The ACLU is now going after schools that have filters on their computers that block out sites that contain gay themes. These include non-sexual sites like the LGBT website. Some schools are caving in, while others are standing firm. The ACLU is actively going after schools by sending warnings and have actually sued a school district in Missouri - Prince William.
Ken Blackstone, director of communications for Prince William schools, said Friday that the school system had received a letter from ADF urging it to reactive the filter. However, “after thoroughly reviewing our Internet-filtering software,” Mr. Blackstone said, “we determined that the LGBT category of the filter could be removed” and still allow the district to meet its legal obligations of blocking objectionable materials to children.
For the ACLU, it does not appear to be enough to just remove some specific sites from their filter but rather have broad categories removed like "sexuality" and "homosexuality."
I think this quote sums up my feelings best:
“No offense to the Easterners,” he said, “but we want to run our school district based on what our citizens and the kids in Missouri need, not what somebody in New York wants.”
Bottom line, shouldn't this be a decision based on what the school district wants? Why is this the ACLU's business anyway? What happened to states doing their own thing? We should be allowing schools to do what they feel is best for their students. Why push something like this? Unless the school is advocating the torture of gay and lesbian students or doing something that is blatantly wrong, what is the problem here?
I can somewhat understand both sides of this argument but, this issue is more about who can make choices about their schools. Do you want the ACLU determining what should be taught or do you want your local school board to make the decision? The ACLU just represents a bunch of "holier than thou" elitists who think they know better than everyone and go around bashing people, accusing them of doing exactly what they are doing. No, I'd rather have the local communities decide what is best. If NY wants to have their schools show nothing but gay sites, more power to them. This is about choice and there's nothing wrong with experimenting in order to compare and see what actually turns out to work best. I have a feeling I already know what will work best but I have no problem with letting others stumble their way to the truth.
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