"School Bans 'Intelligent Design,' Faces Possible Lawsuit" (2005)
http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200504/CUL20050422b.shtml
School Bans 'Intelligent Design,' Faces Possible Lawsuit
(CNSNews.com) - A conservative legal group is threatening
to sue a Michigan school district over the administration's confiscation of
several copies of a science book that teaches the theory of intelligent
design in tandem with the theory of evolution.
The Gull Lake Community School District in Ann Arbor, Mich., ordered that
seventh grade science teachers only present the theory of evolution and that
copies of "Of Panda and People," be confiscated, according to the Thomas
More Law Center.
According to the center, which has filed a complaint with the school
district, two science teachers presented the intelligent design theory
alongside the theory of evolution and discussed the differences in class
until district school superintendent Richard Ramsey confiscated the
books.
The intelligent design theory is based on the idea that because the universe
is so complex, it must have been set in motion by a higher being. The
intelligent design theory does not point to a religious deity, but adopts
views of creation similar to those in the Bible.
The center, in its complaint filed April 14, requested that the books be
returned to the teachers, and that they be allowed to discuss the two
theories again. It gave the district 14 days to respond, threatening to file
a lawsuit in federal court.
The complaint describes the Michigan case as the reverse of the famed Scopes
Monkey Trial of 1925. In the Scopes trial, the state of Tennessee attempted
to prevent school teacher John Scopes from teaching scientific material that
negated the scriptural accounts of creation.
"Now that Darwinism has achieved dominance," said Thomas More Law Center
president Richard Thompson, "it is being forced on all teachers regardless
of gaps in the theory or the scientific evidence to the contrary."
Thompson said the school district is violating the teachers' academic
freedom and denying students "important information on the growing
controversy surrounding the theory of evolution."
He warned that the confiscation of the intelligent design textbook placed
the Gull Lake Community School District on "a slippery slope to book
burning."
Superintendent Richard Ramsey's office referred all inquiries to the school
district's legal counsel, Lisa Swem, who said the actions taken did not
amount to a "confiscation." The removal of the textbooks was "a prudent move
by the superintendent to just remove them at this point while it's being
studied," she added.
Swem said that while the textbooks were removed from the classroom and are
being stored on campus, one remains available at the school's library, where
all students have access to it. She said she wasn't sure if the district was
allowing teachers to use their lessons to encourage students to check out
the book.
Swem said the process of discussing the legitimacy of the intelligent design
theory is "ongoing." The superintendent, she said, has already commissioned
a committee to study the issue and make a recommendation to the local board
of education. The advisory committee includes the two teachers who were
previously discussing intelligent design theory with their students.
"It is anticipated that the committee will have a recommendation to the
board of education before the end of this school year," Swem said, adding
that once the recommendation has been submitted to the board, the decision
is the board's to make.
She said that litigation from the Thomas More Law Center will "complicate
matters," but said that "the school district is going forward as planned,
convening the committee, finalizing so they can make a recommendation and a
threat of a lawsuit is not going to interfere with that careful, considered,
deliberative process."
But Thompson said the school's advisory committee, which was formed in
December, is a deception. "This committee has been told they're not going to
make a decision until there is a consensus which means that our clients have
to agree not to teach intelligent design," Thompson told Cybercast News
Service.
The committee is "a total pretext to ... prevent the study of intelligent
design," Thompson said. It's "a facade that is not going to get anything
done, has not gotten anything done and it's been a pretext under which they
have confiscated the books and have told our clients you can't teach
intelligent design."
Thompson said the school district is restricting the teaching of the
intelligent design theory because it is religious and is not supported by
science. But the teachers and Thomas More Law Center say that "it is a
credible science and there are scientists that uphold that theory."
He added that intelligent design is not inherently religious because "what
we are looking at is scientists coming to the different scientific
conclusions based upon empirical data, not Holy Scripture, not the Bible,
not liturgy, but scientific data."
Thompson said the Thomas More Law Center will file the lawsuit against the
district if unless the teachers in question are allowed to resume their
classroom discussions of intelligent design by April 28. Swem said she is
currently drafting a response to the center but did not offer details of the
reaction.
"Either the students are going to be made aware of the controversy" between
the theory of evolution and the theory of intelligent design, Thompson said,
"or there will be a lawsuit."