News & Commentary

The ACLU of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Disability Law Center have sent a letter to every police chief in Rhode Island urging them to ensure their policies comply with federal anti-discrimination laws regarding accommodations for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The letter was prompted by the organizations' recent settlement of a federal lawsuit on behalf of Woonsocket resident David Alves. In July 2015, Alves, who is profoundly deaf, was unlawfully arrested and detained overnight by Woonsocket police and was not provided an interpreter or any other services to allow him to communicate. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the R.I. Disability Law Center today announced the favorable settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a profoundly deaf person who was not provided an interpreter to allow him to communicate after he was arrested and detained overnight in jail by Woonsocket police for allegedly making an obscene gesture. The groups expressed hope that the settlement, which addresses important issues regarding municipal agency obligations to accommodate people who are deaf or hard of hearing, will serve as a model for police departments across the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and the R.I. Disability Law Center have today filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a profoundly deaf person who was arrested and detained overnight in jail by Woonsocket police for allegedly making an obscene gesture, and who was never provided an interpreter to allow him to communicate with the police during his detention. The case raises important issues regarding municipal agency obligations to accommodate residents who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The ACLU of Rhode Island today commended Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea for introducing, the General Assembly for passing, and Governor Gina Raimondo for signing legislation adopting online voter registration for the state’s residents, and particularly for addressing voters with disabilities.

The City of Providence can no longer stop musician Manuel Pombo (left) from performing or soliciting donations on city streets as part of a settlement reached today in a First Amendment lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island.

Despite growing consensus that out-of-school suspensions should only be used as a discipline of last resort, Rhode Island school districts continued to overuse suspensions during the 2014-2015 school year, a report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has found. The report, Oversuspended and Underserved, a follow-up to previous ACLU reports on the use of suspensions in Rhode Island public schools, found that schools doled out 12,682 suspensions in the last school year, often for minor misconduct. As in previous years, students with disabilities and students of color served a disproportionate amount of these suspensions.

Many of us will never personally understand the struggles of being part of this country’s penal system. Sure, we’ve all read stories about those who have been and presently are incarcerated around this country and the world, for that matter. It’s not a place anyone truly wants to be -- now imagine being there without the ability to communicate with those around you. This is life for the unknown number of deaf and deaf-blind inmates currently incarcerated.

The Rhode Island ACLU has sent a letter to Barrington school officials challenging the legality of the town’s proposal to implement a two-tiered plan for out-of-town students to pay tuition fees in order to attend Barrington public schools.  As the proposal stands, the school district has indicated it would charge special education students more than four times the tuition rate that would be charged other students.  In its letter, the Affiliate asserted that charging special education students a higher tuition rate would be in clear violation of federal laws prohibiting public schools from discriminating against students with disabilities.  The letter follows up a previous one sent by the ACLU two weeks ago that questioned the legality of any attempt to exclude altogether any special education students from participating in the non-resident program. In calling the two-tiered tuition plan illegal, the ACLU cited an opinion issued in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights which stated: "The Department cannot envision a situation where charging a higher non-resident tuition to a student with disabilities than to a student without disabilities, would not violateviolate [regulations implementing the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973]. Public school programs, including public school choice programs that utilize non-resident tuition formulae, must ensure that students with disabilities are not subjected to discrimination on the basis of their disability.” Under the circumstances, the ACLU letter states, there "is no lawful basis for proceeding with an out-of-town tuition program that would treat students with disabilities differently from other applying students. We therefore strongly urge the school district to abandon any efforts to charge disparate tuition rates based on special education status."