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Tacoma Jumps the Shark
Local hamlet Federal Way (Motto: "It's not Tacoma, but we can see it from here!"), has joined the ranks of the tragically stupid by subverting the education of an entire town's school children because one delusional parent complained.
This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert "An Inconvenient Truth."
After a parent who supports the teaching of creationism and opposes sex education complained about the film, the Federal Way School Board on Tuesday placed what it labeled a moratorium on showing the film. The movie consists largely of a PowerPoint presentation by former Vice President Al Gore recounting scientists' findings.
"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."
Goddamn it, I hate these people. Seriously, what the fuck?
The school board has decreed that when presenting "controversial" issues, teachers must present a "credible opposing view." The problem, of course, is that there is no credible opposing view. Science is not an opinion. Why are we losing ground on this issue? Soon we're going to be throwing witches into the lake to see if they float.
Asked whether an alternative explanation for evolution should be presented by teachers, Barney said it would be appropriate to tell students that other beliefs exist. "It's only a theory," he said.
While the question of climate change has provoked intense argument in political circles in recent years, among scientists its basic tenets have become the subject of an increasingly stronger consensus.
These morons think that their policy prevents schools from being used for indoctrination when in fact it does exactly the opposite. Not showing the film--knuckling under to pressure from religious fanatics--indoctrinates children in the idea that all ideas are equal, mistaken ideas of what scientific fact is, not to mention a fundamental misunderstanding of what the word 'theory' means.
Grrrrrrrrrr.