Re: [Phys-l] Law suit over controversial teache 'corbett' inCapistrano

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Yes, it threw out the suit on technical grounds that there were no
precedents to go by.  But the ABC comment that the previous ruling was a
victory for the student is very misleading because only one claim out of
some 20 odd were upheld, and the idea that evolution was a religion was
firmly denied.  The vast majority of news reports about the 2009 court case
called it a win for the teacher, except for FOX which is now apparently
ignoring the recent ruling which is an unqualified win for the teacher.

The NYTimes and Washington Post also apparently ignored the series of
stories from the beginning, apparently considering it to be too local to
bother with.

I suspect the Supreme Court might just decline to review it.

There is certainly a question of how sensitive teachers have to be to
students, but I would say that calling creationism non science or
nonsensical from the point of view of science is not anything that should be
considered controversial or objectionable.  The rest of the teacher's
comments were from what I could see reasonable, but maybe couched in an
inflammatory fashion.  The teacher said that European peasants strong
religious beliefs prevented them from advancement.  Well of course.  If you
believe that the social order is divinely ordained, you will stay oppressed.
The only win in the original suit was probably because of the word
superstition, but I can't be sure.

Actually some religious educators have said that children have to have
challenges to their religious beliefs in order to develop mature beliefs.
This teacher was certainly challenging the students.

If the flap over evolution is to go away, the thinking conservatives need to
come down hard on the anti-science media and commentators such as FOX and
candidates like Bachman and Perry.  But at present the unthinking
conservatives are allowed to have the illusion that the anti-science
rhetoric is OK.  A hard anti-science president can appoint people who will
try to inject anti-science attitudes into education.  This happened in TX
because every head of the TX board of education appointed by Perry was a
creationist and even sent other board members creationist literature, while
forbidding staff members from publicizing lectures on evolution.

Then of course comments like Perry's that creationism is taught in TX
schools is saying that he is defying the US constitution.  This is just
encouraging more than the current estimated 13% of teachers to teach
creationism.  And also there will be more money wasting suits.  Admiring his
economics is one thing, but make it clear that he is dead wrong on science.
Surely there are conservative candidates that can be supported who are not
scientific idiots.  If you don't believe that biology teachers are
intimidated by creationists I knew one who was teaching in a Catholic school
who soft peddled evolution, and I know a community college geology teacher
who didn't believe in evolution.  Catholic nuns teach evolution correctly,
and the geologist at least taught geology correctly.  Curiously Moslems have
no problems with geology, but some are creationists.  I also know a physics
teacher who disbelieves evolution.  I would say only in TX, but it is
actually all over.

No European or far Eastern country would allow teachers to espouse
creationism in the school.  Only in the Middle East would it be allowed.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_co
unty&id=8316780
> The court ruling did not go into 'Constitutionality' it seems.
>
> At 3:16 PM -0500 8/22/11, John Clement wrote:
> > This was reported in Education Week with the headline:
> > Teacher Can't Be Sued Over Alleged Hostility to Religion, Court Says
> >
> > But in Fox News:
> > http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518864,00.html
> >
> > The headline is:
> > Student Wins Suit After Teacher Says Creationism 
> 'Superstitious Nonsense'
> > Now admittedly the story from Fox is from 2009, but for some 
> reason the
> > latest story about the teacher has not made it to Fox, but 
> is in many other
> > news sources.  Actully there were 20 allegations in the 
> orignial suit and
> > only 1 was upheld.  Now if the teacher had said that 
> "science shows that
> > creationism is nonsense" he might not have even lost on this 
> one point.
> > Since the latest story is not yet on FOX  I am wondering 
> what they are going
> > to do to slant it.  Virtually all news sources are calling 
> it a win for the
> > teacher and agree with it.
> >
> > But the latest report in Ed Week was that the circuit court 
> threw out the
> > entire suit against the teacher.
> >
> > So it seems that FOX despite the fact that they report 
> fairly well about
> > science and do not inject creationist rhetoric into their 
> science articles,
> > are in favor of creationism.  Again conservative scientists 
> need to speak
> > out about this sort of nonsense.
> >
> > There was a previous suit of a Capistrano biology teacher who taught
> > creationism, and was censored by the school  district.  The 
> teacher lost,
> > but the court according to some reports ruled that evolution 
> was not a
> > religion because it did not say anything about ultimate 
> creation according
> > to the dictionary definition.  Hmmmm.
> >
> > John M. Clement
> > Houston, TX