Friday, August 04, 2006

The ACLU: "Helping" Educators, Too

If you thought the ACLU was merely a group of vipers who were bent on the destruction of Western civilization, utilizing courts as surrogate Legislatures (see yesterday's post on Ockham,) you're wrong.

They're also willing to engage in utterly stupid lawsuits:

A 13-year-old Southside Junior High School student and her parents are seeking to block a planned pilot same-sex education program in Livingston Parish schools, court records show.
Filed for the family by the ACLU Wednesday morning in Baton Rouge’s U.S. District Court, the lawsuit seeks a court order to halt the new program before the school year starts Aug. 9.


...School officials plan to segregate male and female students at two junior high schools: Southside in the Denham Springs school district and Westside in the Walker district.

Myra Holmes, principal of Southside, said same-sex classes are one learning strategy among many tied to “brain-based” research and aimed at helping her sixth- to eighth-graders learn.
She said boys and girls will be taught the same curriculum but sometimes in a different manner to accommodate males’ and females’ reported learning styles.


The lawsuit claims the program is based on overbroad generalizations and will violate the Louisiana and U.S. constitutions, as well as federal Title IX education regulations.

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in all education programs or activities receiving federal money.

Emily Martin, deputy director of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, said the schools should not teach boys or girls to behave like the “average” boy or girl. The cookie-cutter approach “is bad for kids and is also against the law,” she said.

Martin contended the schoolwide setup creates a mandatory program violating Title IX regulations and even proposed Title IX changes meant to encourage same-sex schools.

Well, there's no question that the ACLU knows everything about education, right?

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