California School & Declaration of Independence: The Truth
Friday December 17, 2004
When I first wrote about claims that the Declaration of Independence had been "banned" in a California school, I pointed out that the truth would probably be radically different than the allegations. Turns out I was right.
Media Matters reports:
Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino did not ban the Declaration of Independence. As the Cupertino Union School District stated in a November 30 news release, the Declaration is featured in the school's textbooks and is displayed in some school buildings. A December 8 editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle noted, "The Declaration of Independence is not banned from Stevens Creek Elementary School, or any classroom in Cupertino. Copies of the Declaration -- including the passages about the inalienable rights of all men 'endowed by their Creator' and the founders' 'reliance on the protection of divine providence' -- hang in classrooms. It appears in textbooks distributed throughout the district."
Even the lawsuit, which was brought forth on behalf of teacher Stephen Williams by the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund challenging the school's decision to prohibit the handouts, acknowledged that the school has not imposed an outright prohibition on the mention of God or the discussion of religious beliefs in the classroom. ... Despite that acknowledgment, an Alliance Defense Fund press release about the lawsuit was headlined "Declaration of Independence Banned from Classroom." ... [T]he school prohibited only supplemental handouts distributed by Williams to his students that selectively chose excerpts from the Declaration of Independence making reference to God -- along with other handouts that appeared to proselytize Christianity.
Americans United comments:
The ADF's lawsuit is laden with paranoid accusations against Principal Patricia Vidmar and other school officials. The ADF claims that Vidmar targeted fifth-grade teacher Steven Williams because he is an "orthodox Christian." ... Williams has taken to right-wing radio and cable news opinion shows, such as Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" and Pat Robertson's "700 Club," to whine about being discriminated against because he is a Christian.
For more than a year, parents have complained to school officials that Williams has been using a slew of documents to proselytize their children. ... One handout was something called "What Great Leaders Have Said About the Bible." It included quotes from nine U.S. presidents, such as George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and a quote from Jesus Christ, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Parents began complaining to school officials that Williams was going beyond teaching about religion, that he was proselytizing their students. "My daughter came home one day and said, ‘Mr. Williams talks about Jesus 100 times a day,'" Mike Zimmers told the Chronicle. Dorothy Pickler told the newspaper that she contacted school officials and requested that her fifth-grader not be subjected to Williams. "Because what he's doing isn't teaching history," she said. "If you were teaching at a church school, that would be great. But he isn't."
Steven Williams was hired to be a teacher, not a pastor — but for some on the Christian Right, it seems as though being a pastor is expected from everyone in everything they do in their lives. That's a problem.
Remembering that Williams was teaching American history, consider the relevancy of these particular assignments, one of which was:
Read the Easter story in the Bible. Start reading Luke, chapter 22, and continue to the end of the book of Luke. Write a response to some of the themes in the Easter story of the Bible: betrayal, sacrifice, resurrection, love, hope, new life. Write a response to any of the themes in the story using references from the Bible and how they apply to our culture today. Make a diorama of a scene from the story and attach your written response.
Yes, definitely an assignment that is appropriate to American history.
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