Several readers sent me this story, with links to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Raw Story, and The Southerner, the school newspaper of Henry W. Grady High School. Grady is a public school located in midtown Atlanta, Georgia, and its student -run newspaper, published since 1947, has won several awards. In fact, The Southerner did a terrific job of reporting this story—much more thorough than the other venues. The paper is obviously free from interference by the administration. All the quotes below, save at the end, come from The Southerner.
What happened is that a biology teacher at Grady, Anquinette Jones, taught creationism in her class, and in an obstreperous way. First of all, she showed this old chestnut in a Powerpoint presentation. According to The Raw Story, the slide was originally created by the notorious young-earth creationist Ken Ham around thirty years ago. If you’ve followed the creationism/evolution debates, you’ve seen this:
Notice that the flags on the “Evolution {Satan)” castle include “abortion,” “homosexuality,” “euthanasaia” (???), “pornography,” and “racism.” The Evolution side seems to be winning, too, with the priest-warriors in the “Creation (Christ)” castle showing some pretty lousy aim. Let those who say there is no war between science and religion explain away this slide!
At any rate, the slide came from a file-sharing system called “Sharepoint,” which came to my attention a while ago as it’s a resource base for schools, and yet creationists sneak material like this into it. The slide above was part of a 50-slide antievolution presentation which somehow was inserted into the database, a database that must not be vetted very well. The presentation was downloaded by the Atlanta Public Schools (APS), and found its way into Jones’s class.
But this isn’t the first time Jones pushed creationism and religion in class (it never is, is it? Remember Kevin Lowery at Lebanon High School and his long history of public prayer?). As the student paper reports:
Freshman Lily Soto, who switched from Jones’ biology class after the first semester, said Jones had refused to teach evolution when the class approached the portion of the cirriculum.
“She always had random comments about [creationism],” Soto said. “If someone would ask if we were going to learn evolution, she was like, ‘No, I don’t teach that.’”
. . . Sophomore Isabel Olson, who took biology from Jones last year, said that this cartoon was not the first instance of creationism being discussed in class. She said that one time, a classmate asked how cells were created.
“Ms. Jones’ answer was [something like], ‘It’s divine, God created us.’” Olson said.
Olson also said Jones had the students debate creationism versus evolution.
“One day we had to go home and prepare a short debate to do for the next class about creationism versus evolution,” Olson said, “We had to prepare the pros and cons of creationism and evolution and present the ideas.”
Olson said she went to talk to administrators about the religious aspect of Jones’ teaching, but they didn’t take any action.
The administrators are thick-headed, because Jones was clearly violating the law. Well, they’ve done something now, but only after the Journal-Constitution, a big-name newspaper, contacted them (see below).
The good thing about this is that the students and their parents immediately complained about the incursion of religion into the biology class—in other words, they had guts. Of course Atlanta is neither as small nor as conservative as Lebanon, Missouri, but I was surprised at how many students complained publicly, including Isabel Olson above. One thing that strikes me about all these complaints, including those about the principal Lowery’s prayer at Lebanon High School, is that the vast majority of complaining students are women. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure my own sample deviates significantly from a 50/50 sex ratio.
Some complaints about Jones:
Several students and parents were offended by the implications of the cartoon, including freshman Seraphina Cooley, who is in Jones’ class.
“[I] have gay parents, and [the cartoon] said that evolution caused homosexuality and it implied that to be negative, so I was pretty offended by it,” Cooley said.
Cooley said that another student emailed the administration complaining about the PowerPoint.
. . . Robin Rosen, parent of a freshman, took her child out of Jones’ class after the first semester. She said she wouldn’t have talked to The Southerner if her child were still in Jones’ class, for fear of retaliation.
“I was offended, but more shocked and disturbed that a teacher in [APS] could get away with putting that in a classroom,” Rosen said. “Offended is probably the wrong word at this point; it is very troubling to me that a teacher who is in a position of influence over children in a public school can put something up [like the cartoon].”
What was Jones’s reaction when she heard about the complaints? She had a fit:
Freshman Griffin Ricker, who is also in Jones’ class, said Jones got angry with the class when she found out students had notified the administration.
“She had a 10-minute rant,” Ricker said. “She yelled and said, ‘This is on the APS website, and it was certified.’”
This is inexcusable. It’s one thing for Jones to teach creationism, and the proper remedy for that is for her to be admonished and told not to do it again. It’s another thing for her to verbally harass her students for turning her in. For that she should be disciplined.
What also surprised me is that another teacher in the school went on record opposing Jones’s actions:
Fellow science teacher Nikolai Curtis said the PowerPoint was, in his opinion, inappropriate to show while teaching evolution.
“[It] dealt specifically with the religious controversy associated with it, and one of the major rules of teaching evolution is that it is science, and it is based in fact, based in evidence,” Curtis said.
Curtis said that the system, however, has not told biology teachers how to deal with the controversy.
“I look at it professionally,” he said. “Science is based in fact; that’s the secret of science.”
Curtis also said that neither creationism nor any form of intelligent design are mentioned in APS standards, an omission he deems appropriate.
“If you start adopting religious doctrine as a form of teaching, you start advocating for a religion,” Curtis said. “There is no national religion. When you teach religion in a public school setting, you are reinforcing a national religion, and that’s not acceptable.”
Curtis is right, of course. Although he didn’t note that what Jones did was against the law, he clearly said it was “religious doctrine.” That’s a gutsy thing to do, even in Atlanta, and it’s also striking that he spoke out so strongly against a fellow teacher. Given the public complaints from the students, the superb reporting of the student paper, and the criticisms of Jones by a fellow teacher, I like Grady High!
The one fly in the ointment was that the school didn’t do anything when students first reported the violation (twice). But they finally did when a a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Maureen Downey, contacted Atlanta Public Schools. Downey reports:
I reached out to APS Wednesday, recognizing, that while this occurred before the watch of brand new APS superintendent Meria Carstarphen, parents and students were still hoping for a response.
And APS responded:
“It appears that this science lesson plan was not properly vetted prior to being uploaded to the district’s SharePoint website last summer. When the district learned of the PowerPoint presentation and worksheet that is in question, the lesson and supporting documents were reviewed, and they were immediately removed,” said APS spokeswoman Jill Strickland Luse in an email Wednesday. “The district is currently reviewing the vetting process for all lesson plans prior to uploading them for instruction. In addition, the curriculum coordinators will review lesson plans with teachers as part of their pre-planning session later this month.”
The State Department of Education also responded to Downey:
Georgia Department of Education director of communications Matt Cardoza confirmed that creationism is not included in the state curriculum standards for biology. In fact, he said Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard established that a state cannot require the teaching of creationism.
Nor can it permit the teaching of creationism in science class, as several court cases have noted, the most recent being Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District et al. (2005).
Below is the creationist teacher, Ms. Jones. Her transgressions, because they were ongoing, merit more than just a verbal request to teach evolution and lay off creationism.
Jones is clearly a creationist, and doesn’t accept what she teaches. That can’t help but be reflected in what and how she teaches her students. There should be some way of monitoring her teaching so she doesn’t do it again, and by that I mean somebody should sit in on her class during the evolution section. (Proselytizers are often relentless and try to find ways to sneak God into class.) And, for yelling at the students when she discovered she’d been reported, Jones should be given a written reprimand. In fact, I’m not sure she’s even qualified to teach biology. Do parents really want their kids taught by someone who dismisses one of the great unifying theories of the field—a theory supported by mountains of evidence? That’s like having your kid taught about health and medicine by a Christian Scientist.
