There’s no shortage of tragic stories about the dangers of holding children and teens in adult jails. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently filed a lawsuit in Florida that described horrendous abuse at the Polk County Jail – an adult jail where children as young as 8 years old can be detained.
The SPLC is calling for the reinstatement of a Michigan teacher who was fired recently for helping students organize a fundraiser for the family of Trayvon Martin, the teen who was fatally shot in a Florida neighborhood earlier this year.
The U.S. Department of Justice has advised the Southern Poverty Law Center that it will investigate discrimination against students with disabilities in the Georgia public school system. The decision by the department’s Civil Rights Division follows an SPLC complaint filed with the Department of Justice in November.
Artist Jean Grosser’s artwork includes pieces that transform hate group literature into provocative art. For instance, she used the Southern Poverty Law Center’s historic lawsuit against the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) hate group as the subject of one of her pieces.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today condemned efforts by House Republicans to prevent a decorated 12-year U.S. Army veteran and other married gay and lesbian veterans from receiving the same disability benefits provided to their married heterosexual counterparts.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit against Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman today, charging the Louisiana sheriff’s indifference has created brutal and inhumane conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison where prisoners endure rampant violence, multiple sexual assaults and neglect.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and more than 100 of the nation’s civil rights and faith groups joined in filing a brief with the Supreme Court this week to oppose Arizona’s anti-immigrant law. Arizona’s controversial S.B. 1070 is scheduled to come up for Supreme Court review in April.
Tuscaloosa County Schools will allow its lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students to attend prom with same-sex dates. The school district also has recognized the right of students to wear clothing with slogans expressing acceptance of LGBT people.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has demanded that the Orleans Parish sheriff in Louisiana immediately take steps to protect a transsexual inmate who has been repeatedly raped and tortured at the Orleans Parish Prison or face a federal lawsuit.
I was in court with Barbara Anderson Young this week when three of the white teens who beat, ran over and killed her brother last June in a Mississippi parking lot pleaded guilty to murder and hate crimes. Those three now face life sentences in prison.
