The School/Declaration of Independence Issue

[housewolf]

My apologies if this has already been posted here. The issue cropped up on another thread today and I came across this tonight so here it is.

Here is a page someone set up specifically to address this issue.
It's really wild up there in Cupertino where this is all going on.

Summary:

A quick review of the lawsuit and the media brouhaha instigated by Stephen Williams' supporters indicates that this has all the makings of a typical right-wing hit job: a frivolous lawsuit, false propaganda (by the plaintiffs and the media) and intimidation/character assassination

---> snip

The New York Times, in God, American History and a Fifth-Grade Class, writes today about the Thanksgiving-week "Declaration of Independence Banned" story. They cover the story in a he-said/she-said manner, saying the teacher's contrived lawsuit,

"...has single-handedly turned the Declaration of Independence into a powerful tool for the Christian right in its battle against secularist teaching of colonial history..."

The Times story does not even mention that the controversy -- the reason they are covering the story at all -- only exists because of the inflammatory claim that the Declaration of Independence was banned by the school because it contained the word 'God,' and does not refute this outright lie beyond one "he said" statement. The school had not banned the Declaration of Independence, it had asked a teacher to stop giving unconstitutional "supplemental handouts" (like this, perhaps?) to students.

The original story surfaced in the Right's echo chamber (Drudge, Limbaugh, Fox...) the day before Thanksgiving -- carefully timed to make it impossible to refute for several days, and to stir up emotions at family dinnertables. Now the story is widespread, which is probably the reason the Times addressed it at all. A Google search of "Declaration of Independence banned" yields 17,200 citations. (That is a search of the text in quotes, not for sites containing some mix of the words.)

----> snip

More...
http://www.eriposte.com/philosophy/fundamentalism/stevenscreek.htm