News & Commentary

This week is another busy one at the General Assembly with about a month of the session left. Here is a summary of some of the bills affecting civil liberties that are being considered in committee or on the floor this week, but note that more may be added to the calendars in the next day:

The ACLU has appealed to the R.I. Supreme Court a Superior Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of a problematic Providence housing ordinance that prohibits more than three “college students” from living together in certain areas of the city.  In her February 2018 decision, Superior Court Judge Maureen Keough acknowledged “strong reservations concerning the effectiveness” of the ordinance, but ultimately ruled against the students and found the ordinance constitutional.  In 2016, ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys Jeffrey L. Levy and Charles D. Blackman filed the lawsuit on behalf of the owner and tenants – four Johnson & Wales undergraduate students – of a house in the Elmhurst section of Providence. The City ordinance makes it illegal for more than three “college students” to live together in a non-owner-occupied single family home in certain residential areas. The lawsuit argues that the ordinance is discriminatory and ineffective in its stated purpose of improving neighborhoods, and violates the plaintiffs’ rights to due process and equal protection of the law. ACLU attorney Levy said today: “This case presents an important opportunity for the Supreme Court to show that Rhode Island’s Constitution reflects our values as a community. College students represent the future of our state, and we should not tolerate laws that discriminate against students or treat them as second-class citizens.” “The Court’s decision clearly recognized the questionable utility of this ordinance. From our perspective, the ordinance’s failure to effectuate its goal demonstrates that it is arbitrary and unnecessarily infringes on individuals’ constitutional right to choose where they live, and with whom,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of RI. More information about the lawsuit, FHC v. City of Providence, is available here.

The ACLU of RI today applauded the formal filing of regulations this week by the RI Department of Education (RIDE), requiring all public school districts to adopt a comprehensive policy outlining the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students.  The regulations take effect on April 17, 2018, and all schools must have a compliant policy in place by July 1, 2018. “As the federal government continues to undermine the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students, we applaud RIDE’s actions to mandate school districts to have clear and comprehensive policies in place to protect this group,” said Steven Brown, ACLU of RI executive director. The regulations are the result of an ongoing effort by local organizations, including the ACLU of RI, to protect this group of students, which faces unique discrimination in the school setting. The regulations emanate from a petition that the ACLU and nine other groups – including the RI State Council of Churches, GLAD, and the RI Commission for Human Rights – filed with RIDE last September seeking the adoption of statewide regulations on the subject. Specifically, the new regulations mandate districts have policies in place that are consistent with state and national best practices, and “address, at a minimum, such issues as confidentiality and privacy, discipline and exclusion, staff training, access to school facilities and participation in school programs, dress codes and official school records and use of preferred names and pronouns.” In 2016, RIDE released a detailed model policy that aimed to address the specific needs of trans students and ensure schools’ compliance with civil rights laws.  However, schools were not mandated to adopt the model policy, and research conducted last year by the ACLU revealed that many RI schools had no policy in place to protect the rights of this vulnerable group. The ACLU said it will be monitoring RI schools districts to ensure that those still without a compliant policy implement one by the July 1, 2018 deadline. By the ACLU’s last count, there were at least seven school districts across the state without adequate policies in place, including Chariho, Exeter-West Greenwich, Newport and Woonsocket. Click here for the RIDE regulations.

In anticipation of the national student walkout happening on March 14, 2018, the ACLU of Rhode Island has sent a letter to all school district superintendents in the State reminding them of students’ rights on the matter. Scheduled for 10am that day, the national student event is a planned protest of legislative inaction in addressing the problem of gun violence. The walkout will last for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 students killed in the Parkland, FL shooting a month earlier.

While expressing “strong reservations” about its effectiveness, a Superior Court judge today upheld the constitutionality of a Providence ordinance that prohibits more than three “college students” from living together in certain areas of the city. The decision comes in a lawsuit filed two years ago by ACLU of RI cooperating attorneys Jeffrey L. Levy and Charles D. Blackman on behalf of the owner and tenants – four Johnson & Wales undergraduate students – of a house in the Elmhurst section of Providence. The City ordinance makes it illegal for more than three “college students” to live together in a non-owner-occupied single family home in certain residential areas.

Imagine a school administrator telling a high school political science teacher that a whole range of timely topics – for example, medical marijuana, terrorism in the Middle East, gun control, or even politics in general – was off-limits for class discussion. The pedagogical absurdity of it – not to mention the upending of academic freedom it embodies – would seem obvious to most. In school districts across the country, however, a similar type of censorship takes place in the classroom every day, with little dissent.

Here’s a look at the top issues – including some big victories and losses – of 2017:

“Political,” “hobbies,” “dictionary” and “news” are just four of the ‘filtered’ categories blocked by RI school districts’ Internet filtering systems.  This was one of the findings of a report on the status of Internet filtering in RI public schools released today by the ACLU. A follow-up to a 2013 analysis on the same issue, today’s report found that RI schools’ filtering systems continue to over-censor school Internet networks, hampering academic freedom and access to relevant educational information.  Importantly, the report also found that only two school districts – Cumberland and Exeter-West Greenwich – have adopted formal policies governing their use of Internet filters that complies with a 2016 law designed to promote academic freedom in the classroom.

Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Ken Wagner announced his commitment tonight to require all school districts in the state to adopt comprehensive policies affirming the civil rights of transgender and gender non-conforming students. The announcement, made at a meeting of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, supports a petition that the ACLU of RI and nine other organizations filed last month seeking the adoption of a regulation to provide this protection.