The SPLC today delivered a petition signed by more than 5,800 people to Florida Gov. Rick Scott demanding that the state stop discriminating against black and Hispanic students by setting lower academic goals for students of color.
The SPLC is presenting evidence in a federal court trial in Tampa that children held in the Polk County, Fla., jail were routinely brutalized, subjected to verbal and physical abuse by guards, and denied proper health and rehabilitative services. The case illustrates why children should not be held in adult jails.
Florida prekindergarten programs are violating federal law by turning away children with diabetes and denying them an early childhood education, according to a discrimination complaint filed with the Department of Justice today by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC has reached an agreement with Florida’s Polk County School Board that will ensure children held at the Central County Jail receive an appropriate education vital to helping them return to their communities.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal civil rights complaint today alleging that the Florida Department of Education is discriminating against black and Hispanic students by adopting a plan that sets lower academic expectations for students of color.
A federal court sharply criticized a Florida sheriff for using pepper spray on children and for failing to prevent violence at the Polk County Jail in an opinion that advances a Southern Poverty Law Center case against the sheriff.
A federal judge has blocked a discriminatory college tuition policy in Florida that the SPLC challenged on behalf of U.S. citizens living in the state but forced to pay out-of-state tuition because they were unable to prove their parents’ federal immigration status.
Children of undocumented immigrants who live in Florida will no longer be forced to pay out-of-state tuition rates as the result of a court ruling in an SPLC lawsuit challenging the state’s tuition policy.
African-American students in several Florida school districts were subjected to harsh disciplinary policies at a far higher rate than their white classmates. These students were often subjected to long-term suspensions, expulsions and even arrested at school for relatively minor misconduct.
When 11-year-old J.B. was caught with a cell phone in class, the student received a five-day suspension. The school district in Okaloosa County, Fla., meted out the harsh punishment because the incident was considered “inappropriate behavior.”
