Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[The Berkeley Daily Planet]

The Berkeley Unified School District is investigating a report that one of its elementary school teachers might have violated the separation of church and state by teaching creationism to her third-grade class, district officials said Tuesday.  Parents of children who attend Jefferson Elementary School told the Planet that Gwen Martin—who joined Jefferson over the summer and has been on personal leave since last week—was discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction with her students on Aug. 29 when she told them that the only thing they should believe in was God. 

The parents who contacted the Planet did not themselves have children in Martin’s class. They asked not to be identified in print to protect their children.  Parents said that Martin had listed Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Harry Potter under fiction on the blackboard, which promptly reduced some of the 8-year-olds to tears, after which she made the comment about God. 

They said that Martin then said that she didn’t believe in evolution or the Big Bang theory either. 

A group of Jefferson parents, concerned that the teacher’s alleged actions violated their civil liberties and the separation of church and state, took the matter to Jefferson’s new principal, Maggie Riddle. The matter ultimately reached the ears of district administrators. 

“We are investigating that there were reports that’s what happened,” Berkeley Board of Education President John Selawsky said Tuesday when asked about the incident at Jefferson. “It’s being dealt with. Since it’s a confidential personnel matter, that’s all I can say.” 

School board member Karen Hemphill said the district would take into account a lot of factors before making any decisions about the case.

“For one, she’s a new teacher, and then we have to consider all the facts,” she said. “Regardless of what may or may not have happened, we in the Bay Area are very sensitive to not mixing education with religion. Not only are you not supposed to, but we have a wide range of religious views. There are certain laws and court cases that define what is permissible and not permissible.” 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett refused comment on the status of Martin’s case, stating that it was a personnel issue.  Selawsky said that incidents such as the one reported to have occurred at Jefferson were uncommon in Berkeley. 

“This is the first time in my eight years as a board member that I have heard of allegations of teaching creationism and denying evolution,” said Selawsky, who is running for re-election for a third term this year. 

“You certainly don’t hear about this in the Bay Area,” he said. “In places like Kansas it’s an ongoing battle and a big political issue. There are strict stipulations in the state Education Code about what public school teachers can or cannot do. We heard about the incident from parents and from various sources.” 

Selawsky said that if the allegations were true the district would likely seek some form of discipline against her. 

Read more here.

[From me]

I love the line that says you don’t hear about this in the Bay Area.  Yeah, because you would be stoned like this poor teacher will be.  Some nosey parent who doesn’t even have a child in the class turned the teacher in.  I guess they haven’t “evolved” fully to keep their nose in their own child’s class.  I also love how they make the teacher out to be horrible because she made the students cry about Santa, the Easter Bunny and Harry Potter.  

I think California has “EVOLVED” too far!

What do you think?

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