Category: Kansas City Missouri

Red Kettle campaign draws to close

With two days left before The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign comes to a close for another season, the organization is hoping for one final push to help make its goal.

“We are still $400,000 from our kettle goal of $1.5 millon,” said Major Evie Diaz, divisional commander of The Salvation Army in Kansas City, Mo. “The community has been extremely generous but we are still behind and are hopeful that these final few days before Christmas will make up the difference.”

The Salvation Army is reporting lagging donations all across the country due to a shorter bell ringing season this year. In Kansas City, an offer from an anonymous donor to match up to $200,000 in online and kettle donations began last Friday and goes through Christmas Eve.

The Salvation Army’ s Red Kettle Campaign is the organization’s largest fundraiser and helps to fund programs for the needy all year long. To make a donation online and have your donation matched, go to www.salarmymokan.org. Red Kettle donations can be made through Christmas Eve at more than 250 locations around the Kansas City area.

ACLU asks court to stop punishment of student who participated in silent protest at Lincoln Academy

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Kansas City, Mo., School District, saying the district violated a student’s First Amendment rights. The suit asks the court to stop punishing the student for participating in a protest.

When Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon began speaking during an assembly on Nov. 20 at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, 14 students stood and held their hands up in a sign of surrender. It was a silent protest. They were immediately ushered out of the auditorium, sent home and threatened with a 10-day suspension. This punishment was changed to a Saturday School detention.

“This student was exercising her constitutional rights by expressing the message that she stood in solidarity with other protesters across Missouri and the country after the death of Michael Brown,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. “The school should be proud to have taught their students to be confident in their right to express themselves to the governor.”

“School administrators cannot punish students for communications they think will bring negative attention to the school,” said Sarah Rossi, the ACLU of Missouri’s director of advocacy and policy. “The First Amendment does not permit that.”