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Witness Says Pa. Board Was
Anti-Evolution
ABC News
By MARTHA RAFFAELE Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
September 27, 2005
HARRISBURG, Pa. Sep 27, 2005 — A rural school board showed a clear
bias against teaching evolution before it pushed through a plan to introduce
"intelligent design" to students, a former board member testified Tuesday in a
trial over whether the concept has a place in public schools.
Aralene "Barrie" Callahan, who was once on the Dover school board and is now
among the challengers, said she believed the policy to teach intelligent design
was religion-based.
Eight families are trying to remove the theory from the Dover Area School
District curriculum, arguing that it violates the constitutional separation of
church and state. They say "intelligent design" effectively promotes the
Bible's view of creation.
The school district argues it is letting students know there are differences
of opinion about evolution, not endorsing any religious view.
Callahan testified that board member Alan Bonsell during a retreat in 2003
"expressed he did not believe in evolution and if evolution was part of the
biology curriculum, creationism had to be shared 50-50."
At a school board meeting in June 2004, when she was no longer on the board,
Callahan recalled board member Bill Buckingham complaining that a biology book
recommended by the administration was "laced with Darwinism."
"They were pretty much downplaying evolution as something that was
credible," she said.
In the lawsuit challenging the intelligent design policy, Buckingham was
further quoted as saying: "This country was founded on Christianity and our
students should be taught as such."
Proponents of intelligent design say life is the product of an unidentified
intelligent force, and that Darwin's theory of natural selection over time
cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of complex life
forms.
In October 2004, the board voted 6-3 to require teachers to read a brief
statement about intelligent design to students before classes on evolution. The
statement says Darwin's theory is "not a fact" and has inexplicable "gaps," and
refers students to an intelligent-design textbook for more information.
In a separate development Tuesday, two freelance newspaper reporters who
covered the school board in June 2004 both invoked their First Amendment rights
and declined to provide a deposition to lawyers for the school district.
Both are expected in court Wednesday to respond to a subpoena to testify at
trial, said Niles Benn, a lawyer for the papers.
Lawyers for the school district have questioned the accuracy of articles in
which the reporters wrote that board members discussed creationism during
public meetings. Patrick Gillen, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center,
said the defense would ask U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III on Wednesday
to issue a contempt citation.
In other testimony Tuesday, plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller said that in January,
her younger daughter chose not to hear the intelligent-design statement an
option given all students putting her in an awkward position.
"My 14-year-old daughter had to make the choice between staying in the
classroom and being confused … or she had to be singled out and face the
possible ridicule of her friends and classmates," she said.
The Dover district, which serves about 3,500 students, is believed to be the
nation's first school system to mandate that students be exposed to the
intelligent design concept.
On the Net:
Dover Area School District: http://www.dover.k12.pa.us
National Center for Science Education: http://www.ncseweb.org
Thomas More Law Center: http://www.thomasmore.org
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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