Christian groups sue to stop Kansas schools
from adopting science standards

Christian groups filed a pair of lawsuits in Federal District Court
challenging the Kansas state Board of Education’s decision to implement
a state-wide set of science standards. On June 11, the Kansas state
Board of Education adopted a universal set of science standards to be
taught in classrooms across the state from kindergarten to grade 12.
Faith groups are up in arms that their beliefs are not being given more
credence in science classes.

According to a statement on the Pacific Justice Institute’s website, the
teaching of science in all of the state’s public schools could create “a
hostile learning environment for those of faith.” The institute — which
purports to defend “religious freedom, parental rights and other civil
liberties” — is challenging the fact that the new science standards do
not give equal weight to the Christian creation myth.


The suit alleges that the new standards will “promote religious beliefs
that are inconsistent with the theistic religious beliefs of plaintiffs,
thereby depriving them of the right to be free from government that
favors one religious view over another.” The group asked the court to
place an injunction on the implementation of Next Generation Science
Standards and the corresponding lesson plan handbook, Framework for K-12
Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas.

Another group, the Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE, Inc.)
filed suit on Sep. 26 demanding that the new curricula not be
instituted. In a press release, CORE said that the science standards
would “will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to
establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview,” which the
group said is a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the
U.S. Constitution.

Brad Dachus of Pacific Justice complained that is a violation of a
child’s rights to teach them that Creationism isn’t the truth.

“(I)t’s an egregious violation of the rights of Americans to subject
students — as young as five — to an authoritative figure such as a
teacher who essentially tells them that their faith is wrong,” he said.

He maintained that to teach science “that is devoid of any alternative
which aligns with the belief of people of faith is just wrong.”

COPE, Inc. said that the science standards have a “concealed Orthodoxy”
that is bent on undermining the views of the faithful.

“The Orthodoxy is not religiously neutral as it permits only
materialistic/atheistic answers to ultimate religious questions,” said
the group’s statement. The group maintained that questions like “Where
do we come from?” can only be answered honestly by religious dogma.

The statement went on to say that “teaching the materialistic/atheistic
ideas to primary school children whose minds are susceptible to blindly
accepting them as true” is unconstitutional and dangerous, and therefore
the new science standards must be stopped.

http://tinyurl.com/qdwsdmz

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Yes, because it is always a great idea to teach kids superstitious
nonsense in the public schools.

Taliban-like behavior, in Kansas.