Learn from the mistakes of others

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Kate Heneroty at 10:50 AM ET

[JURIST] The Cobb County School District [official website] on Tuesday agreed to remove anti-evolution stickers [ACLU press release] from its high school biology textbooks. In 2002, parents sued the suburban Atlanta school district claiming the stickers violated the separation between church and state by promoting religion in the classroom. In January 2005, a federal district court ordered the removal of the stickers [text; JURIST report]. The school board appealed the decision and in May the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remanded the case [JURIST reports] to the district court on the issue of whether the school district's actions were "religiously neutral."

The settlement ends the legal battle which began when the district placed a sticker in 35,000 biology textbooks calling evolution "a theory, not a fact." To settle the case, the school district also agreed not to take any action which would undermine the teaching of evolution in high school classrooms.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has more.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Kate Heneroty at 10:50 AM ET

[JURIST] The Cobb County School District [official website] on Tuesday agreed to remove anti-evolution stickers [ACLU press release] from its high school biology textbooks. In 2002, parents sued the suburban Atlanta school district claiming the stickers violated the separation between church and state by promoting religion in the classroom. In January 2005, a federal district court ordered the removal of the stickers [text; JURIST report]. The school board appealed the decision and in May the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remanded the case [JURIST reports] to the district court on the issue of whether the school district's actions were "religiously neutral."

The settlement ends the legal battle which began when the district placed a sticker in 35,000 biology textbooks calling evolution "a theory, not a fact." To settle the case, the school district also agreed not to take any action which would undermine the teaching of evolution in high school classrooms.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has more.

A NEW code regulating the marketing of junk food will not stop children becoming obese, the Australian Consumers' Association says. It has repeated its call for the Federal Government to step in and legislate.

"We don't believe that a voluntary code is going to provide adequate protection for children from advertising of unhealthy foods that may influence their food preferences and the food they eat, which in turn will impact on diet and nutrition and have the potential to contribute to overweight [sic] and obesity," the association's food policy officer, Clare Hughes, said.

A NEW code regulating the marketing of junk food will not stop children becoming obese, the Australian Consumers' Association says. It has repeated its call for the Federal Government to step in and legislate.

"We don't believe that a voluntary code is going to provide adequate protection for children from advertising of unhealthy foods that may influence their food preferences and the food they eat, which in turn will impact on diet and nutrition and have the potential to contribute to overweight [sic] and obesity," the association's food policy officer, Clare Hughes, said.

[JURIST] The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) [group website], the world's largest general scientific society, has denounced legislation and policies [statement, PDF; press release] that "undermine evolution" and "deprive students of the education they need to be informed and productive citizens," referring specifically to pending legislation in 14 states that would "weaken science education." According to an AAAS statement issued at the association's annual meeting which concluded Monday:

Some bills seek to discredit evolution by emphasizing so-called "flaws" in the theory of evolution or "disagreements" within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one. ...

Many of the proposed bills and policies aim explicitly or implicitly at encouraging the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in science classes as an alternative to evolution. Although advocates of Intelligent Design usually avoid mentioning a specific creator, the concept is in fact religious, not scientific.

The AAAS praised the December 2005 federal court opinion in Kitzmiller v. Dover School District [PDF text; JURIST report], holding that a Pennsylvania public school district's policy of teaching intelligent design [JURIST news archive] as an alternative to evolution was an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause.

Newsday has more.

[JURIST] The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) [group website], the world's largest general scientific society, has denounced legislation and policies [statement, PDF; press release] that "undermine evolution" and "deprive students of the education they need to be informed and productive citizens," referring specifically to pending legislation in 14 states that would "weaken science education." According to an AAAS statement issued at the association's annual meeting which concluded Monday:

Some bills seek to discredit evolution by emphasizing so-called "flaws" in the theory of evolution or "disagreements" within the scientific community. Others insist that teachers have absolute freedom within their classrooms and cannot be disciplined for teaching non-scientific "alternatives" to evolution. A number of bills require that students be taught to "critically analyze" evolution or to understand "the controversy." But there is no significant controversy within the scientific community about the validity of the theory of evolution. The current controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution is not a scientific one. ...

Many of the proposed bills and policies aim explicitly or implicitly at encouraging the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in science classes as an alternative to evolution. Although advocates of Intelligent Design usually avoid mentioning a specific creator, the concept is in fact religious, not scientific.

The AAAS praised the December 2005 federal court opinion in Kitzmiller v. Dover School District [PDF text; JURIST report], holding that a Pennsylvania public school district's policy of teaching intelligent design [JURIST news archive] as an alternative to evolution was an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause.

Newsday has more.