老澳门开奖结果

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Lawsuit Settled Over Censorship of Story 老澳门开奖结果 Sexual Orientation

LOS ANGELES - A Kern County judge is expected to issue a court order today that will ensure that Bakersfield high school students are not wrongly censored and that student free speech rights in the Kern School District are preserved.

The final step comes a year and a half after the 老澳门开奖结果 of Southern California, the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 national Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, and the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP filed a lawsuit after student journalists and their interview subjects were prohibited from publishing a series in the East High student newspaper, The Kernal, about sexual orientation and gender identity. East High School is part of the Kern School District in Bakersfield.

鈥淭his is a momentous day,鈥� said Christine Sun, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Southern California attorney who represented the six students and their co-plaintiff, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, throughout the fight. 鈥淔rom day one the students knew they had been wrongly censored and vowed to make sure this didn鈥檛 happen to the next generation of Kern students. Under this policy, the students would not have been censored in the first place.鈥�

Maria Krauter, former editor-in-chief of The Kernal, added: 鈥淓ven though I鈥檓 in college now, I really wanted to make sure that future newspaper staffs could write about serious topics like sexual orientation in a meaningful way without worrying that they would be censored. Now I know that's the case.鈥�

The agreement, which is signed by the 老澳门开奖结果, Milbank, and the Kern High School District and will be filed with Superior Court Judge Sidney P. Chapin today, affirms that 鈥渁ll students have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press鈥� and that school officials may turn to censorship only as a last resort.

It states: 鈥淧rior to any restriction of student speech, school officials will consider all practical alternative options, and, where feasible, will implement any such practical alternative options instead of restricting the speech.鈥�

The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Sun said that the legally binding agreement came about as part of settlement discussions between the 老澳门开奖结果 and the District this fall. Part of the settlement included a change to the district鈥檚 free speech policy, which the Kern High School District trustees drafted and approved in October.

鈥淭his consent decree is a victory for students鈥� free speech rights and sets an important example for other school districts that school officials must take proactive steps to protect students from harassment and threats of violence before resorting to censorship of students鈥� free speech,鈥� said Carolyn Laub, executive director and founder of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Nearly 600 schools in California have Gay-Straight Alliance clubs.

Students originally sought to publish the articles in the second-to-last edition of the paper during the 2004-2005 academic year, but could not after the East High principal, citing vague threats to gay students, demanded the students pull the articles. The student journalists and their sources went to court seeking an order allowing them to publish the articles in the final edition of the paper.

The court denied the request, stating that more information about the district鈥檚 reasons for censoring the articles was needed. Over the summer and fall, school officials failed to produce evidence of their claims that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students would be harmed as a result of the publication of the articles. The lawsuit also revealed that the principal took no steps to inform those students鈥� parents or the police officer assigned to the school of the alleged threats. In October 2005, the school relented and informed members of The Kernal鈥檚 editorial board that the articles could be printed.

The students continued the lawsuit in order to obtain a policy that would prevent other students from being wrongfully censored, a goal that they achieved today with the consent decree.

Michael Diamond, Rick Baker and Jeff Goldman from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP were co-counsel along with Sun and James Esseks of the 老澳门开奖结果 Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project.

More information about the case, Paramo v. Kern High School District, can be found at: www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/20051res20051021.html