Youth Rights

The ACLU of Northern California protects the rights of young people through litigation, legislation, and organizing. The ACLU-NC has been instrumental in landmark legislative and litigation victories on issues important to youth, including safe schools, educational equity, "gang" roundups, and comprehensive sex education. We partner with youth and young adult activists to change the laws and policies that impact their lives and communities. Through training and leadership development opportunities, we are building the next generation of civil libertarians. The ACLU-NC's work to engage young people with civil liberties issues is partially underwritten by the Howard A. Friedman endowment.

H-E-L-L-O: Students Have a Right to Privacy in Their Cell Phones
The ACLU of California has created this new report to help schools limit the use of cell phones on their campuses while respecting the privacy rights of students. To avoid potential constitutional violations, the ACLU recommends that school districts refrain from searching students' cell phones. A search of cell phone contents such as text messages, emails, web pages or games viewed, social networking connections, etc., is rarely permitted by law. Both federal laws and the California Constitution and Education Code protect the privacy rights of students.

"H-E-L-L-O: Students Have a Right to Privacy in Their Cell Phones" contains a model policy to help schools govern student cell phone use in compliance with federal and state laws. The model policy can easily be adapted to suit the needs of different California school districts.
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Join the Math Team, Take a Drug Test?
Weeks before her high school graduation, Brittany Dalton's flute ensemble won at a prestigious statewide competition. Brittany was an accomplished musician, but her school tried to keep her from playing in the last competition of her high school career because she refused to submit to a suspicionless drug test.
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LGBTQ Student Rights
This guide will show you what the law says about your rights in school, allowing you and your friends to take the lead in making the future of LGBTQ students as bright and fair as possible.
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Ask the Experts! Free Speech in Schools
Social media and other emerging technologies are fundamentally altering how students interact and express themselves in school. Staff Attorney Linda Lye explains the history of student free speech, and discusses technology's modern twist on the First Amendment.
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Lesbian Student Teaches School District a Lesson
For Rochelle Hamilton, starting high school was the beginning of relentless harassment from teachers and school staff because she’s openly gay. One teacher told her, "You're going to hell. This is a sin." After months of asking the school and the district to intervene—to no avail—Rochelle and her mom reached out to the ACLU for help. Together, we took on the school district—and won. ACLU-NC reached a settlement with the Vallejo School District, designed to combat anti-gay harassment and discrimination at all the district’s schools.
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A Mother's Fight to Keep Her Son Safe in School
"My greatest hope for Robby is that he will just grow up accepting and loving himself," said his mother, Tracy Martinazzi, who took on a school district -- and a way of thinking -- that allowed her son to be the victim of name-calling, taunts, and, finally, brutal physical abuse based on his sexual orientation.
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Ending Anti-Gay Harassment on Campus
If school officials know about harassment or discrimination against an LGBT student, the law says they must take adequate measures to protect the youth. But that's not what happened in the case of Robby Martinazzi, who, since the third grade, was subjected to verbal taunting and physical abuse based on his sexual orientation. When the taunting culminated in a vicious attack on school grounds, Robby's family called the ACLU-NC. In June 2008, we reached a settlement with the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District that spells out steps the district will take to protect students from anti-gay harassment and discrimination.
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Overturning School Expulsions
In March 2007, a group of African-American students from Antioch's Deer Valley High School were pepper-sprayed, handcuffed, and forcefully arrested for what can fairly be described as a minor incident near a shopping mall. Despite the facts that the incident occurred off campus and after school, and that the students did not violate the education code, the school district expelled them. The ACLU-NC and co-counsel sued on behalf of two of the students. In May 2008, a judge overturned the expulsions. Studies show that African-American students are suspended and expelled from schools at higher rates and for more minor offenses than their peers. Students who are suspended or expelled and transferred to other schools often get behind in their school work and are much more likely to drop out than their peers. This, in turn, leaves them more vulnerable to falling into the criminal justice system.
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Safeguarding Equal Educational Opportunity in Modesto
Continuing our work with parents and community members to address unequal treatment of students of color in Modesto City Schools, we issued a report in 2007 highlighting key concerns and making policy recommendations to improve practices in the schools. Ultimately, the school board adopted several of the ACLU-NC's recommendations, including modifying the conduct code. Much of what our investigation found in Modesto mirrors what many students of color are experiencing in schools around the country. We continue to work with the Modesto school district to monitor the progress of the reforms and to push for additional changes.
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Setting New Policies to Stem Racial Profiling in Fairfield Schools
How would you feel if you were harassed by police just because of the color of your skin or the clothes you were wearing? That's what happened in March 2007 to a group of Latino students at Rodriquez High School when police officers came onto campus and accused them of being gang members, lined them up in front of their peers, and photographed them. "It was embarrassing," said then-sophomore Rosa Mares. "I felt afraid to go to school after that." The ACLU-NC helped the students' families reach a settlement with the city of Fairfield that provides for important reforms, including comprehensive new policies that outline student rights and standards for police conduct on campuses throughout the district. In addition, the Fairfield police chief and the high school principal sent an open letter to the school community clearing the reputations of the targeted students. The parents decided to pursue this comprehensive resolution to benefit all Fairfield families instead of taking their claims to court for damages.
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Stopping Abuse of Native-American Schoolchildren
No child should go to school worried about being injured by a school official. In October 2005, a campus police officer in the small eastern Sierra town of Bishop physically harmed several Native-American students, causing one to lose consciousness. An ACLU-NC investigation found that the incident was just part of a long and troubling history. After more than a year of negotiations, a groundbreaking settlement was reached with the Bishop Union Elementary School District that protects Native-American children from racial discrimination and harsher disciplinary treatment than their peers by school officials and campus police officers. “I hope this settlement will provide the positive learning environment that every child deserves,” said the grandmother of a 13-year-old boy who was thrown to the ground by a campus police officer.
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