The American Civil Liberties Union has asked public school officials in Tennessee to stop blocking students’ access to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Web sites on school computers.
The organization said in a press release last week that as many as 80 percent of public school districts may be restricting access to nonpornographic sites that offer educational and political information about issues such as gay marriage or groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.
The letter asks the districts and schools that use filtering software provided by Education Networks of America to stop blocking sites designated as “LGBT,” or the ACLU will file a lawsuit.
David Pierce, the president and chief executive officer of Nashville-based Education Networks of America, said in a statement that his company’s service makes it possible to filter the Web, but that the school districts decide which categories to block.
