into porn portals for children.

Originally posted here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46356

SNOW HILL, N.C. — The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into three Greene County Central High School students accused of creating and sending pornographic material with their school-issued computers.

In one case, a 16-year-old student reportedly sent video of himself with his 15-year-old girlfriend to a teacher by mistake.

“I’m extremely disappointed in these students,” said Greene County Schools Superintendent Dr. Steve Mazingo. “I do not think the overwhelming majority of our students would engage in this type of activity.”

For a minimal insurance fee, students in sixth through 12th grades in Greene County get a MacBook to take home. The school system leases the laptops with a combination of tax money and grants. Each of this year’s computers has a built-in Web camera.

“So, there are probably more opportunities for them to record things and to do things with the computers that they haven’t had before, unfortunately” Mazingo said. “It also greatly enhances the educational opportunities.”

Authorities have not charged any students yet, but they could face felony charges and mandatory jail time for a first offense if they were convicted.

Mazingo would not say exactly how the students in this case are being punished at the school level, but said that in general, students who violate computer conduct policies can be banned from using any school computer, or at least lose all Internet access.

Mazingo said the school system does not plan to cancel the laptop program. Administrators, however, are working with the district attorney’s office on a video to teach students about how serious charges can be for using the cameras inappropriately.

He said administrators would also continue to monitor closely all activity on every issued computer.

The district attorney’s office said it would wait for an SBI report before deciding whether to charge the students.

Originally posted here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2005911/

November 5, 2007