Ohio Supreme court: it’s legal to fire a creationist teacher

November 22, 2013 • 1:58 pm

If you follow creationism, you’ll be familiar with the case of John Freshwater, a teacher of eighth-grade science students (i.e., 14-year-olds) in Ohio. He was a goddie who taught creationism, kept a Bible on his desk, bedecked the classroom walls with religious pictures, and became notorious for burning the sign of the cross into one of his student’s arms to demonstrate the principle of a Tesla coil.  Here’s Freshwater’s demonstration of “science”, an exhibit used in the civil court case against him (it was settled out of court):

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The compatibility of science and religion

After three years of back-and-forth, the school board fired Freshwater in 2011. He appealed his dismissal to the county court, which denied it. He then appealed to a higher court, the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals. The appeal was denied again. Freshwater’s last resort was an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, which heard his case in February.  The court issued its decision two days ago: Freshwater’s firing would stand. You can see the final ruling as a pdf file here (it includes the dissents).

As The Raw Story reports, the decision was surprisingly close: 4-3. And it was upheld not on the grounds that he was teaching creationism, but that he refused to remove religious materials from the classroom despite orders of his boss (displaying those religious materials are, however, just as much a violations of the First Amendment as is teaching creationism):

The court issued a 4-3 ruling Tuesday that agreed with an appeals court and the trial court that teacher John Freshwater had failed to comply with orders to remove religious materials from his classroom.

The court said that was enough to spur Freshwater’s dismissal, so it didn’t even need to rule on whether the teacher impermissibly imposed his religious views in the classroom.

“We recognize that this case is driven by a far more powerful debate over the teaching of creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution,” the court noted in its decision. “(But) here, we need not decide whether Freshwater acted with a permissible or impermissible intent because we hold that he was insubordinate, and his termination can be justified on that basis alone.”

That would seem a bit cowardly, as they could have ruled on the creationism issue as well. As the decision notes, though, courts try to avoid adjudicating constitutional issues whenever possible.

They upheld Freshwater’s firing simply because he was insubordinate, refusing to take religious matter out of his class when ordered (these included the Bible that he kept on his desk and pictures on the wall showing George W. Bush and Colin Powell in prayer). An excerpt from the decision:

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The judges took the easy way out, and even that was close. Nevertheless, the court decision is full of interesting information like this:

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The Raw Story summarizes the basis for the three judges’ dissent:

The minority disagreed, writing in their opinion that Freshwater had been “singled out by the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education because of his willingness to challenge students in his science classes to think critically about evolutionary theory and to permit them to discuss intelligent design and to debate creationism in connection with the presentation of the prescribed curriculum on evolution.”

Apparently those judges haven’t gotten the messages that it is a violation of the Constitution to teach creationism in science classes, and that “singling someone out” for so doing is entirely fair. That’s settled law. But they also claimed was that it was not grounds for insubordination to keep a Bible on one’s desk, completely avoiding the issue of whether such insubordination also violated the Constitution.

As far as I can see, then, it’s clearly unconstitutional to teach creationism (as Freshwater did) in his science class, but it’s not settled law about whether someone can be fired for doing that. I suspect that if such a teacher were ordered to desist, and refused, then firing would be legal.

h/t: dano1843

Doctor Who Google Doodle in the UK

November 22, 2013 • 10:56 am

I’ve been told, and have verified it, that Google UK has a special interactive Google Doodle today honoring the 50th anniversary of the first episode of “Doctor Who”.  (Because it’s also the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, I assume it’s not on the Google US site out of respect.) The doodle is in fact is a game in which you can rack up and post high scores.

I never watched Doctor Who, but I know we have a lot of fans here, so if you’re interested in playing the game, go here and knock yourself out.  (The rules are here).  A screenshot:

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My interview here: full and archived

November 22, 2013 • 9:06 am

My 32-minute interview with Todd Hatton at WKMS (the Murray State University student radio station) has now been archived online; you can find it here. Just click on the “listen” button.

As I recall, most of the discussion was about the compatibility of science and religion, touching on accommodationists strategies used by scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth Miller.

The anniversary

November 22, 2013 • 7:49 am

All Americans, and many others, know that today is the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas in 1963. He was 45 years old.

If you were alive then, and in America, you’ll remember the initial confusion after he had been shot, for it was a considerable time between the shots in Dealey Plaza and the official announcement of Kennedy’s death. You’ll also remember the mass outpouring of grief: the way perfect strangers hugged each other and everyone was crying in the streets, listening the news on car radios.  If you were watching television, you’ll remember Walter Cronkite’s poignant announcement of Kennedy’s death, and how he removed his glasses to look at the clock, checking the official time of death:

Everyone who was alive then, and old enough to have memories, knows exactly where they were at the moment they learned that Kennedy was dead. I was in junior high school, in class, when an announcement came over the public address system giving the news.  There was horror, shock, and lots of tears, but I don’t remember classes being cancelled.

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the next three days until Kennedy’s funeral: the wondering whether the Russians would take advantage of his death to “do something”, the speculation that the assassin had acted on behalf of a group, the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, live on television. And finally the closure of the funeral itself: the grace and dignity of Mrs. Kennedy in the face of her husband’s horrible death (she had recovered bits of his brains from the trunk of the car in Dallas), the caisson, the riderless horse with the boots backwards in the stirrups, and the ineffably moving salute of John-John as the coffin passed.

If you were alive then, do you remember where you were?

Unexpectedly, textbook kerfuffle continues in Texas

November 22, 2013 • 6:25 am

Well, I was largely right in my prediction that Texas would go ahead and adopt most of the school biology textbooks vetted by their “approval committee” (6 out of the 11 members of that committee were creationists), but they balked at one.

Apparently none of the publishers of submitted books agreed to make the changes required by the creationists (good for the publishers!), and nearly all books were still approved. But one publisher who also refused to alter its edition—Pearson—didn’t get approval.

It still might be, though. This all happened after some late-night squabbling at the Texas Board of Education. NBC News reports:

The vote just before midnight did not reject the biology book by Pearson, one of the country’s largest publishers. But it delayed approval until three board members appoint a trio of outside experts to check concerns.

. . . State law approved two years ago means school districts can now choose their own books and don’t have to adhere to a list recommended by the Board of Education — but most have continued to use approved books.

. . . Publishers from around the country submitted proposed textbooks this summer, but committees of Texas volunteer reviewers — some nominated by socially conservative current and former Board of Education members — raised objections. One argued that creationism based on biblical texts should be taught in science classes, while others objected that climate change wasn’t as settled a scientific matter as some of the proposed books said.

Pearson and many other major publishers weren’t willing to make suggested major edits and changes, however.

That prompted some of the board’s socially conservative members to call for delaying approval of the book because of concerns including how long it took Earth to cool and objection to lessons about natural selection because “selection operates as a selective but not a creative force.”

I’m not sure what the last objection is about. Of course selection operates as a selective force: that’s a tautology. But it’s also creative in the sense that it results in the production of new and often marvelous traits and species.  I suspect the reviewer was maintaining that only some kind of intelligence (aka God) can be a creative force.

However, I don’t think natural selection should be characterized as a “force” anyway, because that implies it’s something operating on a group of organisms from the outside. In reality it’s a process: a process of differential survival of gene forms based on their abilities to leave copies of themselves in future generations. It’s not a force but a process. However, that’s not sufficient objection to reject a textbook!

But why a midnight meeting?

Members outside the socially conservative bloc claimed their colleagues waited until the dead of night to try to impose ideological edits.

“To ask me — a business degree major from Texas Tech University — to distinguish whether the Earth cooled 4 billion years ago or 4.2 billion years ago for purposes of approving a textbook at 10:15 on a Thursday night is laughable,” said Thomas Ratliff, a Republican from Mount Pleasant.

He added: “I believe this process is being hijacked, this book is being held hostage to make political changes.”

Undoubtedly.  They have to make trouble by holding at least one book hostage. I’ll try to find out what this Earth cooling business is all about.

h/t:Diane G

Buddy the talking starling

November 21, 2013 • 4:23 pm

I love starlings. They’re unappreciated merely because they’re so common, like onions and Coca-Cola (which would be very pricey if they were rare). They have gorgeous iridescent plumage, so admire it the next time you see one.

And they can also talk. From New Zealand News 3 comes a great 6.5-minute video of Buddy, a talking starling. (I can’t embed it, so go to the link.) And he speaks with a New Zealand accent!

Buddy was a rescue starling kept in captivity because of a mangled foot, and now has a new life teaching kindergartners to love each other. He’s the avian equivalent of Barney the Dinosaur, but infinitely more appealing. Go hear his message of amiability!

What’s amazing is how quickly he learns; apparently he can pick up a phrase or a song if he hears it only once.

h/t: Gayle