Merely educational?

The ACLU has sent letters to several school districts throughout the country, including Virginia's Prince William County public school system, requesting that the schools stop blocking gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) websites. The ACLU claims that blocking access to these sites through web filters is a violation of the First Amendment.

"The Prince William County public schools do not have a legitimate pedagogical basis for censoring students' access to these websites, which provide support and resources for LGBT students and gay-straight alliances," stated the letter addressed to Prince William Superintendent Stephen Walts.

The letter is part of the ACLU initiative "Don't Filter Me," which reaches out across the country against schools that block LGBT websites.

"In Prince William it's absolutely clear that the LGBT websites are being blocked, and that whatever filtering system they're using actually allows through anti-LGBT websites," said ACLU spokesman Kent Willis, according to InsideNova.com. "That kind of blatant viewpoint discrimination by the government is both unconstitutional and an affront to every LGBT student in Prince William public schools."

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of the Liberty Counsel, disagrees. "Public schools do not have to let in every website or every book that the ACLU wants," he said. "They have a right to be able to control the kind of literature that they present in their curriculum, the kind of books they put in their library, and the access to their internet."

Prince William County public schools use Blue Coat software that offers a variety of filters, including one that blocks any LGBT-related website. Students who attempt to access an LGBT website see a page that reads, "You have reached a web site blocked by Prince William County Public School's Acceptable Use Policy 295." The school's Acceptable Use Policy, in compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act, states that filters will block "visual depictions of material deemed obscene or child pornography, or to any material deemed harmful to minors."

"The internet is not a public form that [the Prince William County public schools] have opened for everyone to use." said Staver. "I don't think this is viewpoint discrimination. I think that the school is making a sound decision to limit access to otherwise disruptive websites that are inconsistent with the curriculum and school environment."

The ACLU letter, dated April 11th, states that Prince William County public schools have shown intolerance towards LGBT students by blocking support websites. "Allowing students equal access to LGBT-related websites is not just a legal duty; it also makes sense from a safety perspective, particularly in light of the epidemic of LGBT youth suicides and bullying."

The websites specifically mentioned by the ACLU are: the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (gsanetwork.org), a site connecting school-based, gay-straight alliances and providing peer support for students; the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (glsen.org), a site focusing on school safety for LGBT students; the Day of Silence (dayofsilence.org), a site organizing a national day of silence to bring attention to violence against LGBT students; and the It Gets Better Project (itgetsbetter.org), a site offering support for bullied LGBT students. None of the websites contain pornographic content.

"Anyone who thinks these website are merely educational has not taken the time to see what's on these websites," said Staver. "The websites are advocacy websites; the websites promote advertisements that are sexually provocative and suggestive. They promote sexual activity that is risky and promiscuous."

In April, the ACLU also sent letters to school districts in Michigan, Texas, and Pennsylvania that use software from Blue Coat, Websense, and Lightspeed to block LGBT websites.

The "Don't Filter Me" campaign, promoted by the ACLU and Yale Law School, calls for students to check the computers in their school for "unconstitutional" filtering. A video on the ACLU website states, "If you are a public school student, the ACLU wants you to check your school's web filters and help us see if your school is filtering information that you have the right to see." The video takes students through a four-step process: checking access to pro-LGBT websites, checking access to anti-LGBT websites, taking screenshots of blocked pages, and reporting the information to the ACLU.

The ACLU letter to Prince William County asks for a response to the concerns by April 25th. "If you continue to censor these websites, you could be subject to legal liability and the expense of litigation, as the boards of education and superintendants of two Tennessee school districts that also used the Blue Coast LGBT filter recently discovered."

The two Tennessee school districts were sued by the ACLU, agreed to a settlement, and removed the filters.

Prince William County public school spokesman Ken Blackstone said that the school is reviewing the letter. He said that some LGBT sites are blocked by the school's Blue Coat software, but that educational sites are not intentionally targeted.

The ACLU letter can be read here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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