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Press Releases
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CONTACT: Rita Sklar 501/374
ACLU of Arkansas Lauds Valley View School District Decision Not to Ban Book, The Kite Runner
Attempts at Censorship Thwarted by Community
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2012
Little Rock, AR - The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas is praising Monday night's decision by the Valley View School Board in Jonesboro, Arkansas to keep the book, The Kite Runner in the 12th grade English curriculum. A substitute teacher had tried unsuccessfully to have the book removed from the classroom on the basis that it contained a homosexual rape scene, profanity, content pertaining to Islamic belief, and lacked Biblical views.
When rebuffed by the school Principal, the substitute teacher went to the school district materials evaluation committee, but the committee unanimously refused to remove the book as well, calling it a teaching tool. The substitute then went to the school board, which at its December 15, 2011 meeting decided to investigate the matter. At least one member of the board agreed the book should be removed and a special meeting was called for January 2, 2012.
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Know Your Rights (KYR)
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The ACLU of Arkansas has just released new guidance for those wishing to protest, demonstrate or simply exercise free speech in Arkansas. Included in the release are a full Know Your Rights “Free Speech, Protests and Demonstrations in the State of Arkansas: An Activist’s Guide,” a corresponding KYR pocket card for Protesters and updated KYR pocket card regarding police encounters. The ACLU of Arkansas began developing these materials in the spring in response to protesters who wished to know their rights in Arkansas. With protests currently being planned throughout Arkansas, the ACLU finalized and issued these documents. Speak out, Speak up, Speak freely!
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Press Releases
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 29, 2011
LITTLE ROCK, July 29, 2011 - The Arkansas Civil Liberties Union condemns violence committed last night in the City of Gould. Yesterday the ACLU of AR sent a letter to Gould city council members concerning the unconstitutionality of three laws recently enacted by the city council that were aimed at shutting down the free speech and political activity of the Gould Citizens Advisory Committee and its members, including the Gould Mayor, Ernest Nash and warning of the unlawfulness of any retaliation undertaken as a result of the public's exercise of constitutional rights. Residents of Gould and GCAC also filed a lawsuit this week to remove two city council members from office, on the grounds that the council members violated election laws in running for office.
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Latest News
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This session the ACLU of Arkansas and it's coalition members, especially Planned Parenthood, and Arkansas NOW, successfully held the tide against 14 measures that threatened reproductive freedom and would have negatively impacted women's health.
The legislature saw nine bills restricting access to abortion, three bills requiring physicians to report their pregnant patients, a bill that would have redefined "unborn child" as an offspring from conception to birth (and allow a pregnant woman to use deadly force to protect her fetus), and a bill that would have allowed any health care provider to refuse to provide medical care for nearly any reason. Almost all these bills were part of a national strategy by anti-choice groups to limit access to abortion and were introduced in several of those states. Many of those bills passed.
In defeating nearly all of these measures, the General Assembly sent a strong message to anti-choice legislators intent on waging a war on women: what's bad for women is bad for Arkansas.
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Press Releases
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2011
CONTACT: Robyn Shepherd, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666;
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Holly Dickson, (501) 374-2660
ACLU Demands That Two Public School Districts in Little Rock Stop Censoring LGBT Websites
Organization Has Challenged Illegal Filtering In School Districts Across The Country As Part Of "Don't Filter Me" Initiative
LITTLE ROCK - The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arkansas sent letters today to the Little Rock School District and eStem Public Charter Schools demanding that the schools cease viewpoint-based censorship of web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities. The organization has sent demand letters to school districts across the country as part of the organization's national "Don't Filter Me" initiative, which seeks to combat illegal censorship of pro-LGBT information on public school computer systems.
The campaign asked students to check to see if web content geared toward LGBT communities - a frequent target of censorship in schools - is blocked by their schools' web browsers, and then report instances of censorship to the ACLU LGBT Project.
Teachers in Little Rock School District say that the filtering of LGBT-related content harms students and conflicts with schools' education mission.
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