School district settles with ACLU over blocking gay advocacy websites

An eastern Missouri school district on Wednesday settled charges with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that it illegally blocked access to gay advocacy websites. 

The ACLU said preventing school computers from accessing pro-gay-rights websites violated the First Amendment's free-speech protections.

The settlement requires the Camdenton School District to stop blocking the sites, submit to 18 months of monitoring to ensure compliance and pay $125,000 in legal fees.

According to the ACLU, the district's Internet filtering software blocked access to sites including PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Campus Pride and DignityUSA, a Catholic gay-rights organization.

A federal judge issued a preliminary ruling last month ordering the school district to stop blocking the websites. 

Tim Hadfield, superintendent of the Camdenton School District, told The Hill that the district only intended to block sexually explicit material.

"We do not want to discriminate against our students, any groups of our students. We want to protect our students," Hadfield said. "We feel with the settlement we've done that."

He said students will have access to the advocacy websites but that the filter blocking sexually explicit material will remain in place.

—Updated at 5:54 p.m.

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