rights being neglected and lawsuits on the way.
T-shirts worn by members of the Smith-Cotton High School band have been recalled by the school district because they contained images of evolution. The t-shirts featured an image of a monkey holding a brass instrument and progressing through various stages of evolution until eventually becoming a human.
?I was disappointed with the image on the shirt,? said Sherry Melby, a band parent who teaches in the district.
?I don?t think evolution should be associated with our school.? Assistant superintendent Brad Pollitt explained that the t-shirts were banned because they were imposing on religious views:
Though the shirts don?t violate the school?s dress code, Pollitt noted that the district is required by law to remain neutral on religion.
?If the shirts had said ?Brass Resurrections? and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,? Pollitt said.
Law professor Jonathan Turley notes, ?Evolution is not a religious issue. Extremists want to make evolution into a religious question, but it is not."
Think Progress Missouri school district bans t-shirts for acknowledging evolution.
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ODESSA, Texas ? The school board in Odessa, Texas (search), voted unanimously to add a Bible (search) class to its high school curriculum.
Hundreds of people, most of them supporters of the proposal, packed the board meeting Tuesday night. More than 6,000 area residents had signed a petition supporting the class.
Some residents, however, said the school board acted too quickly. Others said they feared a national constitutional fight.
Barring any hurdles, the class should be added to the curriculum in fall 2006 and taught as a history or literature course. The school board still must develop a curriculum, which board member Floy Hinson said should be open for public review.
The board had heard a presentation in March from Mike Johnson, a representative of the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (search), who said that coursework designed by that organization is not about proselytizing or preaching.
But People for the American Way (search) and the American Civil Liberties union have criticized the council, saying its materials promote religion.
Johnson said students in the elective class would learn such things as the geography of the Middle East and the influence of the Bible on history and culture.
"How can students understand Leonardo da Vinci's `Last Supper' or Handel's `Messiah' if they don't understand the reference from which they came?" Johnson said. The group's Web site says its curriculum has received backing in 292 school districts in 35 states.
In Frankenmuth, Mich., a similar proposal led to a yearlong controversy before the school board voted in January not to offer such a course.
Originally Posted by cosmo99
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