The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri announced today that they have reached a settlement agreement with the Camdenton R-III School District following a judge’s order to stop using Internet filtering software that unfairly blocked pro-LGBT websites while allowing access to anti-LGBT resources.

The district agreed to a settlement in which it will stop blocking the sites, submit to monitoring for 18 months to confirm compliance and pay $125,000 in legal fees and costs. For its part, URL Blacklist – the software provider used by the district – changed its design to allow access to thousands of websites that had been blocked under its old configuration.

The original lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Camdenton High School student and LGBT organizations whose websites are blocked by the filter: PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride and DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBT organization. The plaintiffs were also represented by Thompson Coburn LLP.

Statement from Shane Windmeyer, Campus Pride executive director:
"Campus Pride is pleased by the Camdenton R-III School District's decision to settle this case and agree to stop filtering LGBT-related content. Finding an LGBT-friendly college and learning about valuable LGBT services on campuses should not be blocked for any reason. Every young person should have access in their schools to such online information provided by Campus Pride, especially those seeking safer, more welcoming places to learn, live and grow in their academic careers. Our online resources are essential in delivering a message of hope and support -- and in changing the lives of LGBT and ally young people. We are encouraged knowing that the rights of students in this school district will be protected."

More information about this case (which was recently featured in The New York Times) can be found at the ACLU's website.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 15, 2012

CONTACT:
Robyn Shepherd, ACLU national, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; [email protected]
Debbie Read and Anthony Rothert, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, (314) 669-3420; [email protected]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A federal district court ruled today that the Camdenton R-III School District must stop censoring web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities through discriminatory filtering software. The ruling orders the district to not block content based on the viewpoints expressed by the website.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri filed a lawsuit against the district in August 2011 after repeated warnings that its custom-built filtering software discriminates against LGBT content. The filter has a category that blocks LGBT-supportive information, including hundreds of websites that are not sexually explicit in any way. The filter does, however, allow students to view anti-LGBT sites that condemn homosexuality or opposed legal protections for LGBT people.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Camdenton High School student and LGBT organizations whose websites are blocked by the filter: PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride and DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBT organization. The plaintiffs were also represented by Thompson Coburn LLP.

“The court correctly recognized the constitutional rights of all students to viewpoint-neutral access to information,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “It is absolutely possible to protect children from sexually explicit content while also protecting their First Amendment rights. Like thousands of other school districts across the country, Camdenton R-III will now begin using a filtering system that blocks pornography without discriminating against LGBT-related content.”

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri said that the district’s filtering system “systematically allows access to websites expressing a negative viewpoint toward LGBT individuals by categorizing them as ‘religion,’ but filters out positive viewpoints toward LGBT issues by categorizing them as ‘sexuality.’” Although the district argued that it would unblock individual websites upon request the court held that “students may be deterred from accessing websites expressing a positive view toward LGBT individuals either by the inconvenience of having to wait twenty-four hours for access or by the stigma of knowing that viewpoint has been singled out as less worthy by the school district and the community.”

The court also concluded that other filtering systems are available that “are much more effective” at filtering out pornography “and do so without burdening websites that express a positive viewpoint toward LGBT individuals.”

“The filtering system that had been installed at Camdenton R-III was arbitrary, ineffective and discriminatory,” said Anthony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “Today’s ruling affirms that students will be free to search for resources for their gay-straight alliance, seek support against bullying and research history as it pertains to LGBT people, just as they would for any other subject.”

More about this case can be found at: www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/pflag-v-camdenton-r-iii-school-district.

ACLU Asks Court to Stop Camdenton School District from Illegally Censoring LGBT Websites; School District Ignored Requests to Remove Web Filter to Avoid Liability for Unconstitutional Viewpoint-Based Censorship

Campus Pride statement:

ACLU RELEASE ABOUT THE FILING:

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of LGBT organizations whose websites are blocked by the filter: PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays), the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride and DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBT organization.