Whose First Amendment rights were violated?

[Skeptik]

Judge: teacher violated student's rights by calling creationism 'superstitious nonsense'

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge ruled that a public high school history teacher violated the First Amendment when he called creationism "superstitious nonsense" during a classroom lecture.

"They lost, he violated the establishment clause," she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "From our perspective, whether he violated it with one statement or with 19 statements is irrelevant."

Saying that creationism is "superstitious nonsense" violates the establishment of religion clause ofthe First Amendment, but sanctioning a teacher for having said so doesn't violate his rights to free speech under the same amendment.

Does that sound right to you? It sounds strange to me.

Farnan is now a junior at the school, but quit Corbett's Advanced Placement European history class after his teacher made the comments.

One has to wonder just how the issue of creationism came up at all during a class in European history.

 

[editec]

One has to wonder just how the issue of creationism came up at all during a class in European history.

Yeah, excellent question.

One can imagine how it might have happened, of course.

Either the teacher was editorializing on an issue not having to do with European history OR

The kid was challenging European history because it is very possible that the teacher started out by explaining that some aspect of EURO history which does not jibe with creationism's theory that the world is only 6,000 years old.

After all, EURO history is older than 6,000 years.

 

[KittenKoder]

The teachers rights were violated, it is his opinion and he has a right to say it. Calling it superstition is a little overboard, but as he is talking about history he has to teach only what is known as history to be fact, all the rest is only theory, myth, and legend.

 

[Skeptik]

One has to wonder just how the issue of creationism came up at all during a class in European history.

Yeah, excellent question.

One can imagine how it might have happened, of course.

Either the teacher was editorializing on an issue not having to do with European history OR

The kid was challenging European history because it is very possible that the teacher started out by explaining that some aspect of EURO history which does not jibe with creationism's theory that the world is only 6,000 years old.

After all, EURO history is older than 6,000 years.

Could be. Those cave paintings in France, after all could not possibly be 50,000 years old as science claims, They have to have been made after the flood, or the water would have washed them away.