A sixth-grader was told that she could not give a report on the slain gay activist Harvey Milk unless her classmates’ parents gave permission for their children to hear the report. Now, the ACLU is threatening to sue the school district.
District officials told Natalie Jones and her parents that a report on Milk fell under the school board’s life and sex education policy, which requires parental consent before any instruction on the topics of reproduction and human sexuality.
Natalie, 12, is a student at Mount Woodson Elementary School and did the report last month as part of an independent research project class at the school. Students in the class are required to do PowerPoint projects on a subject of their choosing.
The ACLU says that the school district is violating her free speech rights.
Blair-Loy, in his letter to the school district, said the girl was told the subject was “sensitive.” School officials later told the girl’s mother, Bonnie Jones, that the presentation only could be shown to students whose parents had signed a permission slip in advance.
Superintendent Robert Graeff and Grace cited the board policy dealing with sex-education matters. The policy states that parents will be notified in writing about any teaching on the subjects of sex or “family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases.”
Natalie gave the presentation to about half the class, Blair-Loy said. The ACLU wants the district to apologize to Natalie, send letters “reflecting such apology” to parents who received the school district permission request, let Natalie give the presentation to the whole class and clarify that the board policy applies only to course content for sex-education instruction. The group also wants the district to say situations like this won’t happen again.
“We think the school district singled out and discriminated against Natalie’s speech because of its content,” Blair-Loy said. “This is not sex education. This is a presentation about Harvey Milk, a historical figure who happened to be gay.”
While discussing sexuality can be a sensitive issue, there is no reason to put the assignment in the category of sex education. Yes, Harvey Milk was gay. Only extremely naieve 12-year olds wouldn’t know what that meant. Would permission slips be needed for others, such as Bill Clinton, Gavin Newsom, Alan Turing, President Buchanan, Tennessee Williams, or Oscar Wilde? Their biographies would be sexual in nature as well, at least according to this school district’s policies.
