US teenager successfully sued teacher who criticised creationism

[Ian David]

Wednesday, 6 May 2009
US teenager successfully sued teacher who criticised creationism

The Guardian reports that Christian teenager from California has won a court case against a high school teacher who referred to creationism as "superstitious nonsense". Chad Farnan, a student at Capistrano Valley high school, alleged that his former European history teacher James Corbett had made a series of comments that were "derogatory, disparaging and belittling regarding religion and Christianity in particular". In the end only the comment in which Corbett expressed his "unequivocal belief that creationism is superstitious nonsense."

In his 37-page ruling, Judge James Selma found that this comment violated the establishment clause of the first amendment of the US constitution, which is widely seen as preventing both the promotion of, and expression of hostility towards, religion among government employees. Selma ruled that Corbett's comment amounted to "improper disapproval of religion in violation of the establishment clause".

The judge stressed that his ruling also implied that promotion of religion is forbidden in schools, ensuring that education could function "free of the strictures of any particular religious or philosophical belief system".

Posted by Paul Sims at Wednesday, May 06, 2009

More:
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2009/05/us-teenager-successfully-sued-teacher.html

[redqueen]

1. Previous discussion here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=207584&mesg_id=207584

[Ian David]

3. "You are ignoring the author of this thread" n/t

[redqueen]

7. Well in that thread someone dug up information which makes this look like a set up.

The kid came home complaining about something the teacher said, and so he started bringing a tape recorder to school and bringing religious / pseudo-scientific topics up... seemingly to bait the teacher.

Posted there:

Teresa Farnan said her suspicions were aroused on the first day of school when her son -- a sophomore honors student required to take Corbett's class for college admission -- asked her whether America was founded on Christian values, which he said his teacher had denied.

"He had learned in the eighth grade that our country was founded by persecuted Christians," said the mother, who describes her family as nondenominational Christian, "so I sent him to school with a tape recorder."

And here are copies of all court papers courtesy of the "Advocates for Faith and Freedom" who actually provided the lawyers for the suit.

[DrDan]

8. hannity promotes and encourages this . . . the tape recording of teachers

bet anything she is a fan of his

[redqueen]

9. Here's the link to that story:

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/dec/13/local/me-student13

" "He's against Christianity and bashes it all the time. He's been indoctrinating us and not teaching the class; we don't need to be hearing his political views during school time when we should be learning."

What this ignorant scam artist doesn't realize is that the teacher was trying to get him to learn... this country was *not* started as a Christian nation. Telling students that is not bashing Christianity... it's education.

I wonder if he ever realized that. So tragically sad.

[Ian David]

10. Ahhhh... deffinitely a set-up. n/t

[BurtWorm]

11. What's the link for that?

It would be helpful to have more info than the news reports about the decision which don't say much.

[redqueen]

13. Post 9. (nt)

[BurtWorm]

14. Thanks.

[saltpoint]

2. Hi, Ian. I'm siding with Teacher Corbett here versus Student Farnan.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. Hmm... I'm a Christian, a pretty serious and well-trained one, and I think Corbett is right.

Creationism is superstitious nonsense; and not only superstitious nonsense, but a whole industry that is - in my opinion - designed not to be a theological industry with honest and critical insight into God, but a money-generating and power-grabbing industry that is designed to earn money for a few (books, museums, etc.) and, more importantly, to continue keeping a whole segment of the population convinced that they are being persecuted, a minority, and that the world is out to get them and their faith, which fear-mongering serves one very important purpose: keep that money flowing into the coffers of the leaders.

I get mail from these fuckers - shit like "We need $50 right now to help legal defense to save Christianity!" and "Your gift of $100 can help keep Christianity legal!" and "Just $200 now will ensure that the church is not taken over by radical secularist fascist socialist liberals who want to force your children to pray to Satan and deny Christ, by denying a 6000 year old earth" and so forth.

It's all couched in fear.

The stuff that comes out from my church - the United Church of Christ - is stuff like, "Your $100 now can help build sustainable wells for clean water in a village in Ghana" or "Your $200 can help rebuild homes after Katrina" and so on.

[Ian David]

5. The Intelligent Design hoaxers claim their "theory" is Science and not Religion.

They can't have it both ways.

[struggle4progress]

18. There's a distinction that needs to be made here. I agree with Corbett's assessment of

efforts to teach creationism as science: it has absolutely no place in a science classroom

On the other hand, the establishment clause needs to be taken quite seriously in the schools, because students attend by law and their compulsory attendance should not be the occasion of subjecting them to either religious or anti-religious propaganda

In my days as a public school student I fought this fight regularly: the schools I attended had daily prayers broadcast over the intercom system every morning, a practice I considered offensive and unconstitutional, and my failure to "respect" this intrusion of state-sponsored religion into my life resulted in conflict with school authorities again and again over the years -- I would read or write during the morning prayers when my teachers wanted to insist I should fold my hands and bow my head

The student in this case seems to me to be a jerk who deliberately set out to pick a fight. But jerks who pick fights still have constitutional rights. Although I agree with the teacher that creationism has no place in science class, in the context of the public schools, the teacher wears several hats, including "temporary representative of the state's authority" -- and in this role the teacher has some obligation not to propagandize his own religious or anti-religious views. In this case, when the student set out to pick a silly fight, the teacher was boorish enough to comply: that's unnecessary and it's dumb

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I'd appeal.

The teacher was critiquing the theory, not religion wholesale.

[struggle4progress]

12. Relevant pdf is still available with the OCR article

http://www.ocregister.com/newsimages/2009/05/01/Student%20lawsuit%20-%20final%20ruling.pdf

via
Friday, May 1, 2009
High school teacher's anti-Creationism comment violated law
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/corbett-religion-court-2387684-farnan-selna?orderby=TimeStampAscending&oncommentsPage=1&showRecommendedOnly=0

It would be nice if folk would read the decision before yammmering

[struggle4progress]

15. Analysis: Court parsed anti-Christian remarks by teacher

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Analysis: Court parsed anti-Christian remarks by teacher
A federal judge walked a fine line in ruling against history teacher James Corbett, experts say.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Comments | Recommend

... U.S. District Judge James Selna ruled .. that Capistrano Valley High School history teacher James Corbett .. violated the First Amendment's establishment clause by referring to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" .. But .. dismissed more than 20 other inflammatory statements attributed to Corbett ...

In a 37-page decision, Selna determined the comment had no "legitimate secular purpose" and thus declared it was a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause .. But .. decided a similar Corbett comment about Creationism – one that also included the word "nonsense" – was not a violation of federal law ...

Selna is to meet with both parties June 1 to discuss payment of fees and damages. Farnan plans to ask for attorneys' fees, nominal damages and a court injunction prohibiting Corbett from violating the establishment clause again, said his attorney, Jennifer Monk.

If Corbett opts to appeal the case, the Ninth Circuit court would be permitted to reconsider all 20-plus statements attributed to Corbett ...

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/corbett-law-court-2394203-teacher-selna

[redqueen]

17. I hope he appeals.

The kid brings the creation crap up... which they claim to be their version of 'science', so it deserves to get smacked down in the same way any other junk science claim would be... which includes being referred to as nonsense.

[struggle4progress]

21. Being generally anti-authoritarian, I have never much appreciated authoritarian views of education

aimed at producing reflexive regurgitation. The authoritarians' educational philosophy is "Let's smack the little frickers down if they don't say what we want!" -- and it produces some bleating sheep; it produces some damaged people, filled with rage and resentment; but it does not excel at producing students who can gather facts and think clearly. I see no reason to support such an approach to public education: in fair intellectual combat, good thinking should be able prevail over shoddy thinking, without any need to resort to insult or power-plays

[redqueen]

22. The whole incident started when the teacher dared to correct a popular myth....

by stating that this country was not founded as a Christian nation.

Would you rather the teacher had kept this fact to himself? In order to not be authoritarian?

You have it backwards. The rabidly insane rightwinger in class was the party 'smacking frickers down' for not saying what the kid or his mom wanted to hear.

[struggle4progress]

23. My anti-authoritarian comments were directed against your view expressed in #17 that the appropriate

way to handle the student's views was to smack them down. I've already indicated clearly why I think that's a poor educational philosophy

This story seems to me essentially to be that an adolescent acts like a jerk, goads the teacher into acting like a jerk, and then sues, prevailing on one out of twenty claims. If, as you claim, the conversation really began as a discussion about whether or not the US was "founded as a Christian nation," then perhaps that merely underlines my view that the conversation deteriorated, since the prevailing point in the lawsuit had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the US was "founded as a Christian nation"

Of course, anti-evolutionist John Peloza lost his 1993 lawsuit, as he should have; Peloza seems no longer to teach at the school; see http://www.cvhs.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1219689530291

[redqueen]

24. You haven't read enough about this case. (nt)

[Meshuga]

16. I guess the lesson to be learned here

Is that teachers need to be very careful not to take the bait because there are people who are out there who are looking for opportunities to abuse the system. The science teacher can dismiss the kid's provocation and tell him if he wants to discuss history he can do it in history class. And if the kid wants to discuss religion he then should go and seek a member of the clergy after school.

[The_Commonist]

19. It WAS a history class!

The teacher is a history teacher.

[Meshuga]

20. Yeah, now I see that.

I didn't realize that until I took the time to finally sit down and read the OP.