LOS ANGELES - The ACLU and Public Advocates released a report today detailing new ways parents, students and educators are improving public schools one year after important changes in education law went into effect.

The report, which chronicles the first year after a settlement was reached in the historic class action education lawsuit Williams v. California, identifies successes and challenges so far in school district, county, state and community implementation of those new laws.

"This settlement has helped empower school districts and communities with resources to identify and fix problems in schools quickly," said Brooks Allen, an ACLU/SC staff attorney. "Williams provides a foundation for improving California's public education system."

Williams, originally filed in May 2000, charged the state with reneging on its constitutional obligation to provide sufficient instructional materials, adequate learning facilities and qualified teachers. The settlement, which was reached in August 2004, and subsequent legislation hold schools accountable for delivering these basic necessities and provides about $1 billion to accomplish these goals.

The report specifically details how new accountability systems help ensure that all students receive sufficient instructional materials, properly assigned teachers and safe, clean, and functional classrooms. In addition, the report identifies three ways in which school officials, parents, students and teachers can identify problems and create positive change in public schools.

Districts are now required to conduct rigorous self-evaluations through facilities inspection systems and annual instructional materials hearings and then report results to parents and students through public resolutions and School Accountability Report Cards. Parents can use the Report Cards to compare schools and advocate for improvements.

Students, parents, community members, and teachers can now report where a school lacks sufficient textbooks or instructional materials, safe and healthy facilities, or properly assigned teachers through the new Uniform Complaint Process. Complaints must be addressed within 30 working days.

County superintendents are now visiting and reviewing low-performing schools to ensure there are sufficient instructional materials, properly assigned teachers, and clean, safe, and functional facilities. Before the Williams legislation, problems like a lack of textbooks could go unnoticed by the school district. Already students across the state have received tens of thousands of new books and materials and hundreds of unsafe and unhealthy facility conditions have been repaired.

"Governor Schwarzenegger deserves a great deal of credit for settling this case," said John Affeldt, managing attorney for Public Advocates in San Francisco. "Of course, not all problems have been solved in all schools, but the good progress in the first year shows reform can happen with focused support and accountability."

"What we're seeing is that Williams can be a force for change," said Dr. Darline Robles, Los Angeles County Superintendent. "It creates a powerful combination of district self-study supported by county office oversight. I believe the new laws are having their intended effect."

For an electronic or original copy of the report or to talk about specific improvements in your county, please contact Elizabeth Brennan at (213) 977-5252.

LOS ANGELES - Twenty-five years after John Lennon's murder, the FBI has declared it will appeal a recent federal court decision ordering the release of the last ten pages of the Lennon FBI file.

This fall the FBI said it would not release files about Lennon, who was shot Dec. 8, 1980, and that, according to the FBI, contained information about the Beatle provided by a foreign government under a promise of confidentiality.

"At a time when we are confronted by life and death issues of terrorism and national security, the FBI is asserting that it cannot release 30-year-old files relating to the Nixon administration's harassment of a rock icon," said Mark Rosenbaum, ACLU of Southern California legal director. "This administration is trivializing national security in the name of political expediency."

The Lennon FBI file was created in 1971 and 1972, when the Nixon administration attempted to deport Lennon. At the time Lennon was an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam.

The long-standing Freedom of Information lawsuit was originally filed in 1983 by Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California-Irvine, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The case, which went to the Supreme Court in 1992, was settled by the Clinton administration in 1997, except for ten pages. In September, 2004, U.S. District Court Judge Robert K. Takasugi ordered the FBI to release the last ten pages.

As for the contents of the withheld pages, Wiener said, "We aren't even allowed to know the name of the country that provided the pages in question, but a former employee of Britain's MI-5 intelligence agency named David Shayler has said he saw a Lennon file at MI-5. He said it contained reports on Lennon's contacts with the British New Left and anti-war organizations."

Shayler was convicted of violating Britain's Official Secrets Act and jailed for six months.

The pages the FBI has released have been published in the book Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files by Jon Wiener (University of California Press). Key pages - and more information -- are available online at www.LennonFBIfiles.com.

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ruled that an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed on behalf of Charlene Nguon, an Orange County high school senior, and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network can proceed, rejecting the school's motion that it was within its rights to reveal the student's sexual orientation without her permission.

"Our family is really happy that the judge agreed Charlene can continue to stand up for her rights," said Nguon's mother, Crystal Chhun. "We love and fully support Charlene, but that's not the case for every student out there. The person to decide when and how to talk with our family about this should have been my daughter, not her principal."

In its motion to dismiss the case, the school claimed that Nguon did not have a legal interest in keeping her sexual orientation private because she was affectionate with her girlfriend at school. The court disagreed, ruling that Nguon can proceed with her legal claim that the principal violated her constitutional privacy rights.

"We are pleased that the court recognized that the school does not have the automatic right to disclose a student's sexual orientation just because that student is out of the closet to his or her friends at school," said Christine P. Sun, a staff attorney for the ACLU. "Coming out is a very serious decision that should not be taken away from anyone, especially from students who may be put in peril if they live in an unsupportive home."

The ACLU's national Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, the ACLU of Southern California, and the law firm of Latham & Watkins, LLP, brought a lawsuit on behalf of Nguon and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network in September after a series of events that included revealing Nguon's sexual orientation to her family without the student's permission in December of 2004.

Throughout the 2004-2005 school year Santiago High School Principal Ben Wolf had repeatedly singled Nguon out for discipline - including a one-week suspension - for displaying affection with her girlfriend. Heterosexual students are routinely allowed to hold hands, hug and kiss on campus. Wolf ultimately told Nguon that either she or her girlfriend had to leave the high school, which Nguon reluctantly did halfway during the spring semester of her junior year.

Nguon, 17, was a straight-A student ranked in the top five percent of her class who had no prior record of discipline. Her grades slipped when she switched to another high school as she struggled to catch up with that school's curriculum and her commute grew from a four-block walk to a four-and-a-half mile bike ride. After the ACLU sent a letter to the school in late July, Nguon was allowed to return to Santiago, but to date the school has not agreed to clear Nguon's disciplinary record. She is enrolled in a number of advanced placement and honors classes and had been a candidate for the National Honor Society until the offer was rescinded because of the school's unfair discipline.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, seeks to clear Nguon of any discipline on her record. The lawsuit also seeks to create a district-wide policy and guidelines to ensure that gay and lesbian students are treated equally.

The judge's decision regarding the school's motion to dismiss can be viewed online at:

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/22040lgl20051201.html