March 31, 2005
Update on the "banning" of the Declaration of Independence
by Liza Sabater
Last November I posted c u l t u r e k i t c h e n: Declaration of Independence Banned at California School or Red-baiting Liberals on Thanksgiving Day, after a school teacher in California was allegedly silenced for reading the section of the Declaration of Independence that mentioned the word God. Of course, as the title of the post says, it was a Red-bait if there ever was one : Actually, it was the first big expression of power by the dominionist faction of the Republican party. These extremist Republicans use the idea of a Christian Fundamentalist theocracy to seek and gain absolute political power.
Dear Culturekitchen:Thanks for your fair coverage of our issue last November. I am a parent at Stevens Creek School and I just wanted to give you an update.
The Declaration was never banned at Stevens Creek School. It is hanging on the library wall, printed in the 5th grade text book, and taught by every 5th grade teacher.
So how did this urban legend get started? According to the Alliance Defense Fund, it was sloppy reporting. I'll attach their press release below. This press release isn't on their web site, probably because they are too embarrassed. If you call them, they will own it. When our overly evangelical teacher proposed a weird 45 minute lesson that included some handouts, the principal rejected his lesson, not the Declaration. It's a pitty that the ADF didn't make themselves clear when they had the ears of all America on Sean Hannity's prime time show. Instead they waited 3 months and quietly issue the press release below saying ... whoops, you didn't read our fine print.
Despite the ADF's lawyer-speak, the man on the street believed that the principal had removed the Declaration from the school and was X-ing out the word God from all historical documents. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ironically, the principal is a Presbyterian and a Republican, and she has strong feelings about God in the classroom herself. The ADF's incendiary headline incited over 3000 hate messages ranging from "Ihope ou burn in Hell for all Eternity" to more sinister late night calls like, "I know where you live and you work at that God forsaken school." There were 2 full time sheriffs on campus for two months, and it scare the daylights out of our children.
As for me, I'm glad that the principal protected the kids from this religious nut case. I'll be damned if I'll give public schools the right to teach my children religion. That's my job. Maybe in junior high or high school comparative religion courses are useful, but 5th graders are too young to understand they can disagree with their teacher.
The goal of the ADF isn't "accurate teaching of history" or "excellence in public school education." According to their web site they are a "Christian advocacy" group. Let's just consider their motives.
Even their legal case doesn't hold water. The Cupertino Union School District has filed a Motion to Dismiss. We should hear the ruling on March 28th. In the mean time, you might want to check http://www.stevenscreekparents.org to read the Motion.
Sincerely,
Alice Anderson
Here is the press release :
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ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND STATEMENT
January 27, 2005 ˆ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020
ADF dispels misunderstandings about lawsuit against Cupertino Union School District
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.˜Some media reports have incorrectly characterized the lawsuit filed on behalf of teacher Stephen Williams against the Cupertino Union School District as challenging a complete ban by the school of the Declaration of Independence from the entire school. That characterization is wrong.
The text of our Nov. 23, 2004, news release on this lawsuit clearly stated that Mr. Williams was prohibited from using the Declaration in his classroom despite having sound academic reasons to do so. Additionally, the actual complaint is a public document and is (and has been) available at our Web site at www.alliancedefensefund.org/userdocs/WilliamsvCupertinoComplaint.pdf.
What is at issue in this lawsuit is not the reputation or general quality of education at Stevens Creek Elementary School, where Mr. Williams teaches. It is the question of whether school officials violated the U.S. Constitution when they placed particular limitations upon Mr. Williams ~and only Mr. Williams~ pertaining to the teaching of his class. This is the question that led to informal efforts to resolve the problem and, when those failed, to court.
After the lawsuit was filed, extensive media coverage and a vigorous public debate developed on the issue. Unfortunately, some people expressed themselves in a hateful, angry manner toward the school and others involved in the controversy. ADF deplores such uncivilized behavior on all fronts: such crude behavior by any person does nothing to further reasoned discussion of the fundamental rights at issue.
We the Parents have responded, thusly:
Cupertino parents request that lawyers' group take further actions to correct mistakes
Cupertino, 2/2/02: We, The Parents, a group of parents at Stevens Creek Elementary issued a statement today regarding the ADF‚s response to their Open Letter of last week. The letter requested that the ADF issue a public apology and a retraction of their November 23 press release which falsely stated that the Declaration of Independence had been banned at their school.
The ADF, in a press release on 1/27/05, deny that the Declaration of Independence has been banned from Stevens Creek Elementary. Such a ban was widely reported following the ADF's November 23 press release headlined "Declaration of Independence banned from classroom", but the ADF now describe these reports as a mischaracterization of the truth. They also decry the behavior of those who "expressed themselves in a hateful, angry manner toward the school and others involved in the controversy," which the parent group believes was the direct result of the inflammatory headline of the November 23 statement.
"We truly feel this is a David vs. Goliath kind of a victory! The small mouse squeaked so loud the elephant had to move," said Jean Marie Danielson. "We welcome this first step from ADF to putting the record straight, but still look forward to receiving a public apology for the harm they have caused our school and our children," stated Richard Crouch. "What we have seen so far looks more like an effort to minimize their own legal liability."
ADF still claims in their latest press release that "Mr. Williams was prohibited from using the Declaration in his classroom despite having sound academic reasons to do so." John Bartas, co-founder of the group, responds "that claim sounds ridiculous when you know that the document is printed entirely in the text book used by all fifth grade students and teachers. The lawsuit states that Williams wanted to use was his own 'excerpts', not the complete and original Declaration."
Nathalie Schuler, media relations volunteer for the group, stated that the ADF has blamed the media for misrepresenting their claims and has not taken responsibility for its own actions. "We still see their original misleading and inflammatory press release on their website. Recently the school received another email with a clear call to action‚ asking Christians‚ to contact the school and convey their feelings, and to do more than just speak out. This e-mail reproduced the original ADF press release. We think this will continue to happen as long as they don't withdraw it and publicly apologize for misleading the public in the first place."
The group also questions the validity of the claim by the ADF that Williams was singled out by the principal because he is a Christian. "There are other fifth grade teachers at our school who are also Christian and they are not required to turn in lesson plans," explained Larry Woodard, a parent at the school and former supporter of the ADF. "Since the ADF mislead the public on the Declaration ban, what does that say about the credibility of the rest of their claims?" asked Woodard.
The group continues to request a public retraction and apology from the ADF. The full text of the Open Letter to the ADF can be found of the parents website, www.stevenscreekparents.org
Indeed, ADF continues to lie on their website. Even as of today, the headline associated with their November news release still says: "Declaration of Independence Banned from Classroom".
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Posted by Liza Sabater in Christian Fundamentalism, Culture War, Dominionism, Education, Extremists, Free Speech, Religion
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Say it loud, say it proud!
While i cannot relate directly particulars of the case itself, there are aspects to both of these missives that need some clarification. The teacher in question was asked to provide his administrator with the various materials, identified standards to be addressed(from the State mandated achievement criteria), notes he would use, etc prior to this lesson. This has become part of the necessary evaluation processes for CA teachers under the state's adoption legislation of ESEA/NCLB. When informed some materials were not proper in addressing the appropriate standards the teacher refused to change his lesson. He was then deemed to be insubordinate under a variety of contractual and ED Code provisions. If you read the Declaration, all the way through, you will realize that in order to create an interpretation of the language that supports the teacher's views(interesting to see evangelical literalists willing to interpret texts) one would need to vastly alter the intent of Jefferson's message. The word God for instance only is found in the first paragraph, as an object case noun of an adjectival prepositional reference to Nature.
The warping of this case into some sort of national scandal regarding something that was not part and parcel of the substantive issues is indicative of the efforts of those whose agenda is to demolish public education, in order to replace it with parochial evangelical education. Interestingly, the standards and frameworks in CA are surprisingly conservative in their constructs. Most of what some might refer to as liberalized thinking has already been scrubbed out.
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Comment by: spyder at March 31, 2005 07:48 PM