Battle Over School Computer Filters
***NEWS RELEASE***
For Immediate Release
September 6, 2011
CONTACT:
Deborah Hamilton, Hamilton Strategies, 215.815.7716, 610-584-1096,
[email protected]
Civil Rights Group Wants Filters Removed from School Computers So Students Can Access Homosexual Activist Information
Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network Says Schools and Parents Should be Protecting Students, Not Leftist Liberal Groups
Philadelphia, PA—As classes begin around the country, there’s a new debate about students’ freedoms—whether school computers should be equipped with filters to protect children and teens from questionable materials.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), however, wants schools to deactivate those computer filters, saying that while the filters block student access to sexually explicit material, they also prevent students from getting to sites operated by homosexual activist groups. On the opposite side, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has written to seven school districts urging them to reject the ACLU’s demand.
"How much longer are we going to push political and liberal agendas on young students as they are trying to learn?" asks Colin Hanna, President of the Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network and Let Freedom Ring. "Now we are taking off filters that protect our kids so they can have equal access to information that can be harmful—and in public school to boot! This is the job of parents and school administrators, not a civil rights group with a liberal agenda."
"School districts shouldn’t be bullied into exposing students to sexually explicit materials," argues an attorney for ADF, adding that the ACLU’s Don’t Filter Me Initiative would be better named the Public School Porn Initiative. "…(T)he ACLU is pushing its radical sexual agenda for children by intimidating school districts with a long string of scare tactics."
According to a One News Now poll on the topic, 86.21 percent of 4,344 respondents believe that parents should make the decision as to what their kids have access to online at school; 12.27 percent say it is up to school officials; 1.04 percent responded that the courts should decide; and just under a half percent say the students themselves should have a say.
The ACLU is threatening seven school districts and has already sued one of them in Missouri. The organization claims that not allowing the children to access sites currently blocked by filters violates the students’ constitutionally protected rights and the federal Equal Access Act.
ADF has assured the school districts that they are well within their legal rights to retain their filters, and in fact has provided those districts with a list of pornographic and pro-homosexual websites that students would have access to if the schools cave to the ACLU’s demands.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the "salt and light" to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.
The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a project of Let Freedom Ring, Inc., a 501 c(4) non-profit organization.
For more information about Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network visit www.papastors.net.
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To schedule interviews with Colin Hanna, President of Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network and Let Freedom Ring, contact Deborah Hamilton at [email protected], 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.