In East Whiteland, Pennsylvania, a parent in the Great Valley School District wanted her daughter excused from having to learn about evolution in biology classes and/or to have the current science text abandoned. Fortunately, the school board voted unanimously to keep the current science text.

The Daily Local News explains:

According to a statement read by board President Katherine Pettiss, the committee found the material in question, a ninth-grade biology text, "appropriate in meeting standards as described by the curriculum as well as in the state standards. So the committee recommends that we retain the textbook."

Superintendent Rita Jones said the parent and her daughter’s concern initially was simply being exempted from the evolution discussion. But in the process, they filed a complaint with the school about the textbook. ... "In this case the parent just objected to the mention of evolution because it is contrary to their religious beliefs ..so they wanted the textbook removed because it talked about evolution," Pettiss said in an interview Tuesday, following the vote.

The parent in this case was trying to exercise a "heckler's veto" over the teaching of evolution, but the public education of everyone cannot be limited to just those ideas that are completely inoffensive to everyone's religion. If anything can be eliminated, watered-down, or misrepresented in order to avoid hurting people's feelings and avoid creating a religious confrontation, then it wouldn't be possible to teach much of anything at all.

Read More:

• Evolution vs. Creationism
• What is Science?