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Groups criticize FBI's questioning of teen for scribbling 'PLO'

SACRAMENTO

Civil rights groups said a teenager's free speech rights were violated when a suburban school district let the FBI question him for scribbling the initials "PLO" on a school binder two years ago.

The family of the boy, now 16, and the civil rights groups said Elk Grove School District officials violated their own policy by allowing the questioning Sept. 27 without informing his parents.

The Calvine High School student, who is not being named because of his age and because he doesn't face any charges, was questioned by the FBI about the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was also asked if he had ever traveled to Palestine, and if he knew about the FBI's investigation of alleged terrorist activity among the Muslim community in Lodi, about 35 miles south of Sacramento, the civil rights groups said.

The FBI said it was told the boy had pictures of suicide bombers on his cell phone, but the rights groups said the phone only had a picture of a mosque as its background display. The boy, a fourth generation American of Arab descent, also said he was asked how long he had been in the United States.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations protested the incident Thursday to the district's school board. A spokeswoman for the groups said the letter of complaint was delayed because they had to confirm the district's policy was violated.

The FBI questioning "is particularly intimidating for a 16-year-old, especially when it occurs on school grounds," the groups said in the complaint. "As a result of this experience, (the boy) is now much more hesitant about expressing his political views in any context."

Two years ago, he was scolded by his math teacher, who told him he was supporting a terrorist organization by scribbling PLO on his notebook. The youth defended the group as a legitimate organization that opposed Israeli occupation. He refused to complete any more assignments for the class after he was denied a transfer to a different teacher.

FBI spokeswoman Karen Ernst said the 20-minute questioning came two years later because agents learned about the incident after the arrests last June of a Lodi father and son on terrorism-related charges.(snip)

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