Sixth Grader's Project About Harvey Milk Censored by School
Natalie Jones, a sixth-grader in Ramona, California, created a Powerpoint presentation about Harvey Milk's life and activism, for which she received a near-perfect score. The day before the presentation, Jones' principal said that although her project was as good as a high school student's, because of the "sensitive material," she might be unable to show it.
Siting their policy on sex education, which the ACLU said was grossly misinterpreted, the school then sent out permission slips to all of the students' parents to sign in order for them to be allowed to watch. Due to this measure, Jones ended up presenting her project to half the students in the sixth-grade class during lunch recess.
"First my daughter got called into the principal's office as if she were in some kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something icky," said Natalie Jones' mother, Bonnie Jones. "Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. To say my daughter's presentation is 'sex education' because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong."
The ACLU has gotten involved, saying that the Ramona Unified School District violated Jones' free speech rights. They are demanding that the district issue Jones an apology and that they allow her to give her presentation to the entire class. They've given the school district five days to respond, or they might file a lawsuit.
"They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment and the California Education Code," said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. "Writing or talking about a gay historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should not pretend otherwise."