Resources

For most of us, public school is our first opportunity to meet and interact with people outside our own immediate families — people who may look different, act different, or have different beliefs from those who are raising us. To the extent American culture is a melting pot, public schools are where many of us first come into contact with the diversity of appearance, culture, and belief that represents the American experience. Public schools also provide our first encounter with the government and official authority, in the form of teachers, administrators, and school boards.Read our featured report At the Mercy of the Majority: Attacks on Religious Freedom in Texas Public Schools in the Decade after Santa Fe v. Doe or scroll down to view other reports and resources below.

Click the category tabs below to find the resource or report you are looking for.

Helpful Material

Implementation of Laws Regarding Treatment of Pregnant Women in Texas County Jails: A Review of the Shackling Ban and Pregnant Inmate Care Standards (395.6 KiB, 1,539 hits)

Implementation of Laws Regarding Treatment of Pregnant Women in Texas County Jails: A Review of the Shackling Ban and Pregnant Inmate Care Standards, this report assesses the implementation of two laws passed during the 81st Texas legislature related to the care and treatment of pregnant inmates in Texas county jails.

Free People Read Freely: 15th Annual Report on Challenged and Banned Books in Texas Public Schools (3.0 MiB, 681 hits)

Since the late 1990s, our Texas team has kept watch on what our school districts are doing when it comes to making the classics—and new book releases—available to young adults. Our annual tracking of challenged and banned books in Texas, (in fact, the only banned books report provided by an ACLU state affiliate) serves not only to shine a spotlight on the book-banning that takes place around the state, but to celebrate those school districts that choose to retain challenged books.

Know Your Rights: What To Do If You Are Stopped By The Police (13.4 KiB, 930 hits)

Keep this card handy! If you have a police encounter, you can protect yourself.

Know Your Rights: Free Speech and the Right to Protest (8.1 MiB, 510 hits)

The right to protest is a long-standing protection afforded by the U.S. and Texas constitutions. This right is contained both in the freedom of speech and in the freedom to assemble, which protect not only the ability to verbalize protests and engage in symbolic speech such as wearing an armband, but to arrange peaceful marches and protests on certain public lands.

Free People Read Freely: 16th Annual Report on Challenged and Banned Books in Texas Public Schools (7.5 MiB, 4,111 hits)

The 2011-2012 report ncludes an exclusive interview with writer, professor and founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, the non-profit organization behind the Librotraficante Caravan.

Conozca sus derechos: Que debe hacer se la policia (127.3 KiB, 159 hits)

General Materials

The ACLU of Texas: Protecting Freedom, Leading Change (893.3 KiB, 552 hits)

The ACLU of Texas is proud to have nearly 18,000 supporters across our state. Our programs and projects focus on effecting change through public education, legislation, litigation, and by building diverse coalitions of attorneys, grassroots activists, civil rights leaders, and volunteers.

Read All About It: ACLU of Texas Dispatch for Fall 2011 (198.9 KiB, 590 hits)

Read All About It: ACLU of Texas Dispatch for Spring 2012 (604.9 KiB, 603 hits)

Read All About It: ACLU of Texas Dispatch for Summer 2012 (213.5 KiB, 527 hits)

Read All About It: ACLU of Texas Dispatch for Fall 2012 (203.5 KiB, 384 hits)

Annual Report 2011-2012 (8.1 MiB, 56 hits)

Legislative Documents

Bill Book 2011: 82nd Legislative Session (2.1 MiB, 547 hits)

The pages in our Bill Book outline our legislative priorities based on the protections we believe critical to the preservation of our individual liberties. The ACLU of Texas once again will work to protect the rights of all Texans. We will fight to ensure that Texas schoolchildren, teachers and administrators are safe and respected at school; Texans’ privacy is protected; and our state is safer and more economically efficient.

82nd Legislature Civil Liberties Index: ACLU of Texas Legislative Priorities and How Elected Officials Voted (210.4 KiB, 554 hits)

The recent legislative session was one of the more contentious in state history. We were ever vigilant to protect the Constitution from incessant attack. Now that the dust has cleared, we’ve tracked the votes of state senators and representatives on 10 ACLU of Texas priority bills.

Testimony of Matt Simpson Before the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Corrections (32.6 KiB, 455 hits)

Interim hearing on juvenile justice.

Bill Book 2013 (1.1 MiB, 296 hits)

83rd legislative session bill book.

Legal Documents

Public Legal Docket (226.0 KiB, 770 hits)

Hidalgo Truancy Case Summary Judgement (326.2 KiB, 818 hits)

Photo Voter ID Questionnaire (117.6 KiB, 463 hits)

Voter suppression laws are a threat to our democracy! Tell us if you or someone you know will lose the right to vote because of Photo Voter ID.

Customs and Border Protection Abuse Complaint (180.4 KiB, 1,139 hits)

Let Me Vote Postcard (unknown, 313 hits)

Know your rights guide for voting in Texas.

Let Me Vote Postcard (Spanish) (unknown, 255 hits)

Know your rights guide for voting in Texas.

Let Me Vote (unknown, 382 hits)

This information is designed to help you protect your right to vote. Keep it handy, and take it with you to the polls on Election Day.

Let Me Vote (Spanish) (unknown, 279 hits)

This information is designed to help you protect your right to vote. Keep it handy, and take it with you to the polls on Election Day.

Hutto Amended FTCA Complaint (690.7 KiB, 313 hits)

Letter to Attorney General Greg Abbott (4.0 MiB, 361 hits)

Letter to Attorney General Greg Abbott to compel the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to comply with open records requests about a DPS shooting of unarmed persons last October 25 that resulted in two fatalities.

Criminal Law Reform

Criminal Law Reform Campaign Summary (189.5 KiB, 587 hits)

Banking on Bonadage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration (2.9 MiB, 532 hits)

The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one—especially at a time when more and more Americans are struggling to make ends meet and when state governments confront enormous fiscal crises. This report finds, however, that mass incarceration provides a gigantic windfall for one special interest group—the private prison industry—even as current incarceration levels harm the country as a whole.

Regulating Death in the Lone Star State: Texas Law Protects Lizards From Needless Suffering, But Not Human Beings (117.3 KiB, 419 hits)

In Texas, men and women are put to death not under the supervision of doctors and anesthesiologists—or even licensed veterinarians—but at the hands of a prison lethal injection team whose medical training is limited. It is no exaggeration to say that Texas regulates the euthanasia of reptiles more strictly than the execution of human beings.

Searching for Consent: An Analysis of Racial Profiling Data in Texas (540.1 KiB, 507 hits)

Many Texas law enforcement agencies continue to use consent searches inconsistently and inappropriately, according to a report by the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition titled Searching for Consent: An Analysis of Racial Profiling Data in Texas. As a result, many Texans, regardless of race, are subjected to over-searching. The report warns that these over-searching policies ultimately diminish public safety, and it urges departments to use more efficient policing practices.

Smart Reform is Possible: States Reducing Incarceration Rates and Costs While Protecting Communities (1.7 MiB, 427 hits)

Since President Richard Nixon first announced the “War on Drugs” forty years ago, the United States has adopted “tough on crime” criminal justice policies that have given it the dubious distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in the world. These past forty years of criminal justice policymaking have been characterized by overcriminalization, increasingly draconian sentencing and parole regimes, mass incarceration of impoverished communities of color, and rapid prison building. These policies have also come at a great expense to taxpayers.

Too Far Off Task: Why, after Tulia, Texas should re-think its Big Government approach to the Drug War, abolish narcotics task forces, and save $200 million this biennium (2.9 MiB, 855 hits)

The report, titled Too Far Off Task, cites 24 major Texas narcotics scandals — 15 involving regional task forces — in which undercover drug officers were found to have engaged in stealing, dealing or transporting drugs, lying under oath, falsifying government documents and even framing innocent people.

Immigrants’ Rights

Immigrants’ Rights Campaign Summary (519.7 KiB, 589 hits)

The ACLU of Texas Immigrants’ Rights Campaign is dedicated to reclaiming constitutional and civil rights for all Texans, regardless of immigration status.

Immigrants’ Rights Campaign Summary (Spanish) (unknown, 616 hits)

The ACLU of Texas Immigrants’ Rights Campaign is dedicated to reclaiming constitutional and civil rights for all Texans, regardless of immigration status.

Know Your Rights: If Immigration, Police, or FBI Officers Try to Enter Your Home (unknown, 557 hits)

English Version, Page 1 of 2

Know Your Rights: If Immigration, Police, or FBI Officers Try to Enter Your Home (unknown, 1,011 hits)

Spanish Version, Page 1 of 2

Know Your Rights: If Immigration, Police, or FBI Officers Try to Enter Your Home (unknown, 474 hits)

Spanish Version, Page 2 of 2

Know Your Rights: If Immigration, Police, or FBI Officers Try to Enter Your Home (unknown, 457 hits)

English Version, Page 2 of 2

Missing the Mark: how national security strategies in Rio Grande Valley border communities sacrifice basic human rights and fail to make Texans safer (unknown, 619 hits)

Testimony from detainees, their attorneys and advocates, residents and officials has been compiled to paint a picture of systemic and systematic civil and human rights violations.

Operation Border Star: Wasted Millions and Missed Opportunities (unknown, 542 hits)

In a 33-page report, Operation Border Star: Wasted Millions and Missed Opportunities describes how 11 of 40 participating Texas local law enforcement agencies used Border Star, a $110 million, state-funded effort that is supposed to combat violent crime, drug smuggling and terrorism.

Report – Second Class Prisoner 9.12.12 (unknown, 655 hits)

Second Class Prisoner: Inmate Reports from Inside Four West Texas CAR Prisons

Religious Freedom

Distribution of Gideons Bibles in Texas Public Schools (478.3 KiB, 927 hits)

Distribution of Gideons Bibles in Texas Public Schools: Impact on Students’ Religious Liberty details an investigation launched in response to complaints from parents and students that the Gideons International organization distributed selected books from the Christian Bible in Texas school districts during the 2007‐2008 and 2008‐2009 school years.

The Texas State Board of Education: A Case of Abuse of Power (2.1 MiB, 485 hits)

The Texas State Board of Education: A Case of Abuse of Power tracks the Board’s long-running abuse of power, which began in the mid-1990s. From manipulating textbook content to inserting personal ideological beliefs into Texas’ curriculum standards, the board has repeatedly shown its inability to place the well-being of Texas’ schoolchildren ahead of its activist agenda.

Pamphlet – KYR Legislative Prayer 6.20.12 (317.1 KiB, 435 hits)

8-1/2×14, landscape, quad-fold

Religious Freedom Campaign Summary (504.6 KiB, 423 hits)

The ACLU of Texas Religious Freedom Campaign seeks to defend the rights of all Texans to practice their faiths freely and to protect against government intrusion into matters of faith.

Know Your Rights: Students’ Religious Rights at School (3.8 MiB, 649 hits)

This Know Your Rights fact sheet on religious freedom in school is intended for students, parents, and teachers who want to understand the status of the current law on prayer in public schools.

Know Your Rights: The Bible in Texas Public Schools (126.0 KiB, 877 hits)

In Know Your Rights: The Bible in Texas Public Schools we look whether and to what extent religious topics may be taught in public schools is a controversial question that has been debated in communities and litigated in courts in Texas and across the United States.

Sample Letter to Editor – Religious Freedom (12.5 KiB, 290 hits)

Sample Letter to Editor dealing with religious freedom issues

Sample Op Ed – Religious Freedom (13.8 KiB, 300 hits)

Sample Op Ed concerning religious freedom issues

Know Your Rights – Minority Faiths (3.6 MiB, 428 hits)

PowerPoint presentation (in pdf format). Know Your Rights – Minority Faiths.

Know Your Rights – Minority Faiths in Schools (4.1 MiB, 550 hits)

PowerPoint presentation (in pdf format). Know Your Rights – Minority Faiths in Schools.

Religious Freedom Campaign Introduction (2.6 MiB, 337 hits)

PowerPoint presentation (in wmv format). Religious Freedom Campaign Introduction.

Stand Up For Children: SBOE (1.7 MiB, 714 hits)

A parent’s guide to advocacy at the Texas State Board of Education.

Stand Up For Children: Local School Board (1.5 MiB, 594 hits)

A parent’s guide to advocacy at their local school board.

Know Your Rights Pamphlet – Religious Dress in Public School (263.2 KiB, 450 hits)

Know Your Rights Pamphlet – How to File a Grievance in Public School (222.5 KiB, 509 hits)

Know Your Rights Pamphlet – How to Report Harassment in Public School (340.6 KiB, 454 hits)

At the Mercy of the Majority (3.9 MiB, 1,720 hits)

2012 Report – At the Mercy of the Majority: Attacks on Religious Freedom in Texas Public Schools in the Decade After Santa Fe v. Doe

Template – Open Records Request (16.5 KiB, 278 hits)

Template for creating an open records request for your school and/or school board.

Youth Rights

Youth Rights Campaign Summary (501.1 KiB, 414 hits)

ACLU of Texas Youth Rights Campaign seeks to end the policies and practices that undermine the futures of Texas children. We will work to ensure equality and dignity for all school-age Texans.

The Basics: Texas School Discipline (1.1 MiB, 407 hits)

A 2 sided pamphlet, The Basics: Texas School Discipline describes the rules regarding school discipline in Texas. One side in English, one side in Spanish.

Use of Force in Texas Public Schools: The Case for Transparency, Accountability, and Decriminalization (156.9 KiB, 1,392 hits)

Use of Force in Texas Public Schools: The Case for Transparency, Accountability, and Decriminalization documents the need for transparency and accountability in the way police are used in Texas’ public schools.

Youth Rights Manual in Spanish (1.2 MiB, 644 hits)

A guide about your rights at home, at school and in your community.

Youth Rights Manual (1.9 MiB, 1,489 hits)

A guide about your rights at home, at school and in your community.

Youth Rights Manual: Your Rights If You are Arrested or Confined in a Juvenile Facility (485.9 KiB, 312 hits)

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees legal rights to “any person” (not just American citizens) charged with committing a crime.

Know Your Rights: Student Expression and the Day of Silence (21.7 KiB, 395 hits)

How to File a Grievance in Public School (32.5 KiB, 413 hits)

How to Report Harassment in Public School (33.0 KiB, 419 hits)

Starting a GSA: Helpful Information for High School Students (180.2 KiB, 402 hits)

Gay‐Straight Alliances, or GSAs, are student‐led and student‐organized school clubs that aim to create a safe, welcoming, and accepting school environment for all youth, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Here are the basic steps to starting a GSA at your school.

Youth Rights Curriculum: Bullying and Harassment (420.4 KiB, 298 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Community Activism (617.5 KiB, 278 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Freedom of Expression (801.7 KiB, 287 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Immigration and Students’ Rights (485.1 KiB, 280 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Interacting With Police (391.3 KiB, 307 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: LGBTQ Students’ Rights (1,021.3 KiB, 297 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Privacy and Access (910.8 KiB, 348 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Search and Seizure (1.2 MiB, 309 hits)

Youth Rights Curriculum: Student Ticketing (4.3 MiB, 276 hits)

Youth Rights Manual: Family Issues (301.2 KiB, 237 hits)

What does it mean to be an emancipated minor? How does a minor become emancipated? What rights will a minor have if the court grants her petition to be emancipated?

Youth Rights Manual: Freedom from Discrimination (673.7 KiB, 276 hits)

Freedom from discrimination means the equal treatment of individuals despite their differences.

Youth Rights Manual: Freedom of Expression and Association (658.8 KiB, 420 hits)

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I of the Texas Constitution guarantee the freedom of expression to all citizens, including you!

Youth Rights Manual: Freedom of Religion (612.5 KiB, 288 hits)

The First Amendment protects your religious freedom through two distinct but equally important clauses.

Youth Rights Manual: Police Interaction (333.3 KiB, 274 hits)

Do police have the same right to search me as school officials? A police officer at my school stopped me in the hall and started asking me questions. What are my rights? Can a law enforcement officer search my car?

Youth Rights Manual: Privacy and Access to School Records (288.6 KiB, 305 hits)

What types of information might my school keep in my record? So, are my school records private? Are there any circumstances when my school can release my records without getting consent to do so?

Youth Rights Manual: Right to Education and Responsibility to Attend (486.0 KiB, 375 hits)

What law guarantees my right to an education? Why are some public schools better than others, even in the same school district? Shouldn’t they all be equal?

Youth Rights Manual: School and Discipline (463.4 KiB, 363 hits)

Texas law requires school districts to create student codes of conduct that describe what behavior is acceptable for you as a student and what teachers and other educators are permitted to do if you break school rules.

Youth Rights Manual: Search and Seizure at School (637.3 KiB, 325 hits)

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the unreasonable search and seizure of property by officers of the State – including law enforcement officers and public school officials.

Youth Rights Manual: Sex Education and Reproductive Health (435.4 KiB, 260 hits)

Like religion, any discussion dealing with sexuality is highly controversial. While our society continues to change its attitude towards sexuality, there are still disagreements over what is appropriate.

Youth Rights Manual: Specialized Education Rights (440.4 KiB, 219 hits)

Some students have specialized education rights established by statute or in Supreme Court cases.