Cupertino teacher, district officials settle school religion lawsuit

[Newsjock]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2005/aug/12/081210392.html

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) - A fifth-grade teacher who sued a school district for restricting his use of historical documents with religious references has settled the lawsuit, ending a case that was thrust into the national debate on religion in education.

Stephen Williams, who teaches at Cupertino's Stevens Creek Elementary School, had filed suit last year against Principal Patricia Vidmar and the superintendent and school board of Cupertino Union School District for illegally banning the use of supplemental teaching materials about Christianity.

Under the settlement, filed in federal court in San Jose on Thursday, no money will exchange hands and no school policies will be altered. The parties agreed not to file future claims based on the complaint.

The settlement restates the district's existing policy that teachers can use instructional material containing religious content but only if it is "objective, age appropriate, and in compliance with curriculum."

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[starroute]

1. This account is somewhat slanted

A fundie teacher was using distorted, out-of-context, and even forged materials to try to brainwash elementary school children into believing that America was founded as a Christian nation. The school received so many complaints from parents that told him he would have to get pre-approval of his lesson plans and teaching materials. That's when the Alliance Defense Fund jumped in with a lawsuit.

For lots of links on this case, see:
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2005/01/steven_williams_3.html

The Alliance Defense Fund is one of the pre-eminent troublemakers out there on the religious right. In addition to this case, they've also recently backed cases involving a 10-year-old whose parents claimed he wanted to hold Bible study instead of participating in recess, a second-grader who proposed singing a particularly aggressive hymm at a school talent show, a high school student who'd been told he couldn't wear an anti-gay t-shirt in school, families that wanted to pull their children out of tolerance classes, a school board that wanted to have prayers at its meetings, and a school that was trying to keep overtly Christian religious symbols out of its Christmas celebrations.

And that was all just last year. I can't wait to see what they'll be up to once the new school year gets going.