Aug

27

Free Speech Roundup

Filed Under free speech | Leave a Comment

Hello, everyone! I know it’s been awhile, but hey – it’s summer, and we’ve been busily putting together the finishing touches for the next issue of Zine World! Look out for it soon – it’s going to press in a few days.

In the meantime, why don’t you check out some of these free speech stories I’ve pulled for you?

In Des Moines, Iowa, bus advertisements that read “Don’t believe in God? You’re not alone” were torn down and then put back up again after the organization that paid for them, the Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers, complained. “We were not trying to offend anybody,” said a spokesperson for the organization. “We were just trying to reach out to people like us who don’t believe in God and we were surprised and disappointed that DART pulled the ads.”

Here’s a back-to-school story for you: Students in the Henderson County, Kentucky school district are being asked to cover up tattoos and piercings with bandages, clothing, or gauze. School officials are also offering to tape up tattered clothing with duct tape, another violation of the school’s dress code.

The St. Louis police board has agreed to shell out $54,000, to be divided among four activists who were targeted before protests at the World Agricultural Forum in 2003. The police were accused of “making warrantless entries, subjecting a woman to an “unlawful and humiliating” strip search and arresting people for riding bicycles without a license, a charge later changed to “obstructing traffic flow” because it wasn’t illegal to ride a bike without a license,” according to the story.

And one more back-to-school gem for you: The case against public school systems in Knoxville and Nashville, which barred access to educational Web sites about gay, lesbian and transgender issues, has been dropped after a settlement was reached. The schools systems have agreed to stop using that particular filtering software on their networks.


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