Friday, April 06, 2012

Judge orders Camdenton School District to pay $125,000 attorney fee in gay website lawsuit

The Camdenton School District will have to pay $125,000 in attorneys fees to the American Civil Liberties Union.

That was part of the order issued by U. S. District Court Judge Nanette K. Laughrey today as she signed off on the settlement between the school district and the ACLU concerning accessibility of informational gay websites to students.

The judge's order also called for the following:

-Within 10 days, the school district has to place the websites of the ACLU's clients, including Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc., Dignity USA, Matthew Shepard Foundation, and Campus Pride, Inc. on a "whitelist" of websites "accesible to all students in the district."

-The district must monitor the websites that are being filtered by URL Blacklist into its "sexuality" category to make sure that sites supportive of lesbians, gays, and transgenders have not been "improperly added to this category."

-For 18 months on Jan. 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15, the district must provide a list of websites that are blocked as a result of sexuality.

-Any disagreements will be resolved by Judge Laughrey.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Camdenton student who was not allowed to access informational websites about gays and lesbians.

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