User login
Browse archives
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
Who's online
Syndicate
The makings of a bad defense...
Board members who support the change say students should learn about alternative theories to evolution.
Critics argue intelligent design is an attempt to get creationism and religion into the classroom.
HARRISBURG — Somewhere along the journey from obscurity to courtroom No. 2 in the U.S. Middle District Courthouse — this would have been in 2004 — Supt. Richard Nilsen of the Dover Area School District received a memo that indicated that a policy might have been violated during the debate over adoption of the new biology curriculum, the one in dispute now.
That suggested violation, which the school's Curriculum Advisory Council had been bypassed, "raised a red flag," Nilsen testified Thursday during Day 13 of the Dover Panda Trial.
He ordered the member of his administration charged with ensuring the district's policies are followed to investigate. He found, in a very short time, that no policy had been violated. Order had been restored.
In January 2002, Nilsen presided over a board retreat, an informal meeting during which administrators and board members could air ideas and concerns and whatnot.
Nilsen, glancing at his notes from the meeting, remembered that then-board member Casey Brown talked about full-day kindergarten. He remembered then-board member Noel Wenrich mentioned discipline and other issues. And, referring to his notes, he said board member Alan Bonsell discussed creationism. Asked to recall what Bonsell said about creationism, Nilsen said he didn't remember and his notes didn't say.
So Bonsell could have said, "Boy, it sure would be a stupid idea to try to jam creationism into our science curriculum." Or maybe he said, "You know, if we try to introduce creationism into the science curriculum, we'd be in deep doo-doo." Or maybe he said, "If we try to cram creationism into the school, we're going to wind up spending more than a month in some stuffy courtroom."
Whatever he said about creationism, it didn't raise any red flags.
Moving forward to March 2003 and another of these informal meetings, Nilsen said he remembered that Bonsell expressed concern about discipline and that he had heard from frustrated parents that there was a mixed standard when it came to dress and that some students were dressing inappropriately for school and when their parents tried to intervene, they said all the kids dressed like that.
A board member of a public school starts spouting off about creationism.
Not even that, Nilsen testified he doesn't even remember it.
You know, I'm not a public school administrator, but if I were and one of the members of the school board started talking about creationism, I think it would raise more than a few red flags.
As Nilsen's testimony began, the defense came into focus.
First, he seems to be relying on the "can't-remember" defense. So, did you indeed shoot Shorty? Can't remember.
In this case, the other dudes are former board member Bill Buckingham and former high-school Principal Trudy Peterman.
And, when asked whether Buckingham was present at a certain meeting, Nilsen recalled he wasn't, that the board member was off having knee surgery and "had been hospitalized for substance (abuse), OxyContin."
Peterman, he said, tended to blow things "out of proportion," as she did when she wrote a memo to the administration warning that the board wants to teach creationism "50-50" with evolution.
Mike Argento, whose column appears Mondays and Thursdays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints, can be reached at 771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com . Read more Argento columns at ydr.com/mike.
This is cache, read story here