Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Right On, Sisters!
The Nugget, the local paper in Sisters, Oregon, says the school board was right to fire Kris Helphinstine, the creationist who thought being assinged to teach biology classes there gave him a licence to prosyletize school kids.
Helphinstine, a brand-new teacher, introduced materials from a highly dubious source that proclaims its creationist agenda proudly. Those materials strayed from science into discussions of the eugenics movement and Nazi Germany.
Such topics would be wonderful grist for a sociology or history class, but they are not appropriate for a biology class. Oregon law is clear: public schools in Oregon must teach evolution. Helphinstine was not doing that.
The school board had to fire Helphinstine because he deviated far from the curriculum he was contracted to teach. He did so in a most sensitive area subject and without bothering to mention the deviation to his supervisor, Principal Bob Macauley.
