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Friend, Summer is here – but at the SPLC, we’re not on vacation. In fact, it’s been a busy week for us. Here are five highlights of our recent work that we wanted to make sure you didn’t miss: On Tuesday, a group of Palm Beach County parents and students, Disability Rights Florida and the Florida State Conference of the NAACP sued the Palm Beach County school board for illegally initiating involuntary psychiatric examinations on students – using a law known as the Baker Act. These students are taken from their classrooms and transported – handcuffed and in the back of police cars – to psychiatric facilities, where they wait hours or days for an examination to be completed. The SPLC is one of the groups representing the students and families in the case. Citing repeated failures to follow Georgia and federal law governing the payment and processing of unemployment insurance benefits claims, the SPLC and Atlanta-based law firm Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP have filed a class action lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Labor in Fulton County over extreme delays experienced by countless under- or unemployed Georgians in the processing of their unemployment insurance benefits claims. SPLC Offers New Guide on Immigrant Students’ Right to a Public Education On June 17, the SPLC released Protecting Immigrant Students’ Rights to a Public Education, a guide explaining the legal framework and rights of immigrant children and families to enroll and participate fully in public schools. It is designed to provide families and advocates with a clear understanding of the law and the tools to advocate for their children. The guide was released on the 39th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, a landmark ruling that affirmed undocumented children’s rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to attend public schools. A new report released June 17 by the SPLC’s Hatewatch blog and the Center for Media and Democracy reveals big money donors pumped $4.3 million into the white nationalist group VDARE in the lead-up to the 2020 election. That figure is eight times more than VDARE received the year before, according to previously unreported tax records. SPLC: Remove Pedestals Glorifying the Confederacy from Public Property On Monday, the SPLC released new data amending the number of pedestals listed as “removed” in its Whose Heritage? report, which tracks symbols of the Confederacy across the United States. In some cases, communities have removed Confederate statues but left in place pedestals still containing Confederate names or symbols. Going forward, the SPLC will consider these memorials with a “statue removed, pedestal remains” designation as “live” Confederate memorials until the Confederate names and symbols have been removed. The work continues – and we are as grateful as ever for your continued support. In solidarity, Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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