Will the Wake County school board require changes in the way school resource officers operate in order for them to continue to patrol the district's high schools and middle schools?

The school board will vote today on these contracts with Raleigh and Cary to provide school resource officers for the 2012-13 school year. The vote comes amid lobbying efforts by several advocacy organizations to get the school system to cut back on the role of SROs, from what they're armed with to what interaction they can have with students on discipline issues.

In an email Monday to school board members, Jason Langberg of Advocates for Children Services wrote that approving the contracts "without more careful consideration of the >issue of SROs in WCPSS would be irresponsible, undemocratic, and arguably, a violation of multiple Board policies."

UPDATE/CORRECTION

Click here to view the email sent to board members on Monday. Corrected post to say letter from N.C. Juvenile Defender.

The school board voted 5-4 to table the Cary SRO contract. it went along party lines with the Democrats voting yes and the Republicans voting against tabling.

The board also voted to table the Raleigh SRO contract.

The Wake County school system's two new single-six leadership academies could face one more hurdle in the form of possible legal action from the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

As noted in today's Triangle Politics column by Thomas Goldsmith, ACLU officials say they'll decide by next week whether to take further action on the single-sex schools. Currently, the ACLU is pouring through a voluminous pile of system records it requested.

The ACLU is trying to determine whether the single-sex schools meet the constitutional goals of having an “exceedingly persuasive justification” and showing that “the classification serves important governmental objectives and that the discriminatory means employed are substantially related to the achievement of those goals.”

The most inspiring moments in history are those sparked by ordinary folk. That's the case of the history that unfolds in "The Loving Story" (9 tonight, HBO), an inspiring documentary that tells the story of the couple who got interracial bans overturned in 16 states in the U.S.

It is the story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter; he was white, she was African-American and Native American. They married in Washington, D.C. in 1958, then returned to Virginia, their home state. There, they were jailed and then convicted of miscegenation. They were told that if they wanted to avoid a year-long jail sentence, they would have to leave the state and they could only return separately.
 

A coalition of liberal groups is urging the Wake County school system to halt plans to open a pair of single-sex leadership academies next year.

In this memorandum sent Thursday to Wake Superintendent Tony Tata and school board members, the groups argue that approval of the academies was rushed through without enough input or review. The groups also oppose having single-sex schools and the requirement that students at the academies participate in the Junior ROTC program.

“Instead of spending precious funds on the proposed single-sex academies, spend them on improving and expanding alternative educational programs for struggling students,” says the memo.

The memo was signed by the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, Advocates for Children’s Services, the YWCA of the Greater Triangle, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children, the North Carolina chapter of the ACLU and CHOICES — a group that’s criticized JROTC programs.

State tax collectors have settled a privacy lawsuit and agreed not to ask Amazon.com or other online retailers to reveal details about Internet purchases made by North Carolina residents.

The N.C. Department of Revenue signed the agreement with the ACLU in January as part of a broader lawsuit filed last year against the state by online retailing giant, Amazon.com.

The revenue department and the N.C. Attorney General released the settlement today.

"For months we've been negotiating with them [N.C. revenue department] to try to get them to adopt a policy like the one they just did," said Jennifer Rudinger, the executive director of the ACLU's North Carolina chapter.

The American Civil Liberties Union told a federal judge today that North Carolina's effort to collect sales taxes from online retailers could violate shoppers' rights to free speech and privacy.

The ACLU intervened in Amazon.com's federal lawsuit against the N.C. Department of Revenue, in which the online retailer challenges the state's attempt to force the the company to turn over sales information so it can be assessed for taxation. The lawsuit is filed in Seattle, where Amazon is based.

The ACLU's suit is filed on behalf of Asheville Councilman Cecil Bothwell and six anonymous plaintiffs, most of them from the Triangle. Bothwell, an atheist and a publisher of controversial material, is joining the suit on behalf of himself and his readers.
 

The plaintiffs are speaking positively even though Judge Pittman dismissed their lawsuit today.

In a press release issued this evening by the ACLU of North Carolina, the group points to how Pittman found certain board actions to be unreasonable such as requiring ticket holders to remain on premises for hours before the meeting and completely excluding the public from the committee of the whole meetings. He also said failing to make accommodations for people who are disabled is unreasonable.

Something to consider is that these practices were all changed before the lawsuit was filed.

Is the Wake County school board's proposed ban on personal attacks from speakers too vague?

As noted in today's article, Katy Parker, the legal director of the ACLU of North Carolina, says the policy being voted on today leaves too much room for interpretation as to what would be considered a personal attack. She said what one person might consider a personal attack might not be viewed that way by another person.

In this case, school board chairman Ron Margiotta would be the person making the call.

UPDATE

The N.C. Open Government Coalition is also objecting to the speaker policy. Go to the end of the post to read their letter.

Do speakers at Wake County school board meetings have the right to make personal attacks against board members or anyone else?

The school board is set to give initial approval Tuesday to a new policy that sets guidelines on what speakers can say. Several civil rights groups sent a letter today objecting to language in the policy that says "speakers are required to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the Board, staff, or other members of the public."

"Comments that go directly to an elected school board members' job performance are protected speech - not personal attacks..." according to the letter. "The new policy prohibiting 'personal attacks' will likely result in impermissible viewpoint discrimination."

UPDATE

SEE END OF POST FOR LINK TO NEW POLICY 

Before the blog gets buried again by more posts related to the resignation of Wake County Schools Supt. Del Burns' resignation, here's something that should make privacy advocates feel a little better.

During Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting, the school board agreed to tell staff to remove the addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses from the more than 800 people who had left comments on the district's web site about school calendars.

The board also agreed to partially honor the request of the ACLU of North Carolina by no longer requiring speakers at board meetings to say their address.