American Civil Liberties Union

Student Rights:
Constitutional violations are far too common in public schools across the country. Teachers and administrators have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for the students that is conducive to learning. They also have a responsibility to respect each student's individual rights. Simply put, students have rights too. Learn more and take action to protect the rights guaranteed to all Americans.


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Student Rights : Privacy : Press Releases

ACLU of Massachusetts Praises Decision to Cancel Lunch Bytes Program (04/19/2007)
BOSTON - Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts praised the decision by the Taunton School Committee to cancel plans for its controversial "Lunch Bytes" program, which would have used fingerprint scans to identify students in the lunch line.

NYCLU Lawsuit Challenges DoD’s Unauthorized Military Recruiting of High School Students (04/24/2006)
NEW YORK -- The New York Civil Liberties Union brought a lawsuit against the Department of Defense in federal court today, charging the Department with violating American high school students’ privacy rights and federal law by maintaining an unauthorized database of personal student information for use in military recruitment efforts.

ACLU of New Mexico Sues School District for Violating Privacy Rights of Students and Parents (05/06/2005)
ALBUQUERQUE -- The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today filed a lawsuit against the Albuquerque Public Schools department for failing to properly notify parents of their option to prohibit public schools from directly sending their children's contact information to military recruiters. The ACLU charges that the school district's current practices violate students' privacy and due process rights, as well as provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

California Company Pulls out of Program to Track Student Movements (02/16/2005)
SAN FRANCISCO - The Sutter-based company InCom announced last night at a packed special school district meeting that it would end its pilot program to require students to wear Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) badges that track the students' movements. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) urged school officials to end the program after being contacted by several parents.

Parents and Civil Liberties Groups Urge Northern California School District to Terminate Use of Tracking Devices (02/07/2005)
SAN FRANCISCO - Parents in a northern California public school district and civil liberties groups are urging the district to terminate the use of Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFIDs) in mandatory ID badges that track students' movements.

ACLU Challenges Detroit Police over Mass Searches of Public School Students (06/10/2004)
DETROIT -The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan today filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Detroit city policy that allows police and school officials to conduct mass searches of public school students.

NYCLU Hails Victory For Students' Privacy Rights Following Lawsuit Over Forced Gynecological Exams (01/31/2004)
NEW YORK -- The New York Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has reached a settlement in its federal lawsuit against the U. S. Department of Education for illegally suspending a group of female students and requiring them to submit gynecological records as a condition for reinstatement.

ACLU Asks Arizona School District to Reject Face-Recognition Checkpoints (12/17/2003)
PHOENIX -- The American Civil Liberties Union today asked state education officials and the Washington Elementary School District Board to reconsider a plan to install facial recognition-enabled video cameras at Royal Palm Middle School to identify sex offenders and missing children who visit the school.

NYCLU Sues New York School Officials for Forcing Teen-Age Girls to Undergo Intrusive Medical Exams (07/08/2003)
NEW YORK-- The New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit against school officials for illegally suspending a group of girls for going to a ""hooky party"" and then refusing to let them return to school until they underwent intrusive and highly private medical examinations and turned over the test results.

ACLU of Hawaii Sues Over Strip-Search of Female Student; 15-Year-Old Accused of $30 Theft Was Stripped Totally Bare (05/13/2003)
HONOLULU -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i today filed a lawsuit against officials at a public charter school in Pahoa over the strip-search of a 15-year-old girl who was made to stand completely naked after she was accused of stealing $30.

South Dakota School Officials Terrorized Kindergarten Classes with Drug-Sniffing Dogs, ACLU Charges (07/25/2002)
SIOUX FALLS, SD--The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of 17 Native American students - some as young as six years old - who were terrorized when public school officials and law enforcement officers brought in a German Shepherd to conduct a suspicionless drug sweep of all K-12 classrooms. One of the plaintiffs in the case, Jonathan Heth, 2nd grade

In the Wake of New Anti-Terror Law, NYCLU Launches Statewide Campaign to Inform College Students of Their Rights to Privacy of Records (04/10/2002)
NEW YORK--In the wake of the new anti-terrorism law giving greater surveillance powers to federal law enforcement, the New York Civil Liberties Union today announced a statewide campaign to help college students and their schools understand their rights to privacy of records. 

ACLU Asks Univ. of Nevada to Stop Selling Student Information to Credit Card Company (01/22/2002)
NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today demanded that the University and Community College System of Nevada (UCCSN) stop selling the names and addresses of former students to a credit card company in violation of the federal privacy rules. 

ACLU Letter to University of Nevada Chancellor (01/22/2002)
January 22, 2002 

ACLU of Southern California Sues to Stop Intrusive Searches at High School (06/19/2001)
LOS ANGELES - Students at Locke High School here, who are routinely subjected to intrusive searches of their persons, papers, and belongings, took action today as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on their behalf in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. 

ACLU Protests Cameras in Colorado Schools (01/25/2001)
BOULDER, CO -- The Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union doesn't want "Big Brother" watching high school students, The Daily Camera reported.

Major Victory in Tragic Case of Teen Outing Will Have Broad Impact for LGBT Youth (11/07/2000)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - In a solid victory for the privacy rights of lesbian and gay Americans -- and particularly for young gay people -- a Federal Appeals Court ruled late yesterday that police violated a gay teen's constitutional rights when they threatened to tell his family that he was gay. The boy committed suicide after the threat was made.

Court Rules that Tragic Police Outing of Gay Teen Violated Constitutional Rights; ACLU Sees Broad Impact (11/07/2000)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - In a solid victory for the privacy rights of lesbian and gay Americans -- and particularly for young gay people -- a Federal Appeals Court ruled late yesterday that police violated a gay teen's constitutional rights when they threatened to tell his family that he was gay. The boy committed suicide after the threat was made.

ACLU Sues Ohio School Board that Sold Students' Personal Information to a Bank (08/29/2000)
CLEVELAND, OH--The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio today filed a lawsuit against a local school district, saying that it violated the privacy of its students when it sold their personal information to a local bank.

ACLU of Michigan Sues School District Over Strip Search of Students (08/15/2000)
DETROIT -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a federal lawsuit today against the Whitmore Lake School District for the unjustified strip searches of more than 20 male and female students last May.

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