Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Standing By Stickers
"Stickers describing evolution as a controversial theory will continue to be the first thing that Beebe School (Arkansas) students see when they open their science textbooks.
"Beebe School Board President Butch Rice said that the stickers placed at the beginning of science textbooks will stay, despite a request from the American Civil Liberties Union that they be removed.
"In January, the ACLU sent a letter requesting that the Beebe School District remove the stickers from textbooks, said Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas office of the ACLU. The letter came shortly after a federal judge in Atlanta ruled that Georgia's Cobb County School District had "improperly entangled itself with religion," thereby violating the First Amendment, when it placed in science textbooks stickers similar to those found in Beebe's schools.
"Sklar said that Paul Blume, the North Little Rock attorney who represents the Beebe School District, offered that the district would remove the stickers by the end of the school year.
"We still expect the Beebe School Board to fulfill their promise," Sklar said.
"On Monday, Rice said that the School Board has made no decision to remove the stickers. Any conversation between Blume and Sklar was not intended to be binding, said Rice.
"'Even if they [the ACLU] sues us... I see it as a going to litigation,' Rice said. 'We're standing our ground... We're not going to bow down to the ACLU on this issue.'"
From the Searcy Daily Citizen
"Beebe School Board President Butch Rice said that the stickers placed at the beginning of science textbooks will stay, despite a request from the American Civil Liberties Union that they be removed.
"In January, the ACLU sent a letter requesting that the Beebe School District remove the stickers from textbooks, said Rita Sklar, executive director of the Arkansas office of the ACLU. The letter came shortly after a federal judge in Atlanta ruled that Georgia's Cobb County School District had "improperly entangled itself with religion," thereby violating the First Amendment, when it placed in science textbooks stickers similar to those found in Beebe's schools.
"Sklar said that Paul Blume, the North Little Rock attorney who represents the Beebe School District, offered that the district would remove the stickers by the end of the school year.
"We still expect the Beebe School Board to fulfill their promise," Sklar said.
"On Monday, Rice said that the School Board has made no decision to remove the stickers. Any conversation between Blume and Sklar was not intended to be binding, said Rice.
"'Even if they [the ACLU] sues us... I see it as a going to litigation,' Rice said. 'We're standing our ground... We're not going to bow down to the ACLU on this issue.'"
From the Searcy Daily Citizen
