Aclu

I'm very disappointed in this paper's coverage of the class-action lawsuit settlement with the Glendale Police Department and Glendale Unified School district regarding the Sept. 24, 2010, incident at Hoover High School. Glendale Education/Social Justice Advocates was approached by families of the students involved shortly after the incident and we worked very hard to achieve satisfaction for the victims of what I consider to be racial profiling and unconstitutional search and confinement.

Josh Kleinbaum Mayor Bob Yousefian called a special meeting for 6:10 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the city's political sign ordinance and a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that questioned the ordinance's constitutionality. City Atty. Scott Howard said Yousefian called the meeting Thursday afternoon. The ACLU, which had asked the city to respond to its letter by Monday, granted a two-day extension, allowing the council to provide Howard with direction how to proceed.

A recent letter to the editor by Scott Solis ("A cross response about supervisor's ACLU remark," Sept. 22) challenged my comments about the American Civil Liberties Union and support for retaining the cross on the Los Angeles County Seal. My opposition to the ACLU, which ought to be called the Anti-Civil Liberties Union, stems from their demands to remove the cross and the Board majority action to spend millions of dollars to change it. This action empowers religious bigotry -- and the rewriting of the history of Los Angeles County.

In a recent commentary, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich indulged in a favorite pastime of political conservatives: ACLU-bashing. His diatribe was inspired by the Board of Supervisors' recent decision to remove a cross from the county seal in response to action by the ACLU. Every time something like this comes about, we hear the same cries of "religious bigotry" and "intolerance," but it just ain't so. Mr. Antonovich is correct when he points out that the Constitution doesn't specify a "wall of separation" between church and state, but decades of Supreme Court rulings have affirmed just such a principle.

The move is on to eliminate America's Christmas traditions, and alarmingly, it's getting to be quite noticeable this Yuletide. You can "thank" the American Civil Liberties Union primarily for what is happening in our great nation, as that group is making a concerted effort to do away with our reliance on God and Christian values and traditions. Our history, from America's beginning, is steeped with the belief that God plays an important role in the makeup of our country.

shouldn't cave The decision by three of the five Los Angeles County supervisors to remove the tiny cross from the county seal, as demanded by the American Civil Liberties Union, was abhorrent. There was a massive public outrage last week, with an unprecedented number of angry letters and more than 3,800 e-mails and phone calls, which flooded the offices of the L.A. County supervisors after three of the five supervisors knuckled under to the ACLU's demand to remove a tiny Christian cross from the Los Angeles County seal.

Look within for cuts, not toward your students Unfortunately, I do not live in La Canada Flintridge, but my blood is still boiling about the proposed cut in bus service for the students that live in the Angeles National Forest. First, the La Canada Unified School District "saves" money by closing the community school in 1981. Now, it wants to increase pollution, traffic and further disrupt the lives of the families that also pay taxes and should receive school-related services, especially since many family members are already "serving" the community as rangers, firefighters and road crew workers.

Dick Seeley, a local resident, wrote in the Glendale News-Press this past Sunday ("Christmas is not headed for oblivion," Community Commentary) attacking someone who had attacked the American Civil Liberties Union and the latter's constant anti-religious bent. In responding to the letter, ("Secular America is diluting values," Nov. 30) Seeley wrote: "In essence, religion is a private matter, a matter between an individual, his church and his God. "The basic thrust of the ACLU is to support freedom for all religions by prohibiting singular religious displays on public property, property such as city halls, public schools and other public buildings and areas.

A racial profiling lawsuit stemming from a Sept. 24, 2010, incident when more than 50 Latino students were rounded up and detained for about an hour in two Hoover High classrooms came to an end this week. According to the settlement agreement, the city and Glendale Unified will split a $100,000 tab that will go to funds and foundations overseen by the ACLU of Southern California, which prosecuted the litigation. The students claimed they were intimidated and interrogated by Glendale and Los Angeles police officers about possible gang affiliations and were ordered to stop hanging out with each other at lunch.

Here we go again. It's Christmas time but you wouldn't know it with all of the Happy Holidays advertisements in the newspapers. I went through the Glendale News-Press "Holiday Gift Guide" supplement on Nov. 23 and I didn't find one solitary "Christmas" greeting. That's a 10-page supplement with a lot of ads from merchants, who apparently think little of the meaning of Christmas but don't want to offend any of their customers. As we all know, there is a concerted effort by the anti-Christian American Civil Liberties Union to rid Christmas and its name from the public.

I'm very disappointed in this paper's coverage of the class-action lawsuit settlement with the Glendale Police Department and Glendale Unified School district regarding the Sept. 24, 2010, incident at Hoover High School. Glendale Education/Social Justice Advocates was approached by families of the students involved shortly after the incident and we worked very hard to achieve satisfaction for the victims of what I consider to be racial profiling and unconstitutional search and confinement.

A racial profiling lawsuit stemming from a Sept. 24, 2010, incident when more than 50 Latino students were rounded up and detained for about an hour in two Hoover High classrooms came to an end this week. According to the settlement agreement, the city and Glendale Unified will split a $100,000 tab that will go to funds and foundations overseen by the ACLU of Southern California, which prosecuted the litigation. The students claimed they were intimidated and interrogated by Glendale and Los Angeles police officers about possible gang affiliations and were ordered to stop hanging out with each other at lunch.

The ACLU of Southern California announced Wednesday that it had reached settlements with the city of Glendale and the school district on behalf of eight Latino students who alleged officials engaged in racial profiling and illegal searches during a 2010 incident at Hoover High School. On Sept. 24, 2010, more than 50 Latino students were allegedly detained by Glendale and Los Angeles police officers who questioned them about possible gang affiliations. The students were also allegedly forced to pose for mock police mug shots.

The ACLU of Southern California is in preliminary settlement negotiations with attorneys for Glendale and the school district regarding a lawsuit filed last year alleging racial profiling of Latino students at Hoover High School. In October, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleging that dozens of Latino students were detained and searched during lunch on Sept. 24, 2010. The students claim they were intimidated and interrogated about any gang affiliations, and were ordered to stop hanging out with one another at lunch.

The Glendale High School music program has long operated on a tight budget, held together in part by a $75 instrument rental fee that director Amy Rangel stretched to fund equipment repairs and other expenses. The more than 100 students who borrow school-owned instruments each year paid, Rangel said, generating thousands of dollars. The handful that couldn't were always accommodated. But after the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sued the state of California last year alleging that student fees violate a Constitutional mandate that public school districts provide free and equitable education to all, Rangel was forced to replace the rental fee with a voluntary contribution.

With the story in the news of the ACLU filing a discrimination lawsuit against the city, police and school district on behalf of some students, it brings to mind the delicate nature of being a high school journalism teacher.  How do you teach young people solid journalism yet at the same time do stories about the school which may not be positive? High school journalists do not have the same range of freedom of the press as do professional journalists.  Since schools help fund the printing of the newspaper, such a fact does impact certain decisions that journalism teachers make.

A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging racial profiling at Hoover High School was met with mixed reaction Friday as officials defended a 2010 operation in which dozens of Latino students were allegedly interrogated as an effort to keep gang activity at bay. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that approximately 55 Latino students were detained and searched at lunch on Sept. 24, 2010. Those targeted were intimidated and interrogated about any scars, tattoos and gang affiliations, and were ordered to stop hanging out with one another at lunch, according to the suit.

The ACLU of Southern California today plans to announce a lawsuit against Glendale police and school district officials alleging racial profiling and harassment of Latino students at Hoover High School. In complaints filed earlier this year with, and eventually rejected by, the Glendale Unified School District, the ACLU claims 56 Hoover High students were rounded up at lunch in September 2010 and detained for up to 90 minutes in two separate classrooms. All the students were Latino or Latino in appearance, indicating clear racial profiling, according to the complaints.

In announcing plans to file a civil rights lawsuit against Glendale Unified, the ACLU today alleged dozens of Latino students at Hoover High School were rounded up last year and interrogated as gang members for more than an hour. Standing in front of the Pacific Community Center in South Glendale, ACLU officials claimed about 56 students -- all Latino or Latino in appearance -- were searched by Glendale and Los Angeles police officers during the round-up on Sept. 24, 2010. [ This story has been corrected, see below for the details.

Dick Seeley, a local resident, wrote in the Glendale News-Press this past Sunday ("Christmas is not headed for oblivion," Community Commentary) attacking someone who had attacked the American Civil Liberties Union and the latter's constant anti-religious bent. In responding to the letter, ("Secular America is diluting values," Nov. 30) Seeley wrote: "In essence, religion is a private matter, a matter between an individual, his church and his God. "The basic thrust of the ACLU is to support freedom for all religions by prohibiting singular religious displays on public property, property such as city halls, public schools and other public buildings and areas.