School Board Rejects Proposal to Balance Teaching of Evolutionary Theory
by Jim Brown
November 5, 2003
(AgapePress) - Residents of a Wyoming county have been defeated in their attempt to have alternatives to Darwinian evolution taught in public school science classes.Pastors and parents in Worland want evolution to be taught in local schools as theory only and not fact, and teachers to be allowed to discuss the pros and cons of the scientific evidence for Darwin's theories.
But their proposal was recently defeated by a Washakie County School Board vote of 5-2. Board member Tom Ball says the policy failed because of misinformation from teachers. "It was the public school that fought it -- not so much the parents," he says, "but there was a small contingent that fought it, including two preachers."
The dissenting board member believes some of his colleagues caved in to outside intimidation. "We received a threatening letter from the American Association of Atheists about a week before the board meeting, saying if we passed the policy on Darwinian evolution they would sue us," he says, "and I think it frightened some of the board members."
But despite the setback, Ball says he will not give up the fight. He says he was promised that the board could make the necessary changes to ensure a balanced approach to the teaching of Darwinian evolution within existing policy. It was indicated that other theories of origin could be taught provided they are supported by scientific evidence, Ball says, "which means intelligent design." Therefore the school board member says he intends to "try to hold them to that."
The Washakie County School Board also denied approval to a measure that would have replaced Planned Parenthood's "safe sex" agenda for school health classes with an exclusively abstinence-based curriculum.
