I'm not at all as confident as Rick is that "It is always good to stand up
for the academic freedom of teachers," particularly when they are
presenting one-sided religious or political programs in their classrooms
and refuse to accept the curricular guidelines of their school. Perhaps
Rick is breaking ranks here, but most conservative judges, including
several on the President's short list of potential Supreme Court nominees,
take a very different position on the academic freedom of high school
teachers. See, e.g. the Wilkinson and Luttig concurrences in Boring v.
Buncombe County Bd. of Educ, 136 F.3d 364 (1998)
I do not know all the details of the Williams litigation. But I have yet
to read a case involving attempts to teach students about the role of
religion in American history in which any attempt at a balanced
presentation is being advanced. No one seems to want to discuss the
obvious reality that religious individuals and groups have been on both
sides of every historical conflict: that the loyalists who supported George
III and ridiculed ideas of popular sovereignty were at least as devout as
their more revolutionary counterparts, that Confederate leaders and slave
holders were as religious as the abolitionists, that religion was employed
to justify social darwinism as well as progressive movements of reform --
and the list goes on. Religious beliefs were used to justify the most
shameful periods in American history and our most noble achievements.
There are many different inferences about America and religion that can be
drawn from that history. But that's always true of history.
Alan Brownstein
UC Davis
At 07:38 AM 8/16/2005 -0700, you wrote:
Here is the ADF take on the settlement:
CUPERTINO, Calif. - Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund and the
Cupertino Union School District filed a settlement agreement today in the
lawsuit Williams v. Vidmar.
"We are pleased that this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of
all parties," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Theriot. "The school
district is to be commended for agreeing that their policy allows
teachers, no matter what their religious beliefs, to use handouts of
historical significance that have religious content, like the Declaration
of Independence."
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit in federal court against the district in
November of last year on behalf of a teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary
School. The lawsuit alleged that school officials prohibited him, as an
orthodox Christian, from providing supplemental handouts to students about
American history because the historical documents contain some references
to God and religion.
The sett! lement agreement puts in writing district policy that "allows
teachers, no matter what their religious beliefs, to use appropriate
educational material (including supplemental handouts of historical
significance) during instructional time that has religious content" and
also allows teachers "to teach students during instructional time about
matters involving religion" so long as the content is compliant with
district-prescribed curriculum and is not used to influence a student's
religious beliefs.
The full text of the settlement agreement can be read at
<http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/WvVsettlement.pdf>www.telladf.org/UserDocs/WvVsettlement.pdf.
I am not sure that ADF agrees that this lawsuit did not accomplish its
goal. Let's see how this works out in the Mr. Williams' classroom this
Fall. It is always good to stand up for the academic freedom of teachers,
whether their names be Scopes or Williams.
Cheers, Rick Duncan
Ed Brayton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The lawsuit against the Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino,
California, brought by teacher Steven Williams and the Alliance Defense
Fund has been withdrawn as a result of a settlement. This was the infamous
"Declaration of Independence banned from classroom" (a complete falsehood
used in the ADF's press release announcing the suit) case which involved a
principal telling a teacher that he could not use a bunch of handouts and
supplemental materials in his 5th grade classroom after complaints from
numerous parents that Williams was proselytizing for his religious views
during class. Those materials contained a bunch of outright fraudulent
material, including several false quotations and at least one entirely
forged document.
You can see the settlement
<http://www.stevenscreekparents.org/settlement.pdf>here. The settlement
is essentially an ! admission that the basis for the suit was false in
the first place, as it recognizes that District policy already allows
teachers to speak about or use supplemental materials that discuss
matters of a religious nature as long as the content is "objective, age
appropriate and in compliance with the curriculum prescribed by the
district", and further that the school administration has the final say
on what does and does not meet that standard. It's nice to see the ADF
come to their senses in the case, which was based upon distortions and
should never have been brought in the first place.
Ed Brayton
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Rick Duncan
Welpton Professor of Law
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or
Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or
numbered." --The Prisoner
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