Friday, August 12, 2005

Settlement: Historical American documents can be taught in Cupertino schools - Alliance Defense Fund

Thank goodness. The Cupertino, California, school kerfuffle has been settled, with the school district agreeing that their school policy lets teachers use historical handouts that have religious content, like the Declaration of Independence. I think the Alliance Defense Fund has done great work, but I was concerned that this time they might (just possibly) have been running with a somewhat iffy case. See Naomi Schaeffer Riley: Faith and the Fifth Grade for the source of my unease regarding whether this was a case that ought to have been pressed as hard and as loud as it was. At any rate, I suspect a few folks blew it way out of proportion.

In any case, the policy is now in writing and the case is closed. From The Alliance Defense Fund :
The settlement agreement puts in writing district policy that "allows teachers, no matter what their religious beliefs, to use appropriate educational material (including supplemental handouts of historical significance) during instructional time that has religious content" and also allows teachers "to teach students during instructional time about matters involving religion" so long as the content is compliant with district-prescribed curriculum and is not used to influence a student's religious beliefs.
Sounds healthy and reasonable to me.

1 comment:

Bookworm said...

Linking, linking....