School Censors Tween's Report on Harvey Milk

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted May 21, 2009 12:37 PM CDT
School Censors Tween's Report on Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk in San Francisco's seventh annual Gay Freedom parade in 1978.   (AP Photo)

The ACLU is threatening to sue a California school district that restricted access to a 12-year-old’s report on gay-rights activist Harvey Milk, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. When the school learned of the subject, it delayed the presentation and sent letters to parents requiring permission slips for their children to attend. The presentation, attended by half the sixth-grade class, occurred during lunch.

The letter to parents outlined Milk’s gay bona fides “in order to respect the rights of all our students and their parents.” The school says permission slips are required for any classroom content that touches on “family life” or sex. “This is not sex education,” said an ACLU lawyer, who is demanding an apology and a presentation to the full class. “This is a presentation about Harvey Milk, a historical figure who happened to be gay.” (More Harvey Milk stories.)

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