The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that
Federal Way, WA school leaders are banning the viewing of An Inconvenient Truth in their classrooms, based on justifications such as this (from the Seattle PI):
"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."
There's a good reason for that, Frosty: the Gore movie is based on scientific evidence. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that there is any sort of "end times" where everything will burn up. That is a religious belief, one that has no place in public schools.
The article goes on to state the following:
School Board members adopted a three-point policy that says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have shown the film must now present an "opposing view."
Let's look at these three points, not in order. Point 2, the OK of the administrators, is just legalese. Points 1 and 3 are basically the same thing, and here's the problem there:
there simply ISN'T a credible, legitimate opposing view any more. Even noted climate skeptic
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) was unable to find two skeptics in the US to speak at his recent Senate hearing on the topic, he had to import one from Australia.
So, by making such rules as this, the school board in Federal Way is basically barring any attempt to use the Gore movie as a classroom tool - which is exactly what the movie is.
But this also sets up a very scary precedent. Let's say, for a moment, that someone takes the school board to task on whether the Holocaust occurred, despite all the overwhelming proof that it did. By this sort of justification, the school district could be required not to teach that millions of people were killed in Nazi concentration camps unless they bring someone in with a different point of view.
Here's the point: in the scientific community there is very little if any belief that climate change isn't happening and that it hasn't been exacerbated by human pollution. Similarly, in the historical studies community, there is little belief that the Holocaust didn't happen.
But with this policy in place, then any time someone in the community disagrees with something their child is taught, then they need only bring it to the attention of the school board in order to get its teaching removed from the school until a suitable differing opinion can be found to fulfill the three points.
Basically, this climate change stuff is the de facto truth. There's evidence from all corners of the globe that points to human activity as making the world hotter. And the folks in Federal Way are doing their students a great disservice by disallowing the viewing of Gore's movie based upon the whims of a few fringe lunatics.
