The public school system of Mobile County, Ala., violated the constitutional rights of students by suspending them for months at a time over minor misbehavior without giving parents and guardians an opportunity to defend them. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of six students suspended for apparent minor misbehavior such as un-tucked shirts, tardiness or failing to carry a school ID.
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Features and Stories
The Mobile County (Ala.) Public School System has violated the constitutional rights of students by suspending them for months at a time over minor misbehavior without giving parents and guardians an opportunity to defend them, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by the SPLC.
Features and Stories
A congressional delegation led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis laid a wreath at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery to honor the men and women who sacrificed their lives during the civil rights movement. About 300 people took part in the solemn ceremony on March 5.
Students in Birmingham, Ala., schools were sprayed with pepper spray as punishment for routine offenses. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of district students to end the practice and other abusive and unconstitutional behavior.
Features and Stories
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a federal class action lawsuit today targeting the use of mace on Birmingham City School children as a means of basic school discipline. The suit was filed on behalf of district students who have been brutalized with chemical weapons and other excessive force.
Features and Stories
Given the current epidemic of anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) bullying and related student suicides across the country, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) calls on the Alabama State Department of Education (the SDE) to revise its Model Anti-Harassment Policy (the Model Policy) so that it protects all students, including LGBT students.
Features and Stories
The Southern Poverty Law Center's appeal in Beck v. Alabama led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring the "kill 'em or let 'em go" provision unconstitutional—a ruling that brought Gilbert Beck a new trial and paved the way for new trials for many of the 43 people on Alabama's death row at the time.
Features and Stories
An Alabama student's school never evaluated him for special education services, even though his teachers and principals knew that he suffered from severe behavioral problems and that he lagged behind in his studies.
Features and Stories
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) today released a blueprint for reducing Alabama's alarming student and teacher dropout rates as part of an ongoing effort to improve the climate in the state's schools.
Migrant farmworker Victor Marquez was traveling to his hometown in Querétero, Mexico, to pay for his new home, only to have his life savings seized by police who alleged it was drug money. During the May 5, 2008, traffic stop in Loxley, Ala., a police officer confiscated more than $19,000 from Marquez even though he earned a majority of the money by working the bean harvest in south Florida. Marquez was not charged. The Southern Poverty Law Center won the return of the money after the state refused to provide documents and information requested by SPLC lawyers representing Marquez.
