Articles Tagged ‘Public Education’

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHM3AiK2fwA

Some public schools are using web filtering software to block student access to positive info about LGBT issues and organizations. Blocking all LGBT content violates students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. They also violate the Equal Access Act, which requires equal access to school resources for all extracurricular clubs, including gay-straight alliances and LGBT support groups. Some schools have even configured their web filters to block access to websites for positive LGBT rights organizations, but still allow access to anti-LGBT sites that condemn LGBT people or urge us to try to change our sexual orientation. This is called viewpoint discrimination, and it’s also illegal.

Tania Chozet, Policy Advocate

On May 11, a rancher in Hudspeth County shot two men, a father and son, whom he alleges were trespassing. The victims explained they took a wrong turn onto a dirt road when they were confronted by the rancher, who, without warning, started shooting in to their vehicle. The victims also say they were unarmed. We recognize facts are still coming to light, and as such, call for a thorough investigation into the events of that day. For now, it is impossible not to wonder whether this incident is a consequence of the increasingly charged atmosphere created by exaggerated and irresponsible descriptions of border violence by elected officials at every level of government.

In fact, Hudspeth County’s Sheriff Arvin West has not been shy about promoting sensationalized messages. At a town hall meeting in April, Sheriff West called on residents to “arm themselves,” because it is “better to be tried by twelve than carried by six.” Sheriff West has long perpetuated an irresponsible myth about rampant spillover violence on the border, even though crime statistics prove otherwise.  In 2006, West told a Congressional panel that it wouldn’t be long before drug cartels planted explosives on their drug loads to guard against seizure by law enforcement.  He also told lawmakers that he was concerned that terrorists from the Middle East are working with drug cartels to kill U.S. law enforcement officials. Sheriff West never substantiated any of these wild accusations, nor have we seen any of his dire predictions come true.

The facts tell a very different story. In the past four years, marijuana seizures have fallen 97 percent in Hudspeth County, and according to the most recent FBI crime statistics report, the number of crimes has been cut in half from 48 to 24 over the same period. Nor is Hudspeth County an anomaly. The FBI reports that over the past two decades violent crime has dropped 30 percent in border counties, ranking them among the safest in the nation. Yet, just last month, Sheriff West appeared on Fox News, falsely claiming that the situation “hasn’t improved in the past four years.”

At this point, it’s not clear that Sheriff West’s fear-mongering actually inspired the May 11 shootings, but this incident should serve as a reminder of the real risks involved in politicizing the issue of border enforcement. Human and drug trafficking are serious problems and they demand to be addressed in a serious and honest manner. To accomplish this, we need to look to our own best natures, not turn against one another in fits of paranoia and distrust.

Thus, we call on Sheriff West to be more responsible and honest in his characterization of the border region, so as not to create a charged atmosphere in which residents shoot first and ask questions later. Our country is a nation of laws, and we should never allow vigilantes to mete out justice at the end of a gun barrel.

We also call on the media and public officials not to perpetuate harmful myths and made-up horror stories about the border region. In reality, despite the drug-related violence that plagues our Southern neighbors, El Paso and the surrounding communities are among the safest in the country. The border is our home, and we must hold people accountable when they don’t tell the truth about it.

Tania M. Chozet, an El Paso native and current resident, is the policy advocate for the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights.

Learn more about the ACLU-NM Regional Center for Border Rights.

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James Walker (L) and Steven de los Santos (R), Clovis High School seniors advocating for the formation of a GSA.

CLOVIS, NM – Yesterday, in response to a legal demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, Clovis Municipal Schools (CMS) announced that it approved students’ application for a gay-straight alliance (GSA). High school senior Steven De Los Santos first applied for permission to form the club in late February. However, the application’s approval, which is usually a routine process, was subject to delay, uncertainty and an unexpected change of school clubs policy by the school board.

The law firm representing the school district, Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP, sent a letter dated May 4^th stating:

“Please consider this letter as the “approval” you requested and permission for G/SA to immediately begin holding meetings after school at Clovis High School…Supt. Myers has directed the principal of Clovis High School to immediately contact the G/SA “applicants” and make arrangements for the G/SA to begin holding its meetings at the time and place requested in the application.”

“We are very pleased that the CMS superintendent has clearly and unequivocally stated that a gay-straight alliance is welcome at Clovis High School,” said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson. “The ACLU will continue to keep a close eye on this situation to ensure that the newly-approved GSA is afforded the same treatment and access that any other non-curricular club enjoys.”

Currently, there are scores of GSA clubs in high schools throughout New Mexico and more than 3,000 such clubs in schools nationwide. GSA clubs help to provide a safe, supportive environment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students and their straight allies to be themselves and educate the school community about homophobia, gender identity and sexual orientation issues. Scientific studies show that students—both gay and straight—in schools with GSA clubs are less likely to suffer from discrimination, harassment and violence.

“This is definitely a good day for us,” said De Los Santos. “When I first started this club, I had little hope of it getting approved because of the difficulty students have had forming a GSA in the past. Today, I heard those words, ‘It’s approved.’ It’s phenomenal, so unreal, to think that something like this would happen in Clovis. From here things for LGBT students at school can only get better.”

CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 Ext. 1003, mmccoy@aclu-nm.org

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Micah McCoy, Communications Specialist

Today, I had coffee with Derek Minno Bloom, a representative from Albuquerque Copwatch, a community oversight organization that monitors police interactions with the public. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he regularly witnesses people waive their constitutional rights when encountering the police.

Unfortunately, I was not surprised.

Most people give up their rights without even knowing that they are doing it. Other people waive their rights knowingly because, let’s face it, whether you are engaging in illegal activity or not, a police encounter can be nerve-wracking. Law enforcement officials are trained to use their authority to pressure people into incriminating themselves. However, it is the police officer’s job to collect evidence against you–not yours.

An educational nonprofit called Flex Your Rights has produced a fantastic and very thorough video featuring former national ACLU Executive Director Ira Glassman that demonstrates how you can best exercise your rights during a police encounter. Give it a watch to learn how you can survive a police encounter with your rights intact. And please, share this video with your friends; they may thank you for it someday.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMjMPlXzdA

Micah McCoy, Communications Specialist

We face an epidemic here in the United States: a widespread and wholesale vilification of Americans who are followers of Islam. We see it on the cable news networks, in vitriolic opposition to the construction of mosques in our communities, and now, this week with a full blown Homeland Security Committee hearing on the “radicalization of American Muslims.”

To be fair, there is evidence of growing radicalization in some communities in America, and if there is credible threat that this radicalization could lead to terrorist attacks, then it should be investigated. However, the singling out of Muslims and the inflamed rhetoric surrounding the investigation have led some commentators to draw comparisons to the McCarthy Era witch hunts. Indeed, if this investigation was truly concerned with terrorism, perhaps the Homeland Security Committee would broaden the scope of its investigation to include potentially dangerous non-Muslim radical groups—the Hutaree “Christian” Militia that plotted to systematically murder Michigan police officers last year springs to mind. And let’s not forget that the worst pre-9/11 terrorist attack on U.S. soil was perpetrated by a Christian named Timothy McVeigh.
Too often in our history we have fallen prey to loud voices defaming an entire group of Americans as an existential threat to our way of life. Invariably, we look back on these moments in profound shame.

Unfortunately, we have these same loud voices here in New Mexico. This legislative session, Sen. Rod Adair (R-Roswell) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 18 (SJR 18), a bill that, among other things, prohibits “New Mexico courts from considering or applying Sharia law.”

For those who are unfamiliar, Sharia is a collection of Islamic principles observed by some individual Muslims and held as law by a handful of foreign governments. There are several different versions of Sharia as well as varied interpretations of the law within the Muslim community itself.

New Mexico is not the only state that saw bills similar to SJR 18 introduced; in the past year 13 states considered laws that would prohibit courts from enforcing Sharia law. One proposed law in Tennessee would make it a felony to follow some versions of Sharia. Last year in Oklahoma, both the state senate and house passed a similar measure—the comically hyperbolic “Save Our State” amendment—which a federal court struck down as unconstitutional.

Do supporters of these laws truly fear a creeping “Islamification” of the United States? Do they aim to protect us from the time when we start chopping the hands off shop lifters and stoning adulterous women in Civic Plaza?

Serious-minded people recognize that this is about as likely as New Mexico courts sentencing someone to death for wearing clothing of mixed fibers (Leviticus 19:19) or gathering firewood on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36).

No, the real reason for introducing SJR 18 and bills like it is to target Muslims as a group, to marginalize and stigmatize the people of an entire faith community. In the words of Oklahoma activist Muneer Awad, these amendments would “enshrine disapproval of Islam into the state constitution.”

But the First Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that congress can make no law that establishes a state religion or creates an excessive government entanglement with religion. U.S. courts are permitted to honor agreements between individuals made under religious law, but never when that law is in conflict with the secular laws of the land.

So in this season of inflamed anti-Muslim rhetoric, let’s tune out the demagogues and quietly meditate on just how remarkable the country we live in is. It is a country that guarantees free exercise of religion so long as it does not infringe on the rights of others—something that religious minorities in other parts of the world only dream of.

Just because some people choose to use their freedom of speech to loudly demonize their neighbors, it doesn’t mean we have to listen.