The Southern Poverty Law Center announced today that Alabama’s Jefferson County Board of Education abolished its unlawful policy banning male students from wearing earrings – a policy that discriminated on the basis of sex and violated students’ free-speech rights.
Mary Bauer, legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the Obama administration’s announcement Friday to delay deporting young immigrants is a positive step, but against a backdrop of anti-immigrant sentiment and harsh laws in many states, much more remains to be done.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies asked the Tennessee Supreme Court today to block an agreement between Nashville and federal authorities that violates state and local laws by allowing the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to enforce immigra¬tion law.
School officials in Savannah, Tenn., in response to a letter from the Southern Poverty Law Center, have recognized the right of students to express acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, including the right to display slogans and symbols expressing such acceptance.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Children’s Services filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) for discriminating against Latino students with Spanish-speaking parents.
