Link follows (click on headline) - From Washington Post (among other sources)
Biology Book Stickers Ruled Unconstitutional
For samples of similar stickers (sorry, couldn't find an image of the actual sticker, other than in the print edition of the paper), see the following link: sticker samples here
Back to the Washington Post article:
By Doug Gross
Associated Press
Friday, January 14, 2005; Page A03
ATLANTA, Jan. 13 -- A federal judge on Thursday ordered the immediate removal of stickers placed in high school biology textbooks by school officials in suburban Cobb County that call evolution "a theory, not a fact," saying they were an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
"Adopted by the school board, funded by the money of taxpayers, and inserted by school personnel, the sticker conveys an impermissible message of endorsement and tells some citizens that they are political outsiders while telling others they are political insiders," U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said in his 44-page ruling.
Some parents of students and the American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the stickers in court, arguing that they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
"This is a great day for Cobb County students," said attorney Michael Manely, who represented the parents who brought the lawsuit. "They're going to be permitted to learn science unadulterated by religious dogma."
School board members said in a written statement that they believe the stickers are an "evenhanded guide to science instruction" and encourage students to be "critical thinkers." They had not decided whether to appeal. A board spokesman said no decision had been made on when, or if, the stickers that were placed on the books in 2002 will be removed.
Schools in the suburban district north of Atlanta placed the stickers after more than 2,000 parents complained the textbooks presented evolution as fact, without mentioning rival ideas about the beginnings of life.
During four days of testimony in federal court last November, the school system defended the warning stickers as a show of tolerance, not religious activism, as some parents said.
But Kenneth Miller, a Brown University biology professor and co-author of one of the texts that bears the sticker, said, "What it tells students is that we're certain of everything else in this book except evolution."
Miller said he will travel to Philadelphia on Friday to meet with lawyers in a similar case, in which parents are suing the Dover, Pa., school system over the required teaching of "intelligent design."
A statewide debate in Kansas over similar teachings looms later this year. Last year, Georgia's education chief proposed a science curriculum that dropped the word "evolution" in favor of "changes over time." That plan was scrapped amid protests by teachers.
This result (court decision) despite the following prior information:
Scientists Defend School Board's Use of Evolution Disclaimer Sticker
Friday November 12, 3:00 am ET
R. Robin McDonald and Greg Bluestein, Fulton County Daily Report
Calling evolution "a theory in crisis," more than two-dozen scientists have come to the defense of the Cobb County, Ga., Board of Education. The scientists, all Ph.D.'s, portray evolution as "a live and growing scientific controversy."
Among them are professors of microbiology, biochemistry and biophysics, who have filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the school board's 2002 decision to place a disclaimer about evolution in the front of its high-school biology textbooks. At the board's direction, a sticker placed in every Cobb biology textbook warns students that evolution is "a theory, not a fact," and should be "critically considered."
...
... more at linked article
Text of the actual sticker from the Cobb County case:
This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution
is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things.
This material should be approached with an open mind,
studied carefully, and critically considered.
Approved by
Cobb County Board of Education
Thursday, March 28, 2002
I'm left sitting here going WTF!??!?!
Seriously, how anything that is stated on that sticker is unconstitutional, or even comes close to be a separate of church and state issue is beyond me.
Somehow, the Americans without a friggin' clue have convinced a judge that this sticker -- carefully worded though it is, without a mention of God, religion, or anything else -- which reminds students that evolution is a theory, not a fact, is unconstitutional, and somehow conveys support of religion.
What a bunch of crap.
So, until we get past several appeals (which will hopefully happen), we're stuck leaving people with the impression that Evolution is the only way that the origin of life can be explained?! That's not in any way a violation of church and state either? That doesn't imply that those that believe differently are "outsiders" either?
Judge Clarence Cooper needs a visit from a different Clarence -- the one from
It's a Wonderful Life to convince him that perhaps he's gone off the deep end with this stupid decision.
