Witold Walczak facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Witold "Vic" Walczak
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | January 17, 1961 |
| Occupation | Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania |
Witold "Vic" Walczak (born January 17, 1961) is a lawyer who works as the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Pennsylvania. The ACLU is an organization that works to protect the rights and freedoms of people in the United States.
Contents
Early Life
Walczak was born in Ystad, Sweden, on January 17, 1961. His parents were from Poland. His grandfather survived a very difficult time during World War II. After the war, his family had to leave Poland because of the new government. When Vic was three years old, his family moved to the United States. He grew up mostly in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.
Education and Early Career
Walczak went to Colgate University. There, he played soccer for the university team and studied Philosophy. While at Colgate, he helped a Polish workers' group called Solidarity to help people from Poland move to the United States. He finished college in 1983. That summer, he visited Poland, which was under strict military rule at the time. While helping Solidarity with their secret work, Walczak faced challenges from the police. He said he almost got arrested in Kraków.
After college, Walczak went to Boston College Law School and graduated in 1986. He then worked with a group in Baltimore, Maryland that helped prisoners with legal issues.
Working with the ACLU
In 1991, Walczak's wife, who is a doctor, got a job in Pittsburgh. Walczak then started working for the ACLU in Pennsylvania. He became the leader of the ACLU's Pittsburgh office. In 2004, he became the legal director for the entire state of Pennsylvania. This means he leads all the legal cases for the ACLU in Pennsylvania.
Important Legal Cases
Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
This was a big case in 2005. Walczak helped the ACLU challenge a school district in Dover, Pennsylvania. The school district wanted to teach something called "Intelligent Design" in science classes. Intelligent Design is a belief that life is too complex to have developed naturally and must have been created by an intelligent being. The ACLU argued that teaching this idea in science class was like teaching a religious belief, which is not allowed in public schools.
The ACLU won this case. The court decided that Intelligent Design is not science and should not be taught in science classes. After this, the school board members who wanted to teach Intelligent Design were voted out. This case helped stop similar efforts to teach non-scientific ideas in public schools.
Lozano v. City of Hazleton
Starting in 2006, Walczak led the ACLU's challenge against some laws in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. These laws were about controlling immigration at the local city level. The ACLU argued that these local laws went against federal (national) immigration laws.
The ACLU won this case in the lower courts. It was the first time a federal court looked at local laws trying to control immigration. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the country. The Supreme Court sent the case back to a lower court to be looked at again.
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.
In this case, Walczak and the ACLU represented a high school cheerleader. She was suspended from her cheerleading squad for a year in 2017. This happened after she posted an inappropriate message on Snapchat during a weekend, off-campus. She was upset because she didn't make the top cheerleading team.
The ACLU argued that suspending her for an off-campus social media post went against her right to free speech. Both the lower court and an appeals court agreed that her punishment was wrong because her post didn't seriously disrupt school activities. The appeals court also said that schools generally can't punish students for speech that happens off-campus.
The school district asked the Supreme Court to hear the case, and they agreed. This was an important case because it was the first time the Supreme Court looked at how much free speech protection students have for things they say or post when they are not at school.
Hobbies and Interests
Walczak is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen's music. He has said that one of Springsteen's songs, "Part Man, Part Monkey," helped inspire him during the Dover trial.
