ACLU Battles to End School Censorship of LGBT Sites

By Neal Broverman

The American Civil Liberties Union went to court on Thursday to end a Missouri school district's policy of censoring all LGBT sites — including those of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride, and PFLAG —while allowing students to view antigay websites.

The ACLU, along with the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, are seeking a preliminary injunction against the Camdenton R-III School District. The ACLU says the school has been warned many times that its filtering software keeps informative, non-sexual LGBT sites from students.

"School districts across the country have purchased filtering software that allows them to block sexually explicit websites without discriminating against LGBT-supportive content,” Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project, said in a statement. “We all agree that it is appropriate to block students from accessing pornography or sexually explicit content. But Camdenton R-III insists on using its ‘do it yourself’ software even though other systems provide viewpoint-neutral filtering and are more effective at blocking actual pornography.”

The suit was filed on behalf of a Camdenton high school student, as well as the LGBT sites blocked by the district. Click here to hear more about the case.