Posted on 02/10/2004 7:38:38 PM PST by yonif
Grand Blanc - Creationism and the Bible would be taught in Grand Blanc public schools under separate proposals that school officials said they will consider.
Superintendent Gary Lipe also has approached other Genesee County school chiefs to ask them to consider jointly offering an online course on the Bible as literature or history.
Lipe and other school officials said it's possible to teach about the religious topics in a nonreligious way, but a spokeswoman for the ACLU said it would likely challenge the school district in court.
"We know the Bible cannot be taught as theology in public schools," Lipe said. "It can be taught as history and literature through a humanities perspective."
As for creationism, Lipe said he's unsure if the district would spend as much time teaching it as evolution - as requested in a petition signed by about 85 high school students.
"I'm sitting here saying, How much evidence is there (for creationism), and how do you go about doing that, and is there enough to justify equal treatment?' " Lipe said. "I don't know. We'll have to look into it."
Wendy Wagenheim, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, said the organization is watching the situation in Grand Blanc. She said the ACLU had already heard of the Bible proposal but not about the creationism request.
"The teaching of creationism is an issue that the ACLU watches very carefully, and we hope that the school board will act wisely," Wagenheim said. "(The Bible curriculum) is clearly a religious curriculum and should be taught in church if they want to teach it, but not in public schools."
Wagenheim said the ACLU is familiar with the Bible curriculum that Grand Blanc is considering, and the group has successfully challenged it in other states.
But Lipe said the school district isn't considering any particular curriculum.
He said he proposed the online Bible class to county school chiefs during a meeting last week because the number of students who would sign up in individual schools might not be enough to justify scheduling the course.
Kelly Edwards, a junior at Grand Blanc High School, submitted the creationism petition to the Board of Education last week . She said her teacher mentioned creationism in her biology class, but she thought it deserved as much attention as evolution.
"Just the basics - God created the heavens and the earth," she said. "There's a lot of things that just don't make sense about evolution, things that are missing, things that can't be explained."
Edwards is the daughter of Susan Edwards, a school board member who said she supports her daughter but wasn't responsible for her decision to collect signatures.
"She didn't do this because of my beliefs," Edwards said. "I've read pretty extensively on evolution, and there's some holes in it. I'm not sure it has the weight that people give it."
Dr. Robert Bouvier, a Grand Blanc parent who proposed the Bible curriculum to the school board last month, couldn't be reached for comment.
According to minutes from the January school board meeting, Bouvier said 35 states have adopted a Bible curriculum in their schools. Lipe spoke at a Jan. 24 "Religious Expression in Schools" conference that Bouvier also attended.
Clio Superintendent Fay Latture attended the same conference. Latture said she's a Sunday school teacher, but wants to make sure any Bible course is legal.
She said Lipe's proposal for online courses through GenNet went over well during the Thursday meeting of county superintendents, but that more work needs to be done to find an appropriate curriculum.
"No one's interested in breaking the law or the separation of church and state or the establishment clause (of the Constitution)," she said.
Lipe said a curriculum subcommittee of the superintendents' group will discuss components of the Bible curriculum and materials that could be used. It's likely one school district would sponsor the course, with others allowed to sign up their student to take it online.
Approval of curriculum changes usually takes about a year, he said.
Grand Blanc's school board is interested in considering both the creationism and Bible proposals, Lipe said.
All proposed curriculum changes are reviewed by teachers who serve on the district's advisory council, Lipe said.
Grand Blanc and the ACLU have been at odds previously. The ACLU and a former student challenged the school district's student-athlete drug-testing policy, but a Genesee circuit judge ruled last year that the policy was allowable under the Michigan Constitution.
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