The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are demanding that the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and 70 other California law enforcement agencies immediately stop sharing license plate data with their out-of-state counterparts, particularly those in states that have criminalized abortion. At issue is agencies’ use of automated license plate readers — digital […]
ACLU
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‘A Curriculum that Empowers’
Speaking at a virtual roundtable called to discuss the systemic failures of local school districts to help Native students succeed, as detailed in a recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Humboldt State University Native American Studies Chair Cutcha Risling Baldy said it largely comes down to curriculums that disempower Native […]
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ACLU Releases Report on Educational Disparities Among Indigenous Students in Humboldt County
The ACLU Foundation of Northern California has released a report outlining the educational disparities Indigenous students face in Humboldt County. “Although roughly 85 percent of Native American students in Humboldt County graduated high school in the 2018-2019 school year, 90 percent of those graduates did not meet entrance requirements for California universities and an overwhelming […]
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ACLU Lawsuit Accuses St. Joseph Hospital of Transgender Discrimination (Updated with Statement from St. Joseph)
UPDATE: St. Joseph Health issued a brief statement last night in response to the civil rights lawsuit filed yesterday alleging transgender discrimination at its Eureka hospital, saying it takes the allegations “very seriously” and is committing its “full attention to investigating this matter.” “At St. Joseph Health, we believe health care is a basic human […]
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Frustrations Mount in Klamath-Trinity School District
It’s pouring rain in Hoopa. The roads are slick with ice and snow is about to fall as roughly half a dozen people shuffle into a small room for the Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District Board meeting in mid-February. The crowd is small but those attending carry the voices of their children, their community and, […]
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ACLU to Honor Public Defender’s Office with ‘Perseverance’ Award
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is having its annual meeting tonight at Arcata’s D Street Neighborhood Center, during which it will present its annual Patriot Award to the Humboldt County Public Defender’s Office “in recognition of the difficult year” it just finished. “The county almost destroyed the public defender’s office last […]
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Loleta School Board to Discuss Voluntary Resolution to Civil Rights Complaint
The Loleta School Board meets this evening to discuss a voluntary resolution agreement with the United States Department of Education that may conclude a four-year process kicked off in December of 2013 by a complaint from the Wiyot Tribe that the Loleta Union Elementary School District had engaged in discriminatory practices toward Native American students. […]
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Racism Behind the Redwood Curtain Part III: Sorry, Not Sorry
Although Confederate flags do appear on the occasional barn wall, truck bumper or window, Humboldt County had no real role in the Southern cause. But the War of the States did have a marked effect on the Redwood Coast, according to Humboldt State University history professor Thomas Mays. “During the war, Humboldt was like a […]
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Racism Behind the Redwood Curtain Part II: Stars, Bars and the Backs of Cars
In Part I of this series we explored the hidden, often lonely world of Humboldt County’s online white supremacist community. But, of course, not all intolerance lurks online. We put the call out to the community to share their experiences with racism in Humboldt County, and gathered a lot of comments on one aspect in […]
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Eureka School District Settles ACLU Lawsuit
Eureka City Schools has settled a civil rights lawsuit alleging pervasive and systemic discrimination against minority students, agreeing to an action plan aimed at improving conditions in the district’s schools. Filed in December 2013 by the Americans Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Center for Youth Law, the lawsuit alleged district administrators […]
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Del Norte School Board Extends ACLU Settlement
The Del Norte County Unified School District Board voted unanimously this week to extend its settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which stemmed from a lawsuit brought against the district alleging a pattern of racial discrimination against Native American students. The district has made progress under the settlement agreement adopted […]
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Updated: Feds Investigate Loleta Elementary
The federal government is launching an investigation into allegations that the Loleta Elementary School District has discriminated against Native American students. The Americans Civil Liberties Union of Northern California received a letter this week from the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights informing it that the office has officially launched an investigation […]