Continue reading »]]> Deliberate indifference. It’s a lawyerly way of saying that somebody knows about — but doesn’t do anything to fix — a problem. Different people have different reasons for resorting to a state of deliberate indifference, and we can only hope we don’t see it from a fire fighter en route to a disaster.

Which is why it was so disconcerting to see deliberate indifference plain on the face of Assistant Principal Kim Lockwood – while watching her students torment the same boy over and over.

As depicted in the new film Bully, Lockwood is one of many adults who seemed to freeze in the face of blatant student harassment. When a student at East Middle School in Sioux City, Iowa, told Lockwood that he had been getting death threats from other students, Lockwood didn’t offer counseling or substantive conflict resolution. Instead, she suggested that they shake hands and move on.

Later, Lockwood blamed the bullied students for not fixing the situation themselves. She called the school bus, where twelve-year-old Alex Libby was repeatedly punched, threatened, and stabbed, “good as gold”. Alex and other students started skipping school because they were harassed so ruthlessly without protection.

Alex’s mom Jackie refused to believe that this was the best her son could have. “The assumption when you send your kids to school is that you are putting them in someone else’s care that is just as capable as yours.”

California legislators agreed with Jackie – not AP Lockwood — that school officials shouldn’t have the luxury of resorting to deliberate indifference. Seth’s Law (AB 9), which was approved last year and takes effect on July 1st, 2012, requires that schools be proactive in establishing an atmosphere of safety in their schools. Seth’s Law requires that school personnel must intervene if they see an act of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying. It also requires school districts to adopt strong anti-bullying policies that spell out prohibited motivations for bullying, including sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. It calls for schools to adopt a specific process for receiving and investigating complaints of bullying, to publicize those policies and processes, and to post them on their district websites.

Seth’s Law recognizes, finally, that saying “kids will be kids” is an act of deliberate indifference, and it’s unacceptable: student safety should not be left outside the schoolhouse gates. Seth’s Law will help make students like Alex feel safe and comfortable in their own schools so they can freely pursue the education to which they are entitled. That’s something we should demand for every last one of our children.

Continue reading »]]> Like thousands of other people in 2006, Jose Franco was detained by immigration authorities. Most detainees are either deported to their country of origin or released after winning their right to remain in the United States.

But this case took a different route. Mr. Franco has a mental disability. In many respects, he functions at the cognitive level of a small child: he cannot tell time and he doesn’t know his own address. When he appeared in immigration court, he was told by the immigration judge that his deportation proceedings would be suspended until he could undergo a psychological evaluation. But when immigration officials refused to conduct the evaluation, Franco was lost in a loophole in our immigration detention system.

Without the required psychiatric evaluation, and without an attorney (people imprisoned in immigration detention don’t have a right to an appointed attorney), Franco remained in immigration prison in Southern California for four years. He spent half of his twenties deprived of the company of his large extended family and the specialized medical care he had received at home, while literally nothing happened in his immigration case.

Franco’s story is not unique; challenging the government’s conduct in his case led the ACLU to uncover an entire class of individuals who have faced or are facing a similar predicament. We know that dozens of mentally incompetent people are currently imprisoned in immigration detention centers throughout the country. The Obama administration estimates that over a thousand people with serious mental illnesses remain trapped in immigration detention at any one time.

As shocking as that may seem, it’s not surprising if you consider the Obama administration’s inhumane record on immigration. The Obama administration has detained and deported immigrants at a greater rate than any previous administration — over a million since he took office. He’s on track to deport more people in four years than the Bush administration did in eight.

Ironically, the Obama administration has taken this draconian approach at a time when we can least afford it. Official estimates of the cost of ICE incarceration are $120 per day. American taxpayers may have paid up to $175,000 to incarcerate Franco for four years.

People with serious mental disabilities are uniquely vulnerable to being lost behind bars. Under rules that the Obama administration has continued to defend, immigration officials force people like Mr. Franco to defend themselves without an attorney, even though they may not even have the capacity to understand why they are detained.

Last week, a ray of hope shone through the murk of the immigration detention system. Representative Pete Stark (CA-13) introduced H.R. 3881, the Ensuring Mental Competence in Immigration Proceedings Act. The bill would give immigration judges the authority to order competency evaluations for detainees like Franco who may not be competent to represent themselves. It also makes clear that when a detainee is found not to be competent and doesn’t have a lawyer, the judge should either dismiss his case or appoint an attorney.

Jose Franco’s story led to a rare moment of unity between Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Senator Dick Durbin of Ohio during a Senate hearing in November. Senator Durbin seemed disgustedthat mentally ill people were being imprisoned for long periods of time.

“If we’re going to take the responsibility of incarcerating them, we have a responsibility to treat them humanely,” Durbin said.

Secretary Napolitano agreed. So do we.

Continue reading »]]> Detain first, investigate later — that is Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) mantra when it comes to its Secure Communities (“S-Comm”) program, a program designed to immediately ensnare any immigrant in the deportation pipeline the moment they come into contact with the criminal justice system.

Under S-Comm, the fingerprints of every person arrested by the police are shared with ICE at the moment they are booked into police custody. Without investigating the person’s immigration status, ICE immediately sends an “immigration detainer” or a request back to the police if they want the person to continue to be detained for immigration purposes. Detain first, investigate later.

See a problem with this? Not only does it violate the Fourth Amendment’s basic prohibition against detaining a person without probable cause to do so, but it commonly ensnares the wrong people, including people who are not even immigrants, but United States citizens, causing them to be unlawfully detained.

Take, for example, the case of Antonio Montejano, a U.S. citizen who was born in Los Angeles. A few weeks ago, Antonio was arrested by the Santa Monica Police Department for shoplifting. He accidentally left a Sears store without paying for the candy his young children had taken and eaten while in the store. One of his children also placed a $10 perfume bottle in a bag that had already been paid for.

When security guards stopped Antonio, accusing him of stealing the perfume, Antonio explained that it was an honest mistake and that he would be happy to pay for it. After a long back and forth with the security guards, the police were called and Antonio was taken into custody.

Antonio normally would have been released from Santa Monica Police custody within hours of being booked into their custody. But ICE interfered through S-Comm. When Antonio was booked, ICE immediately placed an “immigration detainer” on him, instructing the local authorities to detain him until they could pick him up.

Antonio spent four haunting and unwarranted days in jail on the immigration detainer. For two of those days, Antonio was detained in a temporary holding cell in Los Angeles County Sheriff’s custody that only had chairs, no beds. The authorities forced him to sleep on the hard floor, depriving him of any mattress or blankets, a practice the federal courts have long denounced as flagrantly unconstitutional. Antonio repeatedly protested to jail authorities that he was a U.S. citizen. But only after the ACLU of Southern California contacted a senior ICE official four days later, did they finally agree to lift the detainer.

Romy Campos, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen born in Florida and a dual citizen with Spain, had a nearly identical experience, also a few weeks ago. Her arrest at a mall in Torrance, California also resulted in ICE placing an immigration detainer on her and detaining her for four days in jail. For days, her attorney and family members sent her birth certificate to ICE officials pleading that they lift the erroneous detainer to no avail. Again, the detainer was only lifted once the ACLU of Southern California contacted a senior ICE official.

ICE, quite clearly, has no business arresting and detaining American citizens. But as described in a recent report by the Warren Institute at University of California — Berkeley, they do so over and over again through the fundamentally-flawed S-Comm program. (ICE’s own data in the first year of S-Comm activation revealed that five percent of persons identified by S-Comm were in fact U.S. citizens.) And they do so by enlisting the unwitting participation of local jail authorities in these unconstitutional practices.

The costs and consequences of S-Comm’s detain first, investigate later are borne out every day in the jails and police stations across the country where non-deportable citizens and noncitizens suffer needless detention, while they beg for ICE to finally investigate their cases so that they may be released from jail.

Continue reading »]]>

This post originally appeared in The Tennessean.

This week’s news of another suicide by a young student—brought about after years of anti-gay bullying at his school—reminds me of my own experiences attending schools in Tennessee twenty years ago. Unfortunately, it seems little has changed.

Back then, it was part of my regular school day to be called anti-gay slurs, to be pushed into lockers, and to have my books knocked out of my hands—apparently I carried them in a feminine way. I couldn’t wait to graduate so I could escape the constant fear I faced each time I boarded the school bus, or walked down the halls, out onto the playground, or into the cafeteria. Thankfully, I finished high school, went to college and law school, and ended up landing a dream job at the ACLU of Southern California.

Now I direct an anti-bullying project with the mission of stopping unlawful harassment and bullying in California schools and creating school communities that promote safety and respect for all students. Our project teaches school personnel about the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) students, and holds accountable those who allow anti-gay discrimination to go unchecked. Admittedly, the project’s goals are lofty, but they are made more attainable by the strong anti-bullying laws we have in California, including explicit protections for LGBT students.

If only LGBT students in Tennessee were as fortunate. Ninety-eight percent of the LGBT students in Tennessee report verbal harassment. Yet no laws exist in Tennessee specifically protecting LGBT students. That leaves students like Jacob Rogers to defend themselves when their teachers won’t step in to stop the bullying—or worse, when their teachers choose to bully them directly. Imagine how difficult that can be for a confused teenager, many of whom cannot rely on family for support.

Compounding the struggle our youth face, many teenagers who are questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity often feel isolated and alone. I was often reminded of this during the time I served as the executive director of Mid-TN Nashville Pride; after each year’s parade—which always made the local news and the cover of the Tennessean—I’d get at least one call from a local student, expressing thanks to the Pride organization for planning an event that proved LGBT people live in Tennessee too.

Through all of these experiences—from being bullied, to highlighting the rich diversity of Middle Tennessee’s LGBT community, to ensuring that the bullying stops here—I have learned that preventing future tragedies like what befell Jacob will require a community-wide conversation and response. It will require advocacy to ensure passage of strong local school board policies and statewide laws to protect LGBT students; it will require engaging the community to teach LGBT students about their rights, and to teach school personnel about their obligations to uphold those rights. And, in some instances, it may require litigation to force school districts to comply with the law. But together, we can stop bullying. I hope you will join us in this effort.

James W. Gilliam is the deputy executive director of the ACLU of Southern California and the director of the organization’s anti-bullying project. He served as executive director of Mid-TN Nashville Pride until 1999 when he moved to Los Angeles for law school.

Continue reading »]]>

Chaz Bono (left) speaks with "It Gets Better" project founder Dan Savage. Photo by Margaret Molloy.

Chaz Bono doing the samba on Dancing with the Stars and Isis King posing fiercely on the All Stars cycle of America’s Next Top Model may mark the first time two positive transgender role models have broken through to the mainstream at the same time. That’s real progress for the widespread acceptance of the trans community, but not all trans people have the support that Chaz and Isis enjoy.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance we celebrate our transgender role models while remembering that members of the trans community are constantly targeted for harassment and violence. This year there have been eight reported murders of transgender individuals, and the violence continues against the trans youth in our schools. Gender variant students are regular targets for harassment by their fellow students.

According to a 2009 survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), school is a real struggle for LGBT students. More than sixty percent have been verbally harassed at least once because of their gender expression, and more than a quarter reported frequent verbal harassment. More alarming is that twenty-seven percent had been physically harassed at school because of their gender expression; almost a tenth (8.7%) often or frequently.

GLSEN also reports that schools are getting better over the years and clubs like Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs) are improving school climates. The It Gets Better Project has over 450,000 pledges to stop hate and violence and over 22,000 videos of individuals, organizations and celebrities proclaiming how life for queer youth can and will get better.

Our Student Rights Project focuses on stopping the unlawful bullying and harassment of students. We educate school officials on how to protect LGBT students and how to celebrate students for who they are and the communities they come from. The ACLU has been fighting for the protection and freedoms of all people, including in the sixties when it was illegal in Los Angeles for performers to dress as members of the “opposite sex.” Along side Sir Lady Java, who refused to give up her right to work and express herself, the ACLU fought the blatant transphobia of Rule Number 9.

As we reflect on the struggles of our trans community, it is crucial that we tackle the problems that are affecting trans youth. Bullying and harassment in schools continue to have adverse and catastrophic consequences on LGBT youth. Through our student rights project, the ACLU is working relentlessly to ensure that every students’ freedom of expression is protected and that all students can say that their school is a safe environment.

Continue reading »]]>

via Jordon Cooper

“What are we talkin’ bout? Practice? We talkin’ bout practice, man. We not even talking about the game,” said former NBA superstar Allen Iverson almost ten years ago. His now memorable words came to mind when I read that Los Angeles officials are negotiating with Occupy protesters to break down the camp at City Hall Park and relocate it.

Why will the many weeks’ long peaceful protest and encampment be closed down, you may ask? Is it concern over public health? Nope. Is it a threat to public safety? Think again. It’s the lawn.

“That’s a piece of dirt, it’s not sustainable ecologically and it’s only going to get worse and worse,” Chief Beck said, talking about the lawn surrounding City Hall. “We need to find either a different location or a different medium for them to use.”

What are we talkin’ bout? The lawn? We talkin’ bout the lawn, people!

In cities across the country, mayors are looking for, and often finding, ways to justify trumping the First Amendment right of protesters. New York mayor Michael Bloomberg explained that the increasing number of tents erected in the park made it difficult for the emergency services to ensure the protesters’ safety, and the New York police then moved in, under cover of night, to clear the park of protesters and tents. There are reasons to question just how persuasive Bloomberg’s justification was, but it at least sounds weighty.

Our local elected officials deserve credit, tremendous credit, for working with the occupiers in instead of resorting to forcible evictions and mass arrests, as we’ve seen in other “Occupied” cities. Our elected officials have remained true to our constitutional values, and we applaud them for choosing a different path from their peers in New York and Oakland.

But, in balancing competing rights and interests, our elected officials must remember that on the one hand there is the First Amendment and the rights of free speech and assembly — fundamental rights that are critical to the health and well-being of our democracy — and on the other hand there is, say it with me, the lawn and its health and appearance.

(To be fair, as City Hall Park General Manager John Kirk Mukri outlined in a letter addressed to Mayor Villaraigosa: “Soil has become compacted and extremely dry in turf areas and around trees. Trees and other plants are suffering from a lack of water and nutrients… Physical damage has been caused to the irrigation system and controllers.”)

I am from Southern California, born and raised here, and I know how fanatical we can be about our lawns. There is a teachable moment here: not only about whether the lawn surrounding City Hall was a wise use of water and money in a time of economic crisis, but more important, about how few interests should ever be permitted to trump our First Amendment rights.

What are we talkin’ bout? The First Amendment? We talkin’ bout the First Amendment, people!

Streets, parks, and other public areas and forums have been held open to the public for speech and assembly “from time immemorial.” City Hall Park should be no different; in fact, it has been designated as parkland since 1927.

The occupiers are using City Hall Park for a constitutionally hallowed purpose: they are exercising their rights of speech and assembly to bring social, economic, and political problems to the forefront of City Hall’s attention and to attention of the local community. By their continued presence, they are attempting to prevent these problems from being ignored and omitted from our political discussions. Whatever one may think of the merits of the protest and its message, there is no doubt that the occupiers have sparked a citywide and indeed nationwide debate. This is precisely what the First Amendment is designed to do.

I fear, and we should all fear, that in relocating the occupiers the City will undermine free speech and make it more difficult for those assembled to reach their intended audience — all in the name of protecting the lawn.

Let’s remain calm. There is something to see here. And it’s our democracy at work. So let’s remember that we are talking about the First Amendment, people.

Continue reading »]]>

GSAs (Gay Straight Alliances) help create a positive school environment, which is the objective of the ACLU/SC’s student rights project. Excerpted from the ACLU Blog of Rights:

GSAs are school clubs that aim to create safe and supportive environments for students to learn about homophobia, transphobia, and other types of oppression and prejudice. They are places to have important discussions, to make friends, and to get support from peers. They can help educate the school community — even people who aren’t in the club — about issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity. And they can help fight the discrimination, harassment, and violence that plague so many students.

Research has shown that students at schools with GSAs experience less harassment and are more likely to feel safe — which makes every day a whole lot easier. That’s why we at the ACLU are such big fans. And that’s why we’ve put together this step-by-step video on how to start a GSA! It guides you through five steps for starting a GSA, from explaining why you want a club to things to do when you start meeting.

The Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), has registered over 4,000 GSAs across the country and in every state in the U.S., so chances are everything will go smoothly! But if you’re worried that your school administration won’t be supportive, it’s particularly important to make sure you follow the steps laid out here. These tips will make it easier for the ACLU to support you if you need our help.  And we have lots of additional resources on our website that may be helpful too.  We’re here to support you through every step of starting a GSA – before you start, when you’re putting up posters, if you run into opposition, and during your meetings.

No one should be bullied. Starting a GSA helps ensure that everyone feels safe at school. It might sound like a big project, but it’s a hugely important one — and if you have any questions or just want to get some general advice about starting a GSA at your school, please contact us. You don’t have to do it alone!

Continue reading »]]> Amidst all the talk of immigration reform and the need to secure our borders, it’s easy to forget that our government already imprisons thousands of immigrants for months, often years, in several hundred immigration detention centers scattered across the United States.

Take, for example, the Reverend Raymond Soeoth, a Christian minister who fled Muslim majority Indonesia with his wife after the couple faced persecution for practicing their faith. When his asylum application was denied in 2004, the U.S. government incarcerated Reverend Soeoth at an immigration detention center in Los Angeles. Even though he posed no danger or flight risk and had never been convicted of any crime, he spent over two and a half years in detention while the courts decided whether to reconsider his asylum claim.

Sadly, despite the Department of Homeland Security’s claims that such prolonged detention is reserved for the worst of the worst, all too often thousands of immigrants like Reverend Soeoth wind up in immigration detention. Nearly half of those detained have never been convicted of any crime, while many others were convicted of minor offenses long ago, and are detained years later by immigration authorities trying to deport them based on those old offenses.

Remarkably, during those two and a half years, immigration authorities never afforded Reverend Soeoth the most basic element of due process — a hearing before a judge to determine whether his detention was necessary. He was separated from his wife, who was forced to shutter the corner store they ran together, and his congregation, all because our government would not give him a 15 minute bond hearing before a judge. In February 2007, after the ACLU filed suit, a federal court ordered such a hearing for Reverend Soeoth. The judge decided that he presented no danger or risk of flight and ordered him released on bond. Since that time he has reunited with his wife and congregation, rebuilt his life and will likely be granted asylum soon.

The human tragedy created by the detention of Reverend Soeoth and thousands of others like him is made even worse by its exorbitant cost. As taxpayers, we spend $45,000 per detainee per year — a total of $1.9 billion in the past fiscal year — with $100 million more than that requested for the fiscal year 2012 budget, needlessly imprisoning many people who present no threat to our society. As the public debates the merits of shrinking the size of government and bringing the scope of federal power in line with constitutional constraints, we should seriously consider proposals that ensure due process for immigrants by placing reasonable limits on their prolonged detention. Our most basic values as a free country demand an end to the needless of detention of Reverend Soeoth and the thousands of others who deserve better from this great nation.

The ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project receives hundreds of letters each month from individuals inside immigration detention who have been locked up for years, fighting their cases to remain in the United States. Many of them are refugees, lawful permanent residents with US citizen family members, and others who pose no threat to the community.

You can read some of their letters here.

Continue reading »]]> Los Angelenos may be the most auto-obsessed people on the planet (see Carmaggedon), but most of the time we turn a blind eye toward the people who actually clean our cars—and their routinely terrible working conditions.

The 10,000 car wash workers working at more than 500 car washes in Los Angeles are routinely excluded from the labor protections most Angelenos enjoy. Car wash workers, or carwasheros, are paid less than minimum wage– in some cases they earn only tips instead of real wages. They’re often expected to handle toxic chemicals without wearing masks and gloves. They usually don’t get the work breaks that the In-N-Out employees across the street take for granted.

And when they raise their voices against these substandard conditions, they’re often subjected to harassment and retaliation by management. Sometimes their work hours are cut or they’re fired to intimidate the remaining car wash staff.

But today, about 30 car wash workers announced a union contract with Bonus Car Wash in Santa Monica. The CLEAN Carwash campaign, which helped organize the workers and coordinate the contract, says that the terms of the contract aren’t extravagant: car wash owners are simply agreeing to abide by state labor law regarding working conditions, like work breaks and when workers can clock in. It also provides a procedure for hearing workers’ grievances. And it requires any future owners to abide by the contract, so the improved working conditions will remain even if the car wash changes ownership.

“It was a two-year struggle,” said Eduardo Tapia, a longtime employee of Bonus Car Wash. “We have 10 more minutes of break. We have our water to drink. If they say show up at work at 10:30, I start work at 10:30.”

The ACLU of Southern California has supported the CLEAN Carwash campaign’s efforts since its inception in 2008. We’ve helped organize the car wash workers, aided the contract negotiation process, and rallied our full membership for support.

This small union gives Los Angeles the distinction of being home to the first unionized car wash in the country. But it won’t be the last.

Continue reading »]]>

“I wish sometimes that I had died in Iraq. So that my life would have meant something.” Robert Rissman is a 22-year old Iraq combat veteran who returned from Iraq with undiagnosed PTSD. As Robert struggled to cope with his disability, he became one of 8,000 homeless veterans living on the streets of Los Angeles.

Robert’s story was told on a CNN featured segment last night. It also describes the lawsuit we filed in June against the Department of Veterans Affairs for its failure to ensure that struggling veterans like Robert have meaningful access to the mental health, medical, and other services they deserve.

Our society has a responsibility to take care of vets like Robert after they finish their service to our country, and we rely on the VA to make good on that commitment. The VA is supposed to support veterans and prevent veteran homelessness. It’s also supposed address the underlying conditions that lead to veteran homelessness, and provide stable housing and care while veterans get back on their feet.

The VA’s failure to provide housing and care that even its own experts recognize is necessary for homeless veterans with serious mental disabilities is even more scandalous in LA because the VA is also mismanaging a 387-campus that was given the federal government for the express purpose of providing a home to disabled veterans.  Instead of housing veterans, the VA has housed rental cars, commercial bus storage lots, and a luxury hotel laundry facility.

Spread the word about this story, about the case, about this issue, and about the VA’s mismanagement of the West Los Angeles VA campus. Call your local congressperson, Senator Feinstein, or the veterans affairs committees in Congress, and demand that they hold congressional hearings to get to the bottom of this scandal.

On average, 18 veterans kill themselves each day, so the VA’s delay tactics here are costing lives.