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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>This is a recent outcome of a court case the Freedom to Read Foundation has been following closely.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:#1F497D'>Kent<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Kent Oliver, Executive Director <br>Stark County District Library <br>715 Market Ave., N., Canton, OH 44702 <br>W: 330 458 2710 FAX: 330 455 9596 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><i><span style='color:#1F497D'>"Inspiring Ideas, Enriching Lives, Creating Community"<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><i><span style='font-family:"Poor Richard","serif";color:black'> <img width=220 height=106 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image005.jpg@01CCEC82.2B3E7980" alt=starlibrarylogo> <img width=114 height=100 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image006.jpg@01CCEC82.2B3E7980" alt="medal_home[1]"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><i><span style='font-family:"Poor Richard","serif";color:black'>Named as one of 10 recipients of the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries.</span></i></b><b><i><span style='font-family:"Poor Richard","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:#1F497D'>This communication is a confidential and proprietary communication. It is intended solely for the use of the designated recipient(s). If this communication is received in error, please contact the sender and delete this communication.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br><br><br><br></span></p></div><div><div><h2 align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>Court Orders Missouri School District to Stop Censoring LGBT Websites</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br>February 15, 2012</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>CONTACT:<br>Robyn Shepherd, ACLU national, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="mailto:media@aclu.org" title="mailto:media@aclu.org"><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>media@aclu.org</span></a></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'> <br>Debbie Read and Anthony Rothert, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, (314) 669-3420; </span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="mailto:tony@aclu-em.org"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>tony@aclu-em.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>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.</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>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.</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>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.</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>“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.”</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>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.”</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>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.”</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>“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.”</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:black'>More about this case can be found at: </span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><a href="http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/pflag-v-camdenton-r-iii-school-district" title="http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/pflag-v-camdenton-r-iii-school-district"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/pflag-v-camdenton-r-iii-school-district</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>