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ACLU Sides With High School Journalist

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

Civil rights lawyers have urged school officials to reverse their decision to punish a student journalist for her article in a campus newspaper.

In a strongly worded letter, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized officials at Troy High School for removing Ann Long as editor of the Oracle.

Long, 18, was unseated last month after she chronicled the decisions of three students to reveal their homosexuality and bisexuality.

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School and district officials first accused Long of violating a state law that prohibits asking students about their sexuality without parents’ consent. Officials later backed off that allegation, saying Long ignored orders from her journalism teacher to obtain permission from her subjects’ parents.

Long has denied that her teacher instructed her to get the parents’ consent.

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